Feuerzangenbowle

The story

Feuerzangenbowle is really Glühwein taken to its theatrical peak. A pair of metal tongs or a rack (the Feuerzange, "fire tongs") is set over a pot of mulled wine, a sugar cone soaked in strong rum is placed on it, and the rum is lit so that warm, caramelized sugar drips slowly into the wine as it burns with a blue flame. The drink surged in popularity after the 1944 film "Die Feuerzangenbowle," a comedy about a successful writer who, having been tutored privately as a boy, disguises himself as a high-school student to live the school days he missed. In Germany the film is still traditionally screened for university students before Christmas, at rowdy showings in lecture halls where the audience joins in the action with props. Making it calls for caution and is usually entrusted to the one person in the family who "knows how to light the Feuerzangenbowle," a small dose of home theater before dinner. For families celebrating Christmas in the United States, lighting the sugar cone is easy to turn into a fun ritual for adult guests, safe as long as the flame is kept well away from anything flammable and never left unattended, along with the story of the film that made it famous.