This Apfelschorle or German apple juice spritzer is a refreshing and low-sugar drink to quench your thirst when it’s hot. Apfel is the German word for apple and schorle is basically any juice or sometimes wine to which sparkling water or carbonated water has been added.
You can go the quick route and use packaged apple juice and mix that with sparkling water. Alternatively, you can make them from fresh apples and sparkling water or soda water like I do in this recipe.
Other fresh drinks you will enjoy are this tangerine, pineapple and sugarcane juice, soursop juice, pineapple juice with mint or this carrot orange juice.
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Ingredients
You will need apples and sparkling water for this Apfelschorle. What type of apples should you use for Apfelschorle? Go for your favourite kind. Not everyone has the option of being able to choose their apple variety from a store so a good rule of thumb for me is to make Apfelschorle using the apples you would actually eat or that you like to eat.
If you are able to choose from a variety of apples, then choose a sweet type like Gala.
Besides, there are so many apple varieties that it would almost be impossible to limit yourself to a few. If you like tart apples you can use them. Just remember that your resulting Apfelschorle will be tart as well. Any sparkling water or carbonated water is fine to use for Apfelschorle.
How to make homemade apple juice for apfelschorle with a blender
If you do not have a juicer, then the next best thing to use is a blender. An interesting study on using a juicer versus blender can be found here.
The first step is to make fresh apple juice. Wash the apples and then core them. You can decide to peel the apples or leave them on. In this recipe, I do not peel the apples and as a result, the fresh juice is darker in colour.
Oxidation also plays a role in the resulting brown colour. Exposed to air, cut apples will begin to oxidise very quickly. This is not a big deal to me, but I do recommend drinking this juice as soon as possible.
Then cut the apples into smaller pieces and blend them.
Pass the blended apples through a fine-meshed sieve.
After that, transfer into a clean cheesecloth, kitchen towel, or muslin cloth and squeeze into a large bowl.
Finally, mix with cold sparkling mineral water or soda water and enjoy immediately.
Tips
- The cut and blended apples will turn brown once exposed to air - if this bothers you, you can add lemon juice to the apple juice to slow down the oxidation process. Just remember that if you use tart apples your resulting Apfelschorle will also be tart.
- When mixing the apple juice with the water, make sure to taste as you go. Depending on your apple variety, your resulting juice may be sweet or not particularly sweet therefore adjust water accordingly.
- Mix the water with the juice when you are ready to serve as the fizziness will reduce if you prepare this ahead of time.
- Make the apple juice for the schorle only when you are ready to drink it. I do not recommend leaving the juice in the fridge for long as the oxidation process will continue.
Apfelschorle or German Apple Juice Spritzer
Ingredients
- 1.5 kilograms red apples
- sparkling water or soda water to taste
- water to speed up blending
Instructions
- Wash the apples and core them.
- Cut apples into smaller pieces and blend, adding water to make blending easier. See note 1.
- With a fine-meshed sieve, sieve the blended fruit into a large bowl.
- Pass the contents of the bowl through a clean kitchen towel or a cheesecloth, and collect the juice into a jug.
- Mix with sparkling water according to your taste and serve immediately. See note 2.
Video
Notes
- As you blend the apples, they'll will turn brown due to oxidation. This is not a problem, particularly and you can prevent that by adding lemon juice or any other juice high in Vitamin C.
- If your apples are very sweet then a good ratio for the Apfelschorle is 1 part of apple juice 1 part water.
FAQ
Whereas sparkling mineral water occurs naturally, soda water or any other carbonated water is manufactured - the process entails adding carbon dioxide to water under pressure.
When cut apples are exposed to air, they begin to oxidise resulting in the characteristic brown colour.
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