Germany · Rheingau
Rüdesheimer Kaffee is Asbach brandy and sugar flamed in the cup, topped with hot coffee and sweetened whipped cream. Its 1957 origin and how to make it safely.
Rüdesheimer Kaffee is Asbach brandy and sugar flamed in a special cup, topped with hot coffee and sweetened whipped cream with chocolate flakes.
Invented in 1957 by Hans Karl Adam for a German television cooking program, using Asbach Uralt — the brandy produced in Rüdesheim on the Rhine.
Unusually for a traditional drink, its invention is precisely documented.
Three sugar cubes and 40 ml (1.4 oz) of Asbach in a warmed cup. Light it and stir until the sugar dissolves, about a minute — the flame burns off some alcohol and caramelizes the sugar.
Fill with hot filter coffee, leaving room. Top with sweetened whipped cream and dark chocolate flakes.
The northern German version uses rum and unsweetened cream, and does not flame. Both are drunk through the cream without stirring.
A specific tall Rüdesheimer cup is traditional and any heatproof handled glass works.
Flaming spirits needs care and a clear space. Use a long match and keep the bottle well away. Never pour from the bottle into a lit cup, keep hair and sleeves clear, and have a saucer ready to cover the cup and smother the flame.
Rüdesheim am Rhein is a wine town in the Rheingau, in the UNESCO-listed Upper Middle Rhine valley, and its cafés serve the drink to visitors along the narrow Drosselgasse. Asbach Uralt, the brandy company founded in the town in the nineteenth century helped popularize it.
Warm the cup with hot water first, then dry it, since brandy lights far more easily when warm. Stir gently with a long spoon as it burns: the sugar melts and caramelizes, and the flame should go out on its own or be smothered when most of the sugar has dissolved. Fill with strong filter coffee to about 2 cm (3/4 in) below the rim, add a generous cap of lightly sweetened whipped cream flavored with a little vanilla, and grate dark chocolate over the top.
Asbach is imported to the US but is not always easy to find. A German brandy or a mid-priced French brandy works; avoid fine cognac, which is wasted under this much sugar and cream. Flaming removes only part of the alcohol, so treat this as a cocktail, not a coffee.
The equipment this actually requires — not a shopping list, the shortest route to doing it properly.
1.25 L · 92–96 °C (198 to 205 °F) brew · copper element · SCA certified
Hits proper brew temperature in about four minutes and holds it, which is the entire job and which almost no cheap drip machine does. Hand-built in the Netherlands, repairable indefinitely, and priced accordingly.
Best for: A household that drinks filter coffee by the pot, every day, for years.
