Dry and off-dry
German: Trocken und halbtrocken (Geschmacksrichtung) Also known as: Trocken, Halbtrocken, Lieblich
Designations of the perceived sweetness of a drink; dry means barely sweet, off-dry slightly sweet and sweet clearly sweet.
Dry, off-dry, medium-sweet and sweet are taste designations found mainly on labels of wine, sparkling wine and cider. They describe how sweet a drink seems and are based on residual sugar, partly in combination with acidity.
Dry means that a drink shows hardly any sweetness, so it does not seem sticky or fruit-sweet. For sparkling wine there are different terms such as brut or extra dry. In everyday language dry also simply means not sweet, not bland. Legal limits are set for each type of drink; the applicable regulations are decisive.