Schnapps are German drinks, distilled from fruit, and traditionally bottled with no added sugar. In this sense, American style “Schnapps” and other sweet drinks such as Archers actually fall into the liqueurs category, with Schnapps being more a variant of fruit... brandy. Most German Schnapps are distilled from pears, plums, cherries, apples or apricots, although more or less any fruit can be used. The term Schnapps is derived from the German “Schnaps”, itself from the Low German “snappen”, meaning to swallow – a reference to the fact that Schnapps are traditionally consumed as shots.