Cola + Orange = Spezi

If you ask for a “Spezi” in a restaurant in Germany, then the most probable drink that you will be served is probably going to be a mixture of cola with orange lemonade.

A bottle of Spezi®However, the term is actually a registered trademark: Spezi® and belongs to an organisation called the “Spezi Markengetränkeverband Deutschland e.V.” which is a collection of 13 breweries that produce a drink by the same name.

Breweries?  Yes, not only was I not aware of the trademark until recently, but even less did I suspect that the drink used to be a type of beer.

And yet the product is familiar.  I have drunk products labelled as “Spezi” in the past, probably not realising that I was drinking something special.  It’s even a slightly different mixture, as it contains orange juice.

However, other products on the market using the orange lemonade recipe, “Mezzo Mix” for example, which is produced by Coca Cola, are still referred to colloquially as “Spezi”.  Not by their manufacturers, of course, but by the people buying and drinking them.

Some restaurants even mix it themselves from Coca Cola and Fanta, or Pepsi and Miranda, and write it on the menu as “Spezi”.  I wonder how many of them have no idea that they are using a trademark without selling authentic product?

There are also regional names in some parts of Germany for the mixture of cola and orange lemonade.  My favourite has to be “Kalter Kaffee” (cold coffee), but particularly confusing is the fact that it is apparently called “Diesel” in Cologne – anywhere else that refer to a mixture of cola with beer.

Spezi on the other hand can still mean a drink mixed with bier in some areas, or even with spirits.

So what does the unsuspecting tourist do when they want to try this particular German drink?

Ask the waiter would seem to be a reasonable suggestion if you are visiting someone new, unless the menu specifically refers to the trademarked drink.

I shall certainly be looking closer at any menus that I read in future to see which version they offer.  I’ve already found two interesting cases.  One says that their drink is “selbst gemischt” (self-mixed), and the other one avoided the trademark altogether and sold me a “Speetzy”!

 

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About Graham

Graham Tappenden is a British ex-pat who first came to Germany as a placement student in 1993, returning in 1995 to live there permanently. He has been writing for AllThingsGerman.net since 2006. When not writing blog posts or freelancing for the Oberurseler Woche and other publications he works as a self-employed IT consultant solving computer problems and designing websites. In 2016 he gained German citizenship.

Comments

  1. I drank Spezis quite often when in Germany ( 1979-1981 and 1984-1987 ) and had forgotten about the drink until recently. The brand I drank was called ” Schwip-Schwap ” . But then, that could have been a brand brewed in Franconia.

  2. Beutebayerin says

    Could this have been in Schweinfurt, Kitzingen or Würzburg?
    I do remember Schwip-Schwap being the popular brand for this in Franconia. 
    Overhere in Hesse, we see more of Mezzo-Mix, which is essentially the same.

  3. I have been looking everywhere to find a place to purchase Spezi, do you know where this can be accomplished? I am in California.

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