Texas and Bavaria - Part 2

When we wrote about Bavaria being the Texas of Germany, we knew that we weren't the only ones to draw these parallels. 

In this month's MUH magazine, we're thrilled to be referenced in Martin Karaffa's column "The Lone Star Freistaat."

Though the article is in German, luckily Marty maintains an English version of his columns online (and also writes the wonderful blog Deutschland Über Elvis, a name we wish we could have invented)

In this column, he covers the many similarities in size, religious influence, dialect, patriotism, and folk fashion (boots and hats and trachten).  But he brings up one very important factor we had overlooked - vast riches.  Texas benefits from black gold (oil); Bavaria benefitted from white gold (the salt trade). 

As we thought more about the Texas - Bavaria connection, we realized that there are further economic similarities. One of the popular debates in the US is the Texas vs California model, i.e., why is California insolvent and Texas booming? 

Driven by Munich, Bavaria similarly is bucking the overall economic and demographic trends.  Despite relatively strong growth nationally, Germany has great regional disparity and is facing major population shifts. Germany as a whole is shrinking (but that's a story for another day) and there's a major population shift from rural to urban areas. 

This Der Spiegel chart shows Munich as the one area with significant positive growth. And we often see the newstand headlines proclaiming record high rents on apartments and job growth.  We're seeing Help Wanted signs on many store windows in Munich, and Bavaria's unemployment rate in April was and incredible 3.9%!! Versus Germany's overall (and relatively low) 7.3% rate. 

While we think some of this disparity is that it's just too expensive to live in Munich unless you have a good job, the bottom line is that there is job growth here and the jobs and the lifestyle are attracting people to move here. Texas has different factors at work (including low cost of living), but it's in a similar economic position relative to the rest of its nation.

Source: Der Spiegel

And Bavarian Whisky Liqueur

Last week we sampled some Slyrs, the Bavarian single malt whisky.  As we were quite pleased with it, we decided to try their whisky liqueur.

The website describes it as a diluted whisky (30% vs the usual 43%) with the addition of honey and vanilla notes.  All things that sound good, but we've had whisky and we've had schnapps...and we really had no idea how this would taste.

Luckily most of the stores here sell single serve bottles of liquor, so we grabbed a small one to try. Better than being stuck with a full bottle of something we don't like...

My first impressions were its light color and an aroma that reminded me of the wonderfully intoxicating smell of vanilla extract.

Off to a good start.

While it does have vanilla notes to the taste, the vanilla is much more strong in the aroma than in the actual taste. It was a really subtle and well-blended drink. Very smooth and sweet, but not too much so. In fact, all of the tastes (sweet honey, whisky, vanilla, and caramel) mixed perfectly so that none dominated.

Of course my initial thought was "Wow, this is great. It's like a girlie whisky!" When I later looked it up on the Slyrs' website, I was amused to discover that whoever does their marketing is very in tune to customers' thoughts.  They mention that when they tested the liqueur in the destillery, it was not only women visitors who enjoyed it. And also that they sell in miniature 50 mL sizes "for the skeptics."

Well, we are skeptics no longer, and bought a normal sized bottle yesterday.

I'm thinking this would be great for eggnog and also a really good gift to bring someone from Germany. While it's not the strong smoky whisky taste that some love, it will definitely please those who love a smooth whisky. It's very subtle and really good.

Bavarian Single Malt

Frau A and I hosted the German Beer Tournament last year, and are starting to plan the next tournament.  It might be German wines, sausages, or just more bier.

In the mean time we continue to look for new/unique things, so when Frau A saw a German-distilled malt whiskey, we had to try it.

Slyrs is produced in Bavaria, about an hour south of Munich in the start of the Alps.  Its home in Schliersee is not far from Tegernsee -- unsurprisingly, both Slyrs and the most popular malt beverage in this area trumpet the quality of their mountain water.  (Both lakes have essentially drinking-quality water.  Bavaria really has an excellent track record of keeping things clean and healthy.)

Slyrs was launched in 1999.  Its founder was a beer brewer, and it took a few "unsuccessful attempts" before the result was "harmonised".  The data look like typical single malts:  beechwood smoked grain, copper kettle, (American) white oak barrels...but foreshot and feints are not used again (as in Scottish whiskey) but dumped, and the mash is washed only once (vs. multiple times for scotch). 

But how does it taste?

First, the packaging was the essence of German quality and understatement.  This is NOT an economy bottle, however -- check out the prices here.

Personally, I loved the taste.  Slyrs was exceptionally smooth -- maybe the mountain water working its magic?  There was one note in its flavor that was unusual and we couldn't place it.  Not bad, just different.  Frau A likes it too.  It finishes so well, it might be the best "scotch" for non-whiskey drinkers.  (Of course if you prefer strong smokey/mineral/earthy whiskey, this will be too soft.)

We were both surprised and impressed.  This will stay in the liquor cabinet.

Now we're interested in trying their other products, especially the "whiskey liqueur" -  diluted to 30% alcohol, added honey, plus accents of vanilla and caramel.  Sounds perfect for post-skiing relaxation this winter. 

Also, we have moved a Slyrs distillery-tour higher up the to-do list.  Maybe we'll pick up some of their whiskey-infused chocolates or fruit spreads while we're there.

Follow-up:  we also tried Slyrs' "cask strength" whiskey called "Raritas Diaboli".  Whoa - 55.9% alcohol, and it tastes every bit of it.  A little too much alcohol for our preference.  They claim that it has hints of cinnamon, but I couldn't get any subtlety past the alcohol.  We're going to try again with a few drops of water to see if it "relaxes" a bit.

Germans are experts with malt, so it's not too surprising that they're moving on to whiskey.  It's a good start.

Bauernregeln

As I investigated the Schafskälter, I stumbled upon other Bavarian weather folklore, which collectively are known as the Bauernregeln ("Farmers' rules").  They typically are little rhyming sayings dealing with weather prediction - similar to our "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning..." and "March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb."  Different from the Anglo-American ones, many of these use the name of a saint to denote the timing (based on the date of the Saints' feast days). Not a surprise, really, as the Catholic church played a much greater role in daily life in old Bavaria than it did in the early days of the US.

With the Schafskälter, the Eisheilige, and the Siebenschläfer, the past 6 weeks have been quite full of activity and proverbs!

The Ice Saints (Eisheilige) are a cold snap in May, which farmers and gardeners expect to be the last frost of the season.  Gardeners are admonished to "Die Eisheiligen abwarten" ("Wait for the Ice Saints") before doing serious planting.

In the Julian calendar, this cold snap coincided with the feast days of St. Mamertus (11 May), St. Pancras (12 May), St. Servatius (13 May), St. Boniface (14 May) and St Sophie (15 May), hence the view that the saints brought the cold weather that ends with the day of "Kalten Sophie" ("Cold Sophie"). However, with the timing changes caused by adopting the Gregorian calendar, today this cold weather usually falls a week later in May.

The Siebenschläfer ("Seven Sleepers") is a pivotal day in weather forecasting, along the lines of American Groundhog Day.  Legend has it that the weather we have on the Siebenschläfer day is representative of the weather for the next few weeks.  "Wenn die Siebenschläfer Regen kochen, so regnets vier ganze Wochen,"says the rule ("When the Seven Sleepers cook up rain, it will rain for 4 whole weeks"). 

The name refers to the old Christian and Muslim legend of the Seven Sleepers (though it also is the name for the dormouse), who were martyrs who went into a cave to pray before their executions, fell asleep, and awoke a century or two later to find the world completely changed.  The meteorological explanation is that the jet stream settles into position around the end of June, thus often bringing stable (good or bad) weather in Central Europe for the next weeks. While the memorial day for the Seven Sleepers is celebrated on 27 June, for weather purposes it likely is around 7 July today (again due to changing from Julian to Gregorian calendars).

Since the weather yesterday (27 June) was wonderfully warm and perfect, I'm hoping this Bauernregel holds true! Just to be safe, I'll check in again on the 7th next week. We could use some warm days after the rainy cool of the Schafskälter days!

A few Bauernregeln: (sadly they lose the rhyme in translation)

Pflanze nie vor der Kalten Sophie - Never plant before Cold Sophie"

Corpus Christi schön und klar, guter Wein in diesem Jahr - "When Corpus Christi is lovely and clear, we'll have good wine this year"
Je nasser ist der Februar, desto nasser wird das ganze Jahr - "The wetter February is, the wetter will be the whole year
Peter und Paul hell und klar bringt ein gutes Jahr - A light and clear Peter and Paul brings a good year" (tomorrow, the 29th)

It's in German, but there's a whole long chronological list of Bauernregeln and feast days of meteorological significance on Wikipedia.

Update on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 12:56 by Frau A

While I definitely buy into the Schafskälter as an annual phenomenon, I'm afraid that the Siebenschäfer might also work this year too.

27 June was a lovely warm sunny summer day, but supposedly the modern date (accounting for changing from Julian to Gregorian calendars) is around 7 July.

July 7 was a very strange day, mixed with hot sunny spells and cold rain and thunderstorms all in the same day. Kind of like Texas weather, except that the drop in temperature here is much more severe and it gets much colder.

I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but the weather since then has also been a strange mix, with a lot of rain. And many days that have swift changes from sun to storms and back to sun. Luckily we had almost a week of beautiful weather the week our friends from Dallas visited (the storms all were at night so didn't interfere with plans).

I'm now looking forward to the Hundestage!

Dog Days and Sheep's Cold

Perhaps it's the long agricultural tradition or maybe the environmental awareness, but the southern Bavarians are still very in touch with nature and weather patterns.  I think our parents all remember this type of knowledge, but it's beginning to be lost by our generation and the next ones as our daily lives become more and more removed from the land.  Living in Bavaria and Thailand has reminded me of many of the traditions I'd forgotten or never known, as well as taught me new ones.  And if there's one thing I've learned here is that if they've bothered to make a German word for something, it means it will happen with regularity!

Despite a couple of glorious hours of warm sun yesterday morning, it's been chilly and rainy here for the past week or two.

Every year, it's pretty similar...Warm weather comes just before Easter, in time to open the beer gardens.  It's normal that the temperature varies widely throughout the day - it's often a little chilly in mornings and evenings, even in August.  But around the 2nd week of June, it gets downright chilly and nasty. Invariably, it's just a few days after I finally give in and pack away the winter clothes and bring out summer. Luckily this year I planned ahead and left a few things out for the cold times.

In Bavaria, they call this the Schafskälter, which means Sheep's Cold. The cold snap usually ocurrs soon after the sheep are shorn, leaving them very cold and vulnerable. (apparently the lambs and ewes normally aren't shorn until after the schafskälter, as the cold can be dangerous to them). In the Austrian Alps, this can even bring snow at higher altitudes, and here in Munich hail showers are not uncommon.

There is a scientific explanation for this - in Germany and Austria, the land has warmed up, but the northern seas still are quite cold, creating a massive low pressure zone over the area. This brings cold polar air down from the northwest, and reverses the prevailing winds so that it stays here. According to the Bauernregeln.com (roughly similar to a Farmers' Almanac), this early June drop in temperature happens with 89% regularity! 

We do have the Dog Days (Die Hundestage) to look forward to in late July and August. The hottest, driest days of summer, they have been called Dog Days by the Romans, Greeks, and ancient Egyptians. Not because the dogs pant and seek shade, but because they coincided with Sirius (the Dog Star, in the Canis Major constellation) rising at the same time as the sun over the Nile and Tiber rivers.  We know today that it's a regular high pressure area that settles in, but the ancients thought that Sirius brought the weather.

So, while the Hundestage aren't uniquely German, as a good resident of Bavaria, I look forward to spending the hot days under the shade of a beer garden tree, or wading in the Isar!

Texas and Bavaria

As the Texas Legislature votes on a bill to raise the maximum speed limit to 85 mph (136 kph), I feel this is the appropriate time to address the similarities between Texas and Bavaria. I’ve lived in both and have grown to love both – for their charms and their quirks. But both Texas and Bavaria are considered “special” in their own nations, and I’m finding that they have quite a few amusing similarities.

We could start with the history and geography, with both being the 2^nd largest states (by area) in their nation, and both being economic powerhouses. The individual GDPs of each state are larger than those of all but the top 10-20 nations, and both are considered well-diversified economies. They are large states that have big industry, innovation, and hi-tech, but also large tracts of wilderness.

But more fun are the states’ relationships with the rest of their country. If you meet a Texan or a Bavarian in a foreign country and ask where he or she is from, you’ll more often hear “Texas” or “Bavaria,” rather than “USA” or “Germany.” There is great pride in these states, and both states have their own histories and identities as separate countries, much more so than other parts of their countries. The Bavarian state, of course, goes back centuries and has its own monarchy.  Bavaria rejected the West German constitution in 1949 and still refers to itself as the Free State of Bavaria. Of course the other states ratified the constitution and so the Bavarians are Germans today.

And what of the rest of the country? Yes, most Americans and Germans find Texans and Bavarians to be “special” also…and many of their fellow countrymen claim they speak strangely. Rumor has it that the Bayern Partei – the very small Bavarian political party that has Bavarian independence as its platform – received more votes from non-Bavarians than from Bavarians in the last election. Texas, too, has separatists, but they’re usually of the living in a compound, dreaming up crazy plots type, rather than organized political parties. But I think a Texas separatist party might garner some votes outside of Texas!

Beyond the position in their respective countries, are the cultures and outlooks. Both Bavarians and Texans strongly value independence and individual freedom, more so than their average countryman. Though guns are very regulated and not widespread in Germany as a whole, you find the hunters in Bavaria, and the antlers on the walls. They love the land, and contrary to the picture of big oil companies, Texas has a strong conservationist movement and leads the US in wind energy. Neither like being told by the government how fast to drive by those windmills. On the whole, both are known as staunchly conservative states relative to their neighbors, where the CSU (Christian Social Union) and Republican Party have won virtually every state and national election in recent history. Though German politics as a whole is much more to the left than American, the CSU is considered a conservative party in Germany. Not surprisingly, both also are strongly religious states.

And in their free time? Bavarians and Texans love food – especially barbecues at the lake. Floating down the river with a case of beer in summer, going to the Texas State Fair or Oktoberfest in September, shooting fireworks, drinking beer, and eating sausage...the activities are quite similar.  Texans would love Schweinshaxe and spanferkel if they had it, and let’s be honest…Schnitzel and Country Fried Steak are close cousins, especially Jagerschnitzel. Both are border countries that have integrated many aspects (especially in food) from neighboring nations – perfect Neopolitan pizza is available all over Munich, and the Aperol spritz is the popular summer cocktail. I know it’s courting controversy (or heresy?), but many of the great Bavarian dishes like Kaiserschmarm are very similar to Austrian dishes, and goulash is a staple in many Bavarian restaurants. And my mouth waters at the thought of good Tex-Mex.

And finally, we have two states that often become the stereotype for their respective countries. When you ask most Americans about German culture, the ones who’ve never visited Germany would mention lederhosen, beer, pretzels, Oktoberfest, cars and sausage.  While that’s not too inaccurate for a generalization of southern Bavaria, the Kölners, Berliners, and Hamburgers will strongly disagree. When you ask foreigners who have not visited the US about their impression of Americans, the boot-wearing, steak-eating, gun-toting, drawling conservative is a pretty popular stereotype.

Maybe it's the history and shared core values of freedom, or maybe it's the influence of German settlers in Texas (more than 10% of Texans have German ancestry, and you'll still see the influence down around Gruene and New Braunfels), but both places have distinct identities and traditions, and that's one of the things I've loved discovering in both states. Perhaps next time I wear my dirndl, it should be with my cowboy boots?

(For the record, I'm guilty of some generalizing here too...Bavaria is quite a diverse state, and some of the more northern areas identify themselves much more locally (especially Franconians) than as Bavarians. In fact, some of them want out of Bavaria. They do drink beer of course, but they don't wear lederhosen. And like in Texas, there's quite a difference between "city folk" and country folk.)