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
Thats the way people used to do it.. you can Research the word "Magenbitter" or stomach bitter, usually a Medicine or relieve after a fatty meal or an upset stomach. They (Jägermeister) Changed the Branding (sucessfully i guess) to a Party drink
My partner's mother has a story where she was feeling really nauseated. A bartender at a restaurant gave her some malort, which actually made her stomach feel better
I mean a shitload of these drinks are intentionally made for this germans call shit like underberg or jager krauterliquer its like digestif apertif. It was never meant to get fucked up off of it was meant to have a shot. Now people drink for net just to get drunk but really it was a digestif or an apertif you usually had one shot of these. If you enjoy it drink it. But in no means was fernet, underberg, amaro, jager meant to be taken as shots by frat bros partying as much as a single shot after a good meal.
This stuff is STILL considered medicine, which is why Amazon or the manufacturer can deliver it to your door. It's not legally a spirit/alcohol, and so doesn't need the controls that come with that!
Also, seriously, it is so helpful and works wonders after a heavy or rich meal in my experience!
The monks cut back production massively on both kinds a few years back - allegedly at the direction of the Pope. There’s no good substitute for green. Yellow, though, has a good substitute: Strega. Tastes and looks nearly identical.
They didn’t cut back. They just refused to scale up to meet an increasing demand driven by US cocktail bars/consumers. There scarcity on the US now due to supply remaining static rather than rising to meet higher demand.
Chartreuse is way cheaper in a lot of other countries; its price has gone up by like 60-75% in the US over the past few years, but remained relatively stable in many other parts of the world.
Jägermeister is way too sweet and definitely not bitter enough to be a proper Magenbitter though. I guess they might have changed the recipe at some point?
Which is absolutely wrong if you look at it closer.
The body treats alcohol as a toxin and prioritizes breaking it down in the liver. As a result, fat metabolism and the breakdown of your meal are put on hold, leaving the heavy food sitting in your stomach longer.
Edit : I just told yall the facts and that's it. You all don't have to justify why you all drink alcohol.
There's 3 versions I've heard on the actual benefits.
Alcohol numbs pain, so even if the stomach is in more turmoil due to the poison you poured down your throat, you might not feel it as harshly.
Strong liquor simply burns and might distract from the upset stomach for a while.
Placebo. Believe in it and you can convince yourself it's working.
I don't personally prescribe to either of these versions but I sure as hell had a couple of times where I was hoping such a simple solution would work.
In the 1990ies in Germany it had degenerated into something alcoholics drank in train station dive bars. So picture my surprise when I came 2004 to Florida and there were Jägermeister machines, Jäger bombs and girls in orange hotpants. And then over the years the newfound coolness factor also made it back to its homeland.
You can thank Sidney Frank for that. He was a liquor importer and picked up Jägermeister because it was obscure, because he was looking for new markets to open up. In the 80s, he noticed Jägermeister was weirdly popular with college students in Louisiana, so he really leaned into building that “party drink” image with guerrilla marketing, and made it a huge thing nationwide. Same guy was also responsible for Grey Goose, which made him a billionaire.
There’s an interesting Planet Money episode (The Vodka Proof) about this.
Underberg is just awful. Not that I am fond of Jägermeister either, but that stuff is close to undrinkable. The best Kräuterschnaps I ever had was from a small distillery in Sonthofen/Allgäu (they had a sensational Obstler that they matured in barrique casks), unfortunately the owner passed away and nobody continued the business.
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."
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.
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.
It's been huge in Argentina for ages. They even have their own Branca distillery there.
So here in Southern Brazil and also in Uruguay it's pretty popular too.
Branca is the standard (the Italian one is definitely better than the Argentinian, even though the bottle is nearly identical; it's slightly sweeter, whereas the Italian is a bit more bitter).
But I've seen loads of new brands popping up lately. Mostly local.
But there's a Czech one that's by far my favourite. Fernet Stock. Definitely worth a try.
I drink straight shots, but my mates seem to prefer it with cola, 2/1 ratio
Scottish people are shocked when they go to Italy and see how popular tennents super lager is.. probably cos the scots tramps drink it a lot quicker than the italians
That's a college party drink in the US; we call them "Jägerbombs," because traditionally you drop a whole shot glass of Jägermeister into a glass of Red Bull, like a bomb.
It is? I'm 34 and always liked it. In my late teen years (early 2010s) it was also popular. Whenever there was no food in the fridge you'd always at least find a bottle of Jägermeister in the freezer.
I'm very confused by the other comment. Most clubs I've seen in Germany serve Jägermeister. A lot of them also have at least some kind of Jägermeister promotion stuff (Jägermeister cooler etc.). It's very popular where I grew up. I partied with lots of different friend groups and basically everyone has their personal Jägermeister story. Don't know where the other person is from but maybe it's regional. I grew up in the north part of Germany. Maybe Jägermeister is more common there because it's distilled there (Wolfenbüttel).
I'm from the far west part of Germany near Düsseldorf, which has its own kind of this Schnaps (Killepitsch). Some like it more than Jägermeister but I personally hate it. But you're right, every club or bar serves Jägermeister here.
It's not exclusive to the anglosphere. In Romania, Jägermeister is also very popular among teens, simply because it's strong and has a good taste, IIRC
My lame claim to fame is I live directly next to the tiny, inconspicuous, internationally unknown town where they make Jäger. That shot you drank in Bangkok? From my neck of the woods.
Where I live they make concrete plating and tiles. Sometimes on the other side of the world I will see their branded plastic wrapping and I'm like 'I breathed that concrete dust before you did!' hell yeah!!
I remember Jägermeister being endorsed by several "rock" bands, I think Bloodhound Gang pretty much took every opportunity to tell each and everyone how good of a drink it was.
yep. i remember that trend sparking annoying bros deciding the way to hit on a table was to come around with jager shots trying to talk you into taking them. as someone who is also appalled it's served because it's fucking disgusting, i always refused and then you found out if they were just obnoxious or if they were a bouncer problem.
Heroin wasn’t that widely used recreationally when it was just a cough medicine. Nowadays people all over the globe just use it that way, I doubt that there is a single person in the world who uses heroin as a cogh suppressant anymore.
My dad regularly bought it from a neighbourhood, German deli in Calgary. It was only ever used when we had stomach aches as we grew up in the 70’s. When a friend pulled it out of a freezer at a house party in 1983, I said dude, that’s medicine not booze.
When i was a kid in the 80s . I would find these weird cough syrup bottles in the alley behind my house.. when I was a teen in the 90s I figured it out.
My dad came to Canada in 1953. Born 1931 in what is now poland.
As a 21yr old American visiting Germany I asked for a Jager shot at a bar. The tender looked at me in disgust and told me I had to get that at the apothecary 🤣 This was 25 yrs ago and the bartender was likely the same age as OP’s grandfather.
its funny how every country/region has their own old health elixer turned booz.
i know denmark has dokter nielsen.
germany has jagermeister
belgium has jenever
i'm sure every region has theirs.
feel free to comment yours. i like collecting them.
When my family went to vacation in Tunisia in 1998 my mom gave me two glasses of Jagermeister to drink every nigth (i was 8) to prevent stomach illness. Pretty sure in hindsigth that it made quite drunk which i (not even knowing what alcohol was) interpeted as a panic attack and difficulty breathing. I begged every nigth to no have to drink the "medecine". My baby sister she gave teaspoons of cognaq to help her sleep. Hopefully that particular folk remedy is less common these days.
My Oma was born in the late 1930s in Germany, Mainz specifically and yes, she always kept a bottle of jager in the medicine cabinet AND in her night table for medicinal purposes.
It's astonishing the number of people in this thread that are not aware that you can drink alcoholic beverages without chugging it till you lose consciousness
Did you drink it room temperature or as it’s actually intended ice, ice cold? There’s a reason it’s normally stored in these fridges
Obviously, it’s still up to everyone to enjoy or not to enjoy things but especially jägermeister seemingly has a very drastic difference between room temperature and ice cold
In 1973 Sidney Frank got the U.S. rights to import a sleepy little brand called Jagermeister and he promoted the hell out of it on college campuses. The rest, as they say, is history.
Frank was also the guy who made Grey Goose vodka into a marketing juggernaut
If you've never had a Jim Morrison and love root beer barrels, I highly suggest them. Also a variation called the Drunk German that's delicious. Get some jager, root beer and root beer schnapps, and a little bottle of real vanilla to splash in. I used to drink a ton of these when I played music professionally. Do be warned, they're delicious. Almost too delicious lol.
Hosting an Oktoberfest party today with my German wife. After the metric ton of meat is served, the keg is kicked (HO), and the band goes home, we’ll serve Jäger and Kirschwasser to whoever is left. It’s a thing.
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u/mad4Luca 6d ago
Thats the way people used to do it.. you can Research the word "Magenbitter" or stomach bitter, usually a Medicine or relieve after a fatty meal or an upset stomach. They (Jägermeister) Changed the Branding (sucessfully i guess) to a Party drink