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The Week in Germany: Culture January 19, 2007 Trends: A Roundup of German Habits... Beer consumption is up, potatoes are in short supply and cigars are more popular than cigarettes in Germany, according to a trio of recent news items from German news agency dpa.
Germans regain their thirst for beer
Beer consumption in Germany rose in 2006 for the first time in six years, mainly as a result of the soccer World Cup and an unusually hot summer, provisional figures showed on Tuesday. The German Brewers Association said Germans drank an average of 117.8 liters (124.5 quarts) of beer last year, about the same quantity as 2003 and 2 percent more than 2005. Beer consumption has been steadily declining in Germany since 1976 when consumption in then West Germany was 151 liters (159.6 quarts) per head. After unification in 1990 consumption dropped from 142 liters in 1992 to below 120 liters in 2003. Last summer saw temperatures soar above 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) for weeks on end in June and July. The World Cup in Germany also led to an increased demand for beer by soccer fans, the brewers association said. April 23 is heralded by brewers across Germany as the Day of German Beer, as it was on April 23, 1516, that the famous German Reinheitsgebot, or Purity Law, was first proclaimed. Strictly adhered to by German brewers ever since, the original law stipulated that only three ingredients - Wasser, Hopfen and Gerste (water, hops and malt barley) - could be used to brew beer. Hefe, or yeast, was added later as a fourth ingredient, when yeast production was introduced. German brewers celebrate "the oldest food law in the world", as the brewers association website states, with a variety of special events and festivals, from hot-air balloon rides to tours of breweries, to get people to taste new brews or re-discover old classics. Meanwhile the average price of a beer is going up in Germany, largely
due to a global shortage of malt barley - brewers are worried about a
possible price hike of up to 100 percent for malt. (TWIG, dpa) Links:
Germany faces french fry shortage after bad harvest
Germany faces a shortage of one of its favorite fast foods, french fries, after a hot, dry summer led to a disappointing potato harvest, according to an industry leader on Monday. Prices for both hot fries and cold chips are likely to zoom higher, Horst-Peter Karos, chief of the Fruit and Vegetable Processing Industry Federation BOGK, told the Bavarian farming magazine Profil in a report on the "chips crisis". "I cannot remember a harvest that was as bad as this," he said. German fast-food outlets and restaurants mostly deep-fry potatoes that
have been peeled, cubed, frozen and bagged in factories. The industry
is using up existing stocks for fear they will rot, and faces a gap in
supply in the spring. (TWIG, dpa) Links:
Germans smoking fewer cigarettes, more cigars
Germans are smoking fewer cigarettes, but more cigars, cigarillos and pipe tobacco, according to statistics released on Tuesday. Cigarette sales declined 2.5 percent in 2006 to 93 billion units, but sales of cigars and cigarillos were up 37.7 percent to 5.6 million units, the Federal Statistics Office added. The government earned a total of 23.1 billion euros (30 billion dollars) in taxes from tobacco products last year, 859 million euros or 3.6 percent less than in 2005. But don't expect Germany's most famous ex-physicist - Chancellor Angela Merkel - to start chomping on Cuban cigars, a favorite habit of her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, anytime soon. Merkel and leaders of Germany's 16 states agreed in December 2006 to
draft proposals by March 2007 for regional legislation to outlaw smoking
in restaurants, schools and other public places. Her cabinet also approved
a smoking ban for federal government buildings such as ministries, train
stations and job centers. (TWIG, dpa) Links:
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