Schorle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Schorle (German: [ˈʃɔʁlə] ⓘ) is a German beverage made by diluting juice or wine with carbonated water or lemonade (lemon-lime soda). The most common variety is Apfelschorle (made from apple juice and sparkling mineral water). Bottled Schorle can often be found alongside soft drinks at restaurants and grocery stores. Due to its dilution it is less sweet or alcoholic than the original beverage, making it better suited as a refreshment on hot summer days or as an alternative to beer at the biergarten or weinstube.
Typical proportions are half seltzer in a high glass and half juice or wine. In the Palatinate, in Germany, a wine schorle may be almost all wine, with water considerably less than 1/4 of the total.
There is no specific word for Schorle in the English language. However, Spritzer is very similar with the slight difference of Schorle typically being a freshly mixed drink and not usually sold in cans or bottles as spritzers sometimes are.
Schorle, Spritzer and Gespritzter are all expressions for similar variations of Schorle:
- Wine with mineral water
- sour Schorle (“Schorle sauer”), sour spritzed Schorle (“Sauergespritzter”)
- in Austria: white/red spritzed or simply spritzer (“Gespritzter” or “G’spritzter”)
- Wine with lemonade
- sweet Schorle which is also known as the “Arbeitersekt” which can be translated as “worker’s sparkling wine”
- Wine with Cola
- Juice with mineral water
- ”Saftschorle”, “Fruchtschorle or “Fruchtsaftschorle”
- in Austria: spritzed apple juice, spritzed orange juice etc.
Schorle (usually with the female German article “die”, but in Baden-Württemberg typically with the neutral German article “das” or male German article “der” and in the Palatinate area with the male German article “der” as well) is very popular as a refreshment especially in summer. The mixing proportions are mostly approximately 1:1 but in case of Schorle with juice the proportions are usually unbalanced and there is often far more mineral water in the drink.
Origin of the term Schorle
According to the Duden dictionary of etymology, the word Schorlemorle, which occurred first as Schurlemurle in Lower Bavaria, is since the 18th century a designation for a mixed drink consisting of wine and sparkling mineral water. The origin of the word is uncertain; perhaps it is due to a play on words, similar to that in the 16th century, where the designations for beer, scormorrium in Münster and Murlepuff in Strasbourg, could be ascertained. The Southern German word Schurimuri, which dates from the 16th century and means “excited, hectic”, and the older Low German word Schurrmurr, which means “mishmash”, might be related to it.[1]
According to Kluge, the word Schorlemorle, however, is probably based upon the vernacular Southern German word schuren, which means "to bubble" or "to fizz".
In an article of the Südwest Presse, Henning Petershagen lists also other attempts to interpret the origin of this word, for example a linguistic relationship to the Dutch term schorriemorrie, which means "ragtag" or "rabble".
The digitale bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse letteren provides evidence that the word originates from the Persian-Turkish schurmur which means "confusion, turmoil" and is similarly present in Albanian, Serbian, Slovenian and Russian, up to the Spanish churriburri. The latter can be found in the dictionary of the royal-Spanish Academy as zurriburri ("muddle", "base subject", "plebs"). Schorle is said to have formed thus; the oriental schurimuri came to Europe with its original meaning "muddle" where it was established as a character denotation (also as family name) and as a term to refer to the beverage-muddle.[2]