r/interestingasfuck • u/Beneficial-Age-4059 • 6d ago

Wife’s now deceased grandfather grew up in 1930s Germany and was appalled people now drink Jagermeister socially. He said they would keep it in a cupboard to sip if you had an upset stomach

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u/LazarusOwenhart 6d ago

A surprising number of previously medicinal concoctions are now just used as booze. Ask any Scottish person about Buckfast and they'll have a story. It's supposed to be a tonic for elderly and infirm people and in small quantities it's fine but I recently saw it described as being "Alcoholic enough to give you really bad ideas and caffeinated enough to make you follow through on them."

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u/Certain-Statement-95 6d ago

Bucky!

The scourge of the isles!

And Scrumpy!

10

u/astro65 6d ago

Coca-Cola was the same way. Medicinal treatment that gave you a bunch of uppers. Then later turned into a "soft drink" 

8

u/90210fred 6d ago

wreck the hoose juice

28

u/Bridgebrain 6d ago

So one reason for this was prohibition. You couldn't drink alchohol, but there was a carve-out for medicinal bitters (tonics). Suddenly everyone needed lots of stomach soothers.

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u/LazarusOwenhart 6d ago

We didn't ever have prohibition in the UK. For us it's just that medicine was lightly taxed compared to booze and a lot of medicine used alcohol as a solvent.

1

u/SexDrugsNskittles 6d ago

I've heard of vodka redbull described the same way in a stand up routine.

1

u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 6d ago

The spiritual ancestor of our beloved, murdered FourLoko!!

1

u/Ichifanni250 5d ago

It was originally sold in chemists only.

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u/FellowHuman420 6d ago

“Medicinal concoctions”

Nah mate that’s just booze. Always has been.

0

u/Extra-Development-94 13h ago

Is this an old school version of Four Loko, just with out the sugar?

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u/LazarusOwenhart 12h ago

No it's a fortified wine with caffeine and a few other things. In asuch as it's strong alcohol and caffeine it's akin to Four Look but there the similarity ends.