Pharisäer

A Pharisäer (Pharisee) is North Frisia’s famous coffee: strong hot coffee, sweetened with sugar, with a generous shot of rum, all hidden under a thick layer of whipped cream. Nescafé describes it as a long coffee with a shot of rum, topped with cream and dusted with cocoa. Its name comes with one of the best stories in coffee: a teetotal pastor, a christening, and a cup handed to the wrong person. Here’s the recipe, and the legend.

The short version

• Coffee, sugar and rum, under a thick cap of whipped cream.
• Serve it at once, while the cream is still thick and fluffy.
• From Nordstrand, an island off North Frisia in northern Germany.
• The legend dates it to 1872, at a christening.
• Named after a pastor’s cry: “Oh, you Pharisees!”

What’s in a Pharisäer?

Foodal’s recipe, per mug:

Ingredient	Amount
Strong hot coffee	1 cup (about 240 ml)
Dark rum, warmed	⅛ cup (about 30 ml)
Sugar cubes	2
Whipped cream, unsweetened	A thick layer, whipped to soft peaks

Nescafé adds a dusting of cocoa on top. The Pharisäerhof on Nordstrand says it still makes the drink to the “old original recipe”, without giving it away.

How do you make one?

1. Whip the cream to soft, fluffy peaks and keep it cold.
2. Warm the rum gently until it just starts to simmer, Foodal suggests.
3. Put two sugar cubes in a mug, pour in the hot coffee and rum, and stir to dissolve the sugar.
4. Top with the cream and serve straight away, Foodal says, while the cream is still thick and fluffy.

Where does the Pharisäer come from?

Nordstrand, according to the legend told by the Pharisäerhof, the farmhouse where it is set. In 1872, the house’s owner, farmer Peter Georg Johannsen, held a christening. Among the guests was the pastor, who had strictly forbidden his flock to drink alcohol. So the guests put rum in their coffee and hid it under whipped cream, Foodal says, so the smell wouldn’t give them away, while the pastor got plain coffee with cream. Then, by mistake, he was handed a cup of rum coffee. First horrified, then ready to forgive, he raised his finger and cried: “Oh, ihr Pharisäer!” (“Oh, you Pharisees!”), after the Biblical sect accused of hypocrisy.

The sources tell it with small differences:

Detail	Pharisäerhof	Foodal	Nescafé
The pastor	Pastor Bleyer	Gustav Beyer, a very strict clergyman	Gustav Beyer, a strict Protestant
Where	A christening in the house, on Nordstrand, 1872	A local congregation	Northern Frisia
The host	Farmer Peter Georg Johannsen	Not named	Not named

It’s a good story, but it can’t be checked, so treat it as legend. The Pharisäerhof, which took its name from the drink, now calls the Pharisäer Nordstrand’s “national drink”.

Contains alcohol: for adults only. Take care heating rum near an open flame.

Pharisäer vs other coffee cocktails

• Irish coffee: coffee, Irish whiskey and sugar under floating cream.
• Rüdesheimer Kaffee: coffee with flambéed Asbach brandy, from the Rhine.
• Einspänner: Vienna’s black coffee under whipped cream, without alcohol.
• Carajillo: espresso with brandy, rum or Licor 43.

Explore every drink in the coffee cocktails chapter.