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The German liqueur Jägermeister has become a truly cult drink and the merit of this is not only a well-thought-out marketing campaign. He deserved his popularity due to the unique, balanced, mild taste, which is not inherent in every bitter.
A century ago, this liquor was used not for the sake of “raising the mood”, but as a medicine that has a beneficial effect on the digestive system. In fact, this is a common digestif that improves digestion, like most other sweet drinks. In this article, you will learn how to drink Jägermeister correctly, partly paying tribute to tradition, but to a large extent simply enjoying the truly amazing taste of a foreign potion.
For those who are not in the know. Jägermeister is a popular German liqueur produced since 1935. The strength of the drink is 35%. Literally, Jägermeister is translated as “senior huntsman”, that is, a master of hunters, which has some grounds, which we will discuss below. For some reason, in the CIS countries, the liqueur is more often called “Huntsman-master”, which is fundamentally wrong, however, “Jägermeister” is also far from the truth – in Germany the name is pronounced as “Jägermeister”.
The composition of Jägermeister and its production
The history of the drink begins back in 1878, when Wilhelm Mast opened his winery in the city of Wolfenbuttel (Lower Saxony). The company grew rapidly, but it was not Wilhelm who made the real breakthrough, but his son, Kurt. It was he, a professional taster with a delicate taste, who began experimenting with herbal extracts. In 1934, Kurt Mast created a unique and inimitable recipe for herbal liqueur, which he dedicated to hunters, naming it in honor of Saint Hubert (according to legend, it was he who saw a deer with a cross in its horns in the forest, after which Hubert took the veil as a monk and founded a number of Catholic monasteries) , patron of the latter. Today, by the way, almost every hunt in Europe ends with a bottle of Jägermeister.
The liqueur is produced by maceration from 56 components. The exact composition, as is often the case, is classified and known only to selected technologists of Mast-Jägermeister AG. It is known to contain various plants, roots and peels, including liquorice. During maceration, the crushed components are poured several times with a water-alcohol mixture, which draws out the essential oils. Maceration lasts for several weeks, after which the resulting mixture is placed in oak barrels and aged for about six months. After the aged drink is diluted with water, caramel, sugar syrup are added to it and again sent for six months of aging.
In production Jagermeister everything is brought to the ideal. The drink is aged in 445 skillfully made barrels, which are located in the city of Krauterkellerei. Each of them is made from unique species of oak that grows in the forests of the Pfalzerwald. But German perfectionism does not end there. The bottles into which the finished liquor is poured have a unique shape, which was invented by Kurt Mast himself. If you drop it from a great height onto an oak floor, the chance of breaking a bottle is 1 in 10 – hunting, excitement … you understand.
The popularization of Jägermeister started back in the 1970s. Famous rock and metal bands such as Nightwish, HIM, Slayer, Stamina and even the legendary Metallica brought the drink immense popularity. Inkubus Sukkubus even wrote a song about Jägermeister, calling it “the sweetest blood from deer antlers”, subsequently, it became the basis for many madmen to claim that deer blood is present in the liquor – of course, this is nonsense, and maybe the thinnest publicity stunt. Today, Jaeger manufacturers sponsor rock concerts, as well as auto racing, including Formula 1.
How to drink Jägermeister
Like most beaters, including the no less legendary Becherovka, Jägermeister is drunk, first of all, in its pure form. The Germans prefer to do this in the form of an ice shot (ice-shot). To do this, a bottle with a drink is sent to the freezer, where it must be cooled to -18 degrees, and then poured into a shot glass, which, of course, also needs to be taken out of the freezer. Low temperature makes the liquor viscous and thick, revealing some flavor nuances that cannot be fully felt at room temperature. You need to drink a digestif in one gulp after a hearty meal.
However, it is not necessary to cool the drink to extreme temperatures. You can just add a couple of ice cubes to it and savor it in a cozy atmosphere. – we recommend this method! Connoisseurs prefer to drink Jägermeister at room temperature – this is how it fully reveals its taste, which is quite logical (read the article on drinking whiskey, where everything is written about the temperature in detail). It is not recommended to mix bitters with beer – an unpredictable effect. Also for the evening it is not recommended to drink more than 300 g of the drink, since the herbal collection can cause an upset stomach, as well as a terrible hangover due to the large amount of impurities in alcohol, which will certainly complicate the work of the liver.
Cocktails with Jagermeister
Be that as it may, the Jägermeister fits perfectly into the bar industry and has become an excellent ingredient for many interesting cocktails. In most cases, these are shots, but there are also more “voluminous” mixed drinks that, in combination with German liqueur, can please even the most picky mixologist. Actually, we give you several recipes for cocktails with Jägermeister. For the minimalists, try diluting the tincture with a good dose of Red Bull.
Mad Dog / Mad Dog
- 25 ml Jägermeister’а
- 25 ml Baileys
Preparation:
Mix the liqueurs in a shaker with ice and pour into a shot glass. Drink in one gulp, you can savor from a cocktail glass.
Lost / Gone
- 20 ml Jägermeister’а
- 20 ml absinthe
- 20 ml sambuca
- 20 ml Kahlua
- 20 ml Cointreau
- 20 ml Baileys
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Pour through a strainer into a rocks glass filled with ice.
Egermonstr
- 30 ml Jägermeister’а
- 30 ml Grenadine
- 130-150 ml orange juice
Preparation:
Fill a highball glass or any tall glass with ice. Pour liquor into it, juice to the top and tint with pomegranate syrup.
Black blood
- 20 ml Jägermeister’а
- 50 ml Blue Curacao liqueur
- 25 ml lemonade and sprite
Preparation:
Shake the liqueurs with ice in a shaker and pour through a strainer into a cocktail glass with ice. Add soda.
Mirage / Mirage
- 10 ml Jägermeister’а
- 15 ml of menthol liqueur
- 15 ml Baileys
- 15 ml Cointreau
Preparation:
Using a bar spoon in a shot glass, lay the components in layers in the following sequence: menthol liqueur, Baileys, Cointreau, Jägermeister.
After analyzing the above recipes, we recommend that you use Jägermeister cocktails only if you do not need “tomorrow”. So, now you know how to drink Jägermeister correctly and you can show off your knowledge to friends and acquaintances. We will not cook liquor at home, since the composition is very complex and it is unlikely that it will be possible to recreate the original taste. Better go back to your homemade Becherovka and experiment with her recipe again!