The Unique Soda And Beer Combo Enjoyed By Germans

Beer is a strangely common ingredient in mixed drinks. While the malty beverage might not jump off the page as a prime candidate to be mixed with other ingredients, there's actually quite a long history of mixing beer with different ingredients in various parts of the world. This has created a pretty diverse repertoire of beer cocktails around the planet, including the likes of a Mexican beer with lime and salt for an authentic chelada, and even more dramatic combinations such as the Clamato michelada. But in Germany, it seems that their beer mixtures have taken them down a different path.

In bars and homes alike, you might encounter the likes of a radler or a shandy — drinks that combine beer with an acidic, citrusy partner of some kind. But have you ever thought about combining beer and cola? That's right. In Germany this concoction is known under a variety of monikers, but this beer-cola combination is a fairly common sighting throughout the Western European nation. In fact, you can even find this drink pre-mixed in bottles available for purchase at your convenience. This drink is also found in neighboring countries, such as Belgium. For a country as devoted to strict beer regulations as Germany is, it might very well be worth hearing them out on this unlikely but intriguing brew.

You might not think it at first glance, but in Germany, the mixture of beer and cola represents so much more than the simple blending of two drinks. Of course, many simply view it as exactly that, but a quick look into Germany's tumultuous history shows why cola had such a grasp on the market, and why this cola-beer amalgam holds nostalgic and symbolic value.

Cola as you know it is originally an American creation, but it had been in Germany around the interwar period. However, the Second World War and the subsequent fallout of those events meant that American cola was a lot harder to come by, leaving some German offshoot companies to create their own variations. Eventually, however, American cola brands returned to what was then West Germany. And somewhere in all of these proceedings, cola became an American influence on the flagship German beverage of beer. In the end, Germany would be unified once more and American cola returned to the whole reunited nation. But these disappearances and reappearances of the product gave it something of a nostalgia factor: It was a foreign beverage but still one longed for by different generations. It shouldn't be surprising then that Germans integrated it into their best-known alcoholic product.

Cola is of course most well-known as being a standalone soda, but that doesn't mean that it should be typecast as that alone. Cola is a favorite mixer for different types of alcohol, from whiskey and rum to Chambord and amaretto. And the German cola-beer isn't the only instance of mixing this soda with an alcoholic substance of a lower ABV (alcohol by volume). Further west in Europe, in Spain, you'll find kalimotxo – a two-ingredient cocktail made from cheap wine (usually boxed wine) and cola. Like Kolabier (one of the many German names for the cola-plus-beer combo), this isn't meant to use expensive or fine ingredients that would be wasted or unappreciated because of cola's abrasive force. Rather, it's just another example of cola's versatility in the mixology sphere.

Cola isn't just limited to the imbibement side of cuisine, though. The acid present in cola means that it can actually serve as an effective marinade, yielding succulent steaks with little more than a helping of the fizzy substance. So whether you're planning on using cola as a pseudo meat tenderizer, as a reliable mixer for a panoply of mixed beverages, or even just as a quick soda to enjoy on its own, it never hurts to have a little bit of cola around your house — you never know what you might end up using it for.