Spezi is a soft drink made with cola and orange soda. It is a genericized trademark; its owner of the trademark is Brauhaus Riegele in Augsburg, Germany. When the brand was registered in 1956, Riegele at first was selling beer under the trademark. When Spezi is bottled by other breweries, it usually runs under the official title “Cola-Mix”.
In most of Germany and Austria, Spezi is a generic term for a mixture of cola and orange soda. Riegele registered the trademark and tried to monopolise the use of the term, but did not achieve that goal. Most large beverage manufacturers sell similar products, though most of them only in Germany. Examples are Schwip Schwap by PepsiCo or Mezzo Mix by the Coca-Cola Company.
Nowadays, these two competitors sell far better than the original Spezi. However, original Spezi, in contrast to its main competitors, is not available in some parts of Germany, particularly in large parts of former East Germany, which is probably one of the reasons for its smaller market share. Like other colas, Spezi contains caffeine; other ingredients include water, sugar, carbonic acid, orange juice and lemon juice.
Riegele Spezi is sold mostly in half litre glass bottles, but 0.33 l and 1.5 l bottles are available as well. There is also a diet version. The slogan is: “Spezi ist Spitze – trink das Original!” (“Spezi is great – drink the original!”).
Spezi is sometimes called “Kalter Kaffee” (“cold coffee”) because of its color. In some regions of northern Germany (Emsland), Spezi stands for a mixture of traditional German Schnapps and cola.
Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
RecipeReminiscing 