Schnapps, What the Hell is it Anyway?

What is schnapps? The answer depends mostly on which country you’re in when you buy it. Schnapps can be a fruit distillate made in two different ways, or a sweet colored and flavored liqueur. The latter category was very important in 1980s-1990s style cocktails before the craft cocktail renaissance.

The Sweet Stuff: UK vs USA

In the United States, we mostly see the word ‘schnapps’ on the label of bargain liqueur brands including DeKuyper, Potter’s, and Hiram Walker. These tend to be quite sweet compared with other liqueurs, and are often brightly colored rather than clear. They are most often consumed in mixed drinks rather than neat. We might call the schnapps sold in the US a style of liqueur.

Liqueurs are sweetened, flavored, alcoholic beverages. While the word ‘cordial’ isn’t commonly used in the US, when it is used, it is generally interchangeable with ‘liqueur.’ In the United Kingdom, however, a cordial usually indicates a non-alcoholic flavored syrup rather than liqueur.

But not all liqueurs are labelled as schnapps; not even when they’re from the same brand. Hiram Walker, for example, offers Crème de Menthe Liqueur but also Peppermint Flavored Schnapps, which is also a liqueur.

To further complicate matters, some brands differ per market. In the US, Suntory Global Spirits (formerly Beam Suntory) makes and markets DeKuyper liqueurs, while internationally, DeKuyper Royal Distillers is a Dutch company dating to 1695 that makes their version of the DeKuyper liqueurs as well as Rutte Genever, Mandarine Napoleon, and Cherry Heering.

DeKuyper overseas offers two peach liqueurs: Archers Peach Schnapps (which they purchased from Diageo in 2022) and a peach liqueur called Original Peachtree that was first launched in 1984. In the United States, however, the latter product is called DeKuyper Peachtree Schnapps Liqueur, and is packaged in a different bottle. The USA company also offers DeKuyper Pucker Peach Schnapps Liqueur as part of their Pucker line. There’s more than one way to skin a peach!

Driving Cocktails of the Last Millennium

Peach schnapps is the crucial ingredient in the Fuzzy Navel cocktail, and in other 1980s drinks including the Sex on the Beach and Woo Woo. The Fuzzy Navel is peach schnapps mixed with orange juice, the Hairy Navel adds vodka to that, while the Woo Woo is peach schnapps with cranberry juice plus vodka. The Sex on the Beach is peach schnapps, orange juice, vodka, cranberry, and often creme de cassis.

In the decades before 2000, cinnamon and butterscotch schnapps were also popular. Cinnamon schnapps was often taken as a shot, while butterscotch schnapps wound up in shooters like the Slippery Nipple.

Sour Apple Pucker was launched in 1997, and according to one report sold one million cases by 1999. Sales were driven by the Apple Martini, also known as the Appletini. In the cocktail, the liqueur is added to vodka and sweet-and-sour mix (or fresh lime and simple syrup).

Two Other Types of Schnapps

Geist, Obst and Brand

In Northern Europe, particularly in Germany and Austria, schnapps (often spelled ‘schnaps’) indicates fruit brandy. There are two types – Geist and Brand.

Brand is eau de vie: fruit is fermented and distilled, then rested and bottled without the addition of added flavors, sweetener, or barrel aging. Common fruits used in Brand include cherries, pears, apples, and plums. If a blend of fruits is used rather than a single one (the apple and pear combination is popular), it can be called obstler or Obstbrand.

Geist is similar to brand but made a bit differently. Fruit is added to neutral spirit to infuse, and then the batch is redistilled, similar to how gin is made. Again, these types of schnapps don’t typically have post-distillation sugar nor flavor additives of American-style schnapps.

Yet Another Type of Schnapps

Finally, there is one specific and different use of the word schnapps in the Netherlands. “Schiedam schnapps” is another name for genever, the malty predecessor to gin. It’s not fruity and you certainly wouldn’t put it in an Appletini!