Jägermeister on German language means “Hunting-Master”.
Jäger is a German 70-proof (35% abv) digestif made of 56 different herbs and spices. It is the leading product of Mast-Jägermeister SE, headquartered in Wolfenbüttel,south of Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, Germany.
Curt Mast, man who was original distiller of Jägermeister, was an enthusiastic hunter.
Translated literally, Jägermeister means “hunting-master”. Thus, when Jägermeister was first introduced in 1935, the name of Jägermeister was already familiar to Germans — it was sometimes called “Göring-Schnaps.”
Jägermeister was originally developed as a digestif and a cough remedy.
Jagermeister is a kind of liqueur which is also called Kräuterlikör (herbal liqueur).
It is quite similar to other European liqueurs, such as Gammel Dansk from Denmark, Unicum from Hungary, Becherovka from the Czech Republic, Demänovka from Slovakia and Pelinkovac from Croatia.
Main difference between Jagermeister and those beverages, Jagermeister has a sweeter taste.
Jagermeister include 56 different herbs, fruits, roots and spices including citrus peel, licorice, anise, poppy seeds, saffron, ginger, juniper berries and ginseng. These ingredients are ground, then steeped in water and alcohol for 2–3 days.
This mixture is filtered and stored in oak barrels for about a year. When a year has passed, the liqueur is filtered again, then mixed with sugar, caramel, alcohol and water.
It is filtered one last time and then bottled.The producer recommends that this herb liqueur be kept on ice and served cold and suggests that it be kept in a freezer at -18°C (0°F) or on tap between -15 °C (5 °F) and -11 °C (12 °F).
Contrary to an urban legend, Jägermeister does not contain deer or elk blood.
Jägermeister – Tasting notes
Like all the liquors that we reviewed this was tasted at room temperature for maximum taste and detection of any faults if any in a product.
If you chill benzene cold enough you could drink that too which is not recommended, which is the main reason why we tried them at room temperature.
The case of Jägermeister bears this out – drinking it at room temperature is not pleasant.
Jägermeister was quite unknown liqueur during the late 70’s when it was starting to get popularized- rumors of drugs and strange effects from drinking it were circulated and the inovative marketing tactics brought it to the forefront at least among college students population and the younger people.
It was in a way treated the same way as mezcal, something with a folklore for getting you drunk in strange ways fast.
Look of this herb liqueur: It is dark brown/gold, caramel color to it, kind of looks like of a whiskey but darker.On swirling leaves a even coat on the glass with a very slow development of legs.
First Impression: Heavy scents of menthol, cloves,cinnamon and ginger.Taste is mixture of menthol, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, cardamom, gentian. A long mentholated aftertaste with mild alcohol presence.
Serving: The most often method of drinking Jager is as a chilled shot from a proprietary shot chilling machine, where it is slammed in group efforts to achieve, well something. Dark green rectangular flask style bottle of pressed glass, with slightly curved sides which make gripping the bottle much easier.
Best consumed as cold as possible.
Final verdict:
While not as filthy tasting as some things I have had, it lacks much in the overall charm department or have anything nice to say about it.
Amaros such as Fernet Branca have their charms and uses- this doesn’t have one unless the idea of drinking a highly mentholated sweet liqueur to get utterly wrecked with some friends appeals to you.
While I certainly don’t advocate that- it seems to be what people do with this stuff.