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I know that it’s das Bier, and all other forms of alcohol go with der (i.e., they are masculine). But is there an exception – is there an alcoholic beverage that goes with die (and is thus feminine)?

Please only answer with generally accepted terms for a beverage and not with product names.

Wrzlprmft
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Klangen
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8 Answers8

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Die Bowle (punch)
The name stems from the english "bowl" referring the vessel it is served in.
Bowle is usually cold, for hot varieties we use the term der Punsch (which is punch)
One exception, though: "Feuerzangenbowle" is hot, so technically not a "Bowle".
A special Bowle is die Kalte Ente ("cold duck"), basically a mix of white wine and champagne with lemon. Originally called "das kalte Ende" ("cold end"), the name was jokingly altered later on.

Die Berliner Weiße (a type of beer)
Wheat-based beer with rather low alcohol content. Often served as "Berliner Weiße mit Schuß", that is, with flavoured syrups, typically raspberry or woodruff.

Die Margarita (margarita)
We just use the original name of the cocktail - and as it's a female name, it's "die". (Same goes for die Bloody Mary and other "obviously" feminine cocktails.)

Stephie
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    I've been working in bars for half a decade and never have I heard "eine/die Margarita". It's "der" for all people care. – Emanuel Jan 05 '15 at 12:22
  • We should say here that for these cocktails (which are masculine when used as a short form for "der Margarita-Cocktail") both genders m. and f. are possible. By searching Google keep in mind that Pizza Margerita always is female ("die Pizza") but still the cocktail is used with a female gender quite frequently, including Wikipedia. – Takkat Jan 05 '15 at 12:48
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    @Takkat, I don't know whether in Germany it's Pizza Margerita, in Italy (where margherita means daisy, and is also a female name) it's pizza Margherita (/'pit:sa marge'ri:ta/) – note the h. – Walter Tross Oct 20 '15 at 19:59
  • @WalterTross: so true, but in this case we do not discuss the spelling of a pizza. It is all about Google search results to query for the gender of the cocktail margarita. We do find a lot of pizza reference that of course all should be female. So as always Google queries need to be read with care. Other than that German spelling variants for a Pizza Margherita are very creative ;) – Takkat Oct 21 '15 at 07:05
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Die Weißweinschorle.

But this is a combined word of "(der) Weißwein" and "(die) Schorle" (engl. "spritzer"). Schorle itself is not an alcohol, it has just the meaning that you mix your beverage with (sparkling mineral) water.

hellcode
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    Ok, ich weiß, daß der Duden "die" Schorle erlaubt, aber als Schwabe - stellen sich mir die Nackenhaare. Sorry, aber da kann ich nicht anders. – Stephie Jan 05 '15 at 09:24
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    @Stephie: bei "das" Schorle geht es mir auch so ;-) - laut LEO: die (auch: das) Schorle - die Verwendung des sächlichen Artikels beschränkt sich vorwiegend auf bestimmte Teile Süddeutschlands. – hellcode Jan 05 '15 at 09:31
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    @Stephie: Als Nichtschwabe in Schwaben stellen sich mir oft genug aus anderen Gründen die Nackenhaare hoch! ;) – jkalden Jan 05 '15 at 09:31
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    @jkalden: Akzeptiert..! Aber das Schorle haben wir wirklich im Süden erfunden. – Stephie Jan 05 '15 at 09:34
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    @Stephie Bei uns heißt es ausschließlich die Apfelschorle. Es ist für mich undenkbar, dass dies eine Verkleinerungsform sein soll und daher Neutrum. – Thorsten Dittmar Jan 05 '15 at 10:53
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Die grüne Fee is another term for absinthe.

Wrzlprmft
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7

According to this reference, many cocktails are (or at least can be, as foreign words often do not have a “correct” article in German) feminine. Particularly:

  • Die Caipirinha,
  • Die Piña Colada,
  • Die Pink Lady, die White Lady (basically all from this Wikipedia list with Lady in the end).

At least for cases such as the last one with a clearly feminine word in the end, I would not expect anyone to use another article than die. (Der Caipirinha does not sound wrong to me, but Piña Colada also feels clearly feminine.)

Wrzlprmft
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lukas.coenig
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  • Caipirinha is feminine in Portuguese. – Jamie Bull Jan 05 '15 at 12:17
  • Eine Welt bricht für mich zusammen.... Für mich waren die Cocktails bisher alle männlich: "Ich hätte gerne einen Caipi, einen Pina Colada und einen Pink Lady." – Em1 Jan 05 '15 at 12:33
  • Klar, der immer dann, wenn Du einen XYZ[-Cocktail (unausgesprochen)] bestellst. – Stephie Jan 05 '15 at 12:53
  • Genau, das habe ich beim Tippen auch überlegt - man kann die alle auch maskulin (also mit dem entspr. Artikel - nicht mit tiefer Stimme ;-) ) bestellen, meint dann aber immer "Der ...Cocktail". (@Stephie: Ich habe erst später gesehen, dass du in deiner Antwort eigentlich meine schon vorweggenommen hast (im Unterpunkt "Margarita"). War kein absichtliches Plagiat.) – lukas.coenig Jan 05 '15 at 14:55
  • @lukas.coenig: Kein Problem, ich bin nicht empfindlich ;-) – Stephie Jan 05 '15 at 14:57
  • Based on that logic "Bier" should be female, too because it is "la birra" .. I have never heard anyone use "Caipi..." with a female article, same for Pina Col... -1 – Emanuel Jan 05 '15 at 17:42
  • Why is that the same logic? "Bier" has been a German word for 600 years or so ("la birra" is according to my Duden derived from it) of course it has a well-defined gender. – lukas.coenig Jan 05 '15 at 18:30
  • Caipirinha, Pina Colada - both ending with 'a', which very often is an indicator for female words. Pink Lady - well. A Lady isn't male in my world ;) If translated or adopted to german the genus often persists. – user22338 Jul 04 '16 at 13:26
5

Beside the mentioned Berliner Weisse there is a beer family (usually brewed in Goslar and some Saxonian microbreweries) called die Gose.

ff1
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Kalte Muschi (feminine) is a mix of red wine and cola and is sold under that name in bottles.

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    If we accept product names as answers to this questions, the number of possible answers would definetely be too large for this format. I therefore vote to delete this answer. – Wrzlprmft Jan 05 '15 at 17:16
  • @Wrzlprmft... IMO, that would rule out your answer too, as well as "Weinschorle" and all the cocktails. I would be down with deleting all of them but not just one at random. And also, where's the harm. It's a nice collection here and readers might be interested. – Emanuel Jan 05 '15 at 17:45
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    @Emanuel: All those names are describing a certain type of beverage in general, not only an individual product by a certain producer. The harm of allowing such would be that the list of answers would be much too large, as there are thousands of product names. Compare to answering a question asking for types of cars with Geländewagen, Van, Limousine on the one hand and Borgward Arabella de Luxe on the other hand. – Wrzlprmft Jan 05 '15 at 17:51
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    @Wrzlprmft... the thing is that "Kalte Muschi" was a drink first, before it got branded. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calimocho http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/1961441319019243/Kalte-Muschi.html – Emanuel Jan 05 '15 at 17:56
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    @Emanuel: In that case, it’s fine by me (and I would never have guessed this). – Wrzlprmft Jan 05 '15 at 17:59
  • Same concoction goes by the name of "Korea" (n) in SW-Germany. – Stephie Jan 05 '15 at 18:16
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There are a few alcoholic drinks mixed with milk that end on -milch and they are all feminine.

For example mixing Licor 43 with milk is – according to Wikipedia – called Muttermilch. I am familiar with the term Rennmilch which is its name in the region where I live.

Em1
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Furthermore, there is a cocktail known as (Die) Grüne Witwe which consists of Blue Curaçao and orange juice.

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