Rüdesheimer Kaffee

Rüdesheimer Kaffee belongs to the Rheingau, to dinner parties, winter evenings, and the table after the plates have been cleared but nobody is ready to leave. It isn't everyday filter coffee with a splash from the bottle. The brandy and sugar are flamed first, so the sugar melts and the alcohol takes on a rounded, caramel edge before the coffee goes in.

German drinks split by region as clearly as the food does. Nordfriesland hides rum under a cap of cream in the Pharisäer; Ostfriesland lets cream bloom unstirred through strong tea over a Kluntje, a lump of rock sugar; the Rheingau sets Asbach brandy alight in the cup and pours coffee over it. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. Das ist kein Bierzelt.

The technique is simple and it decides the drink: measure the brandy into the cup, warm it with the sugar, then light it and stir until the sugar dissolves. Don't pour brandy from the bottle near a flame. Measure it first, put the bottle away, then light the cup. The flame is there to melt and round the sugar, not to show off or burn the drink dry.

Whipped cream goes on cold and soft, not stiff like cake cream, because you drink the hot coffee through it and it should sit as a cap, not sink like a lump. Chocolate shavings finish it. Nicht aus dem Glas, and not from a packet mix. Coffee, brandy, sugar, cream. Schön ist, was schmeckt.