Fruit brandies are very popular in German-speaking countries. In Germany, there are several different fruit brandies in every Market, usually made from pears, cherries or plums. They are usually clear distillates; some may also have added a little juice to give color and aroma. The fruit is crushed and the juice is fermented until all the sugar has been converted into alcohol. Finally, the mixture is distilled once or twice with copper distillate. Apart from diluting with water, nothing is usually added to the drink, not even sugar.

Gradually, these brandies made from different fruit have also come to the Baltic countries and in every country there are already a few producers. Usually apples are used, or some berries which are growing here, such as chokeberry. Due to high production volumes and cheap raw material, fruit brands are usually very cheap in Germany. In the Baltics, on the other hand, they are made by small craft distilleries, which means that the prices of finished products are also quite expensive.

Original Fies is a trademark of Frans Fies GmbH. Their factory is located in southwest Germany and they produce a wide variety of fruit distillates, liqueurs and other beverages. The most traditional product is clear brandy made from cherries, but several other fruits are also made into distillates. Obstwasser is a clear brandy made from pears and apples.

The aroma has fermented fruit with a little pear-like nuances. It has a decent aroma of copper pan distillation, slightly moonshine-like and raw. I’m pretty sure sugar has been added to the fruit mixture to get the alcohol out more efficiently. The taste is sharp, slightly sweet and slightly fruity. There is no decent pear or apple taste, the taste is more like a plum or dried fig. The light bitter aftertaste comes with a bit of an apple-like fruity tinge.

Obstwasser is not a very enjoyable drink. It’s a sample of German mass production and there are just wanted to make fruit liquor as efficiently as possible. Obstbrand is clearly a low quality supermarket product, on sale at a very affordable price so in that sense you get what you pay for. I recommend trying some craft distillery product instead.

73/100