Enjoy a Rüdesheimer coffee on a Lüftner Rhine River cruise

On our Rhine river cruise stop at the pretty riverside town of Rüdesheim, we took the opportunity to try the famous Rüdesheimer coffee. Brandy and cream were mentioned, so we decided this was one local experience we couldn’t miss!

Wander the cobbled Drosselgasse

We had enjoyed the fairground organs, music boxes and other mechanical instruments of the Rüdesheim Music Museum. Now we wandered along the cobbled street of the Drosselgasse with its wine shops and taverns.

Stopping at Rüdesheimer Schloss, we sat in their light conservatory and ordered our Rüdesheimer coffee. The ceremony of making this special coffee can be seen in the video below.

It was delicious and warming, putting us in an excellent mood as we walked back to the Amadeus Princess river cruise ship!

If you can’t make it to Rüdesheim, you might like to try to make it using the instructions below, but be sure to only use good German Asbach Brandy, no French substitutes will taste the same!

How to make a Rüdesheimer coffee

• Put 3 cubes of sugar in a Rudesheimer coffee cup, pour over a miniature bottle (4cl) of Asbach brandy and set it alight

• Stir and allow the brandy to burn for one minute.

• Pour in the hot coffee and fill to 2 cm below the rim

• Place a scoop of whipped cream sweetened with vanilla sugar on top of the coffee

• Sprinkle with grated dark chocolate

• Enjoy drinking the hot coffee through the cool cream (no spoons or straws allowed)

I hope that you enjoy the video below on How to make a Rüdesheimer coffee

If you can’t see the video above on how to make a Rüdesheimer coffee, you can view it on my blog here or on YouTube here

History of the Rudesheimer coffee

In the 1890s the Asbach company was founded in Rüdesheim. This family run distillery was renowned for making a German brandy that was a rival to the best French Cognac, passing from father to son.

In the roaring 1920s, when it was considered unseemly for women to drink in public, they cleverly invented a brandy chocolate so that the ladies could also enjoy a secret tipple.

In the 1950s the Rüdesheimer coffee was born and to this day is served in the cafes and inns of Rudesheim. This warming mixture of sweet coffee has a good helping of Asbach brandy, topped with sweetened whipped vanilla cream and sprinkled with grated chocolate.

There’s also a cool version to serve in summer in which you pour the Asbach over vanilla ice cream, pour in iced coffee and then top with whipped cream, served with a straw and spoon.

Listen to my podcast on the Rhine River cruise that we took, visiting pretty riverside towns, tasting local wines and learning about the fascinating history of this river.

We tasted our Rüdesheimer coffee as part of a tour of Rüdesheim on our Rhine river cruise, but you can visit this pleasant town at any time.

For more information you can take a look at the Asbach website – they have a visitor’s centre in Rüdesheim. Check out also the Rudesheim tourist information website.

Read Next

Read about everything we enjoyed on this cruise in our 6-day Rhine River cruise itinerary

More Tales from my Rhine River Cruise

All aboard the Amadeus Princess – what to expect from your river cruise ship

Video – The Rudesheim Music Museum – Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet

From Riesling to Gewürztraminer – our wine tasting on the Alsace Wine Route

About Lüftner Cruises

Lüftner Cruises specialise in European river cruises on the Rhine, Danube, Rhône and other destinations in Europe, with personal service and Austrian hospitality. We travelled on the Amadeus Princess on a 7 day Classical Rhine Cruise which travelled from Basel to Amsterdam, although we disembarked at Cologne.

My thanks to Lüftner Cruises who hosted* our Rhine River Cruise.

* More info on my policies page

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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