Food & Drinking Culture

At the Johannsen rum house, visitors will find not just rum but also Rumtopf, pralines and punch. Rumtopf is the dish that suits Flensburg best. Seasonal fruits are layered with sugar in a stoneware pot and covered with rum, so that the alcohol preserves them for months.

Rumtopf goes well with ice cream, vanilla sauce or quark, but it shines above all where a robust rum meets the sweetness of the fruit. A mild Verschnitt suits it better than a powerful Jamaican rum, which would overwhelm the fruit.

Grog also belongs to the coast. It traces back to Admiral Edward Vernon, who in 1740 ordered the Royal Navy's rum ration to be diluted with water. Today, a hot grog with sugar and a slice of lemon is a drink for cold days on the fjord. Also widespread in Schleswig-Holstein is the Pharisäer: coffee with rum, topped with a cap of cream.

The Rum Regatta is part of the yearly calendar. It forms the finale of a multi-day regatta series between Kappeln, Sønderborg and Flensburg, in which traditional sailing ships compete on the fjord, recalling the city's old voyages to the West Indies.

Anyone wanting to explore on foot can follow the Rum and Sugar Mile with its 20 stops. It leads past merchants' courtyards, warehouses and former sugar refineries. The Rum Museum within the Maritime Museum, housed in the former customs warehouse at the harbor, also shows the other side of the story: the city's prosperity was built on labor that people were forced to perform.