Behold, the Master of the Woods ... From Garden to the Punch Bowl

One of the highlights of my years living in Germany as a young adult was the discovery of a little plant called Sweet Woodruff  (Galium odoratum). Waldmeister, the Germans call it,  or ‘master of the woods’. Woodruff's claim to fame—besides being this lovely and tenacious groundcover and for its presence in a potent liqueur called Waldmeister? It’s the main ingredient used for turning simple white house wine into this unusual beverage called Maibowle or 'May Punch' (May Wine). 

When I went in search of recipes online to jog my memory about how to make Maibowle, most instructions just called for steeping strawberries overnight in sugar, a dash of cinnamon and a bottle of dry white wine. Next day, one recipe said,  add a whopping 3 bottles of champagne ... apparently necessary because people will drink the stuff like mad.

Actually, where I lived along the Rhine, forget the cinnamon and berries. Instead, hosts briefly steeped sweet woodruff in white wine, discarded the woodruff itself, then added a bottle of champagne to finish the punch. The woodruff was harvested when young, before it bloomed. The punch was served chilled and honey or sugar-infused strawberries were sometimes used as sweeteners. 

Germans have known about this little plant for centuries (its nickname, Maikraeuter,  means the 'Mai herb'). I dusted off my rusty language skills and found that the main ingredient in the plant is Coumarin which gives the herb its distinctive aroma similar to new mown hay.  Coumarin also is present in cassia bark cinnamon. While banned as a food additive in the U.S., woodruff is permitted as a flavoring in May Wine. Highly concentrated the stuff can be a toxin.  People with perfume allergies should avoid it. One chef online warns NOT to use too much woodruff per liter (or steep it in the wine too long, no more than a half hour) or you’ll wind up with a headache.  Contrast that with the website The Herb Gardener that says to steep the woodruff in Rhine wine for several months. 

Whatever the recipe, German May Wine is an interesting and unusual homage to spring.   Just thinking about it, every time I pass that lovely plant with its delicate white flowers in my garden, I have to smile.