Sugar and sports

Erdinger does a great job marketing its alcohol-free weissbier as a sports drink in Germany. I wonder how they square that with having these fructose-laden brand extensions out there. It can't be much of a healthy option.

Erdinger Alkoholfrei Lemon (Zitrone) is a 50% mix of regular alcohol-free Erdinger and lemon "refreshment drink" -- for when a radler would be just too much. It's a happy bright gold colour, topped by a pillar of soft-serve foam. There's a concentrated lemon character to the aroma, like meringue pie filling. The texture is light and refreshing, with enough fluffy weiss softness and not feeling watered-down. The foretaste is pure cordial: intensely sweet, like Lemon Fanta. I can deal with that, and found it quite refreshing. Harder work was a rough cooked-veg twang, familiar from the base beer and insufficiently buried here. This is OK if you don't mind the intense sweetness, and it certainly doesn't taste like a health drink.

It was in the hope of something a smidge more bitter that I subsequently acquired a bottle of Erdinger Alkoholfrei Grapefruit. Woah! I was not prepared for the lurid, pinkness. The ingredients list tells me, of course, that this is done with food colouring. There's a pungent kick of real grapefruit rind in the aroma, which is fun, but the flavour is duller. While it's certainly not as sweet as the lemon one, nothing really replaces that. There's a little of the peppery spice I get when smelling a whole unsliced grapefruit, then a quite bland and nondescript citrus sweetness. Again to the ingredients list where it mentions they've used lemon juice and lemon extract, so that must be where it's from. The savoury Erdinger Alkohofrei is harder to detect in this, which is good -- merely peeping out meekly in the finish. On balance I think I prefer this to the nerve-jangling lemon one, but I don't think it has the beatings of the Schöfferhofer classic.

As for something to drink after exercise? I'd be happier with a lager, thanks.