Korn — tasting notes & food pairings

Korn

Korn is Germany's traditional clear grain spirit, distilled from rye, wheat, barley, oats or buckwheat and bottled unaged at a modest 32 to 38 percent alcohol; lighter, softer and far less rectified than vodka, it keeps a gentle breadiness and grainy sweetness from the cereal it is made from, and is the plain, honest schnapps of the German and Austrian north, drunk chilled and neat or as a beer chaser.

Dry & cleanSpirit-forward

Light, clean and faintly sweet, Korn leads with a soft aroma of fresh bread, biscuit and warm dough over a gentle grassy, cereal grain note, the mark of a spirit distilled to keep some of its raw material rather than stripped to neutral. On the palate it is smooth and rounded with only a mild grain sweetness, a whisper of grassiness and a short, clean finish; less oily and characterful than whisky but softer and breadier than vodka. Doppelkorn at around 38 percent is fuller and warmer than plain 32 percent Korn, and the rare oak-aged bottlings add vanilla and a mellow, whisky-like roundness. Best served ice-cold, when its light body and faint sweetness make it an easy chaser and sipper.