Booze comes in many forms, including nips, shots, standard drinks, cocktails, margaritas—the list goes on and on. But one of the more underrated choices is schnapps. If you’re itching to branch out from your usual drink order, schnapps is a good choice to shake up your Friday night. But what is schnapps? I’ve laid it all out for you to clarify.
What Is Schnapps?
European schnapps, aka true schnapps, is comparable to a lightly flavored vodka. In order to make schnapps, fruit juice is fermented with a base liquor (it’s basically a fruit brandy). Schnapps should have an alcohol content of 32%, which translates to 64 proof. Anything lower than that will either be deemed as fake schnapps or as American schnapps.
In contrast to European schnapps, American schnapps is made by steeping fruit in the alcohol after the alcohol has undergone distillation. This results in a drier drink, and American schnapps typically has a much lower ABV than European schnapps.
These two varieties of schnapps might seem like the same thing (admittedly, they’re very similar), but the methods used to make each drink are different enough to result in totally unique flavors and differing alcohol content.
Schnapps’ All-Star Flavors
One thing to know about schnapps is that there’s an array of flavors. However, not all schnapps flavors are made equally, so take some precaution before you start drinking. The most popular schnapps flavors are peach, peppermint, sour apple, and butterscotch. That’s not to say that the other flavors aren’t good or anything, they’re just not what most people go for.
Schnapps might not be the most popular option when it comes to booze, but it’s still better than not having any at all. Just keep in mind that schnapps isn’t necessarily interchangeable with other clear liquors when making your favorite cocktails. I encourage you to experiment with your go-to drink recipes, but using schnapps whenever you feel like it could create a pretty nasty drink if you’re not mixing complementary flavors together.