August Break: How Germans Get Their Drink On

On By StevenIn Life In Germany

I’m on an August Break from my regular blogging schedule. Here’s today’s pictures.

Drinks in Germany are kind of segregated.  Many offices and even some private homes use a drink delivery service, so it’s not uncommon to see trucks like this on the street:

getranke01

In larger grocery stores, drinks take up an entire very large section all their own.  There are even special drink stores, called Getränkemarkts.  You can buy entire cases of beer, or individual bottles.

getranke02

There are many types of water available.  Many Germans prefer their water with carbonation.  I don’t care for it that way.

getranke03

Despite the tremendous amount of beverages available, there aren’t usually that many kinds of soda around, at least not in the stores I frequent.   Coke is always on hand, though.

getranke04

One of my favorite parts of the drink market experience is the bottle return machines, or, as I call them, the ‘Crunch Crunch Crunch’ machines.  I’ve spoken before on this blog about the concept of Pfand, which functions as a bottle deposit in this environment.  Basically, you keep your empty bottles and return them to the machine.  The machine has a tiny conveyer belt inside-  it scans the appropriate bar codes on the bottle, then whisks them away to be satisfyingly crunched.  You get a receipt for the bottles you’ve returned and you take that to the cash register.

getranke05

Do you have any favorite specialty types of stores?

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7 thoughts on “August Break: How Germans Get Their Drink On”

    1. I wasn’t explicit here- I know that glass bottles aren’t crunched, and that not all crunch machines will accept all bottle types.

      That doesn’t make it any less satisfying though. 🙂

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  2. Michael Z.

    The crunching sound IS strangely satisying.

    I must admit I was absolutely awestruck when I first visited the drinks section at my local supermarket. I hadn’t been to one for a good decade-or-so, so I had completely forgotten how massive they can be compared to England.

    Btw, completely different subject, but I was wondering whether you were planning on writing about the German elections on your blog. It’s just that I think it would be interesting to see an American perspective on them and how they differ to election campaigns in the US, what with the little billboard posters that include vacuous slogans like “Germany is doing well!”, “Safe work!”, and so on (the inanity of which is so confusing I nearly crash my car every time I drive past them), etc. 🙂

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    1. I’m still deciding about the elections. The thing is, I’m not terribly clued in about the local politics, so I’m not sure yet what I could bring to the table in a blog post about it. We’ll see.

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      1. Michael Z.

        I guess that’s a good point, though the sheer mind-boggling inanity of German campaign posters would be suitable enough a topic. 😀

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