What Exactly Is Jägermeister?

Jagermeister is forever associated with college parties thanks to the famous drink that Sports its name the Jager Bomb but the spicy German liquor in the distinct green bottle had a long winding Journey from its creation back in the old country to a fun night out with your buds and not all of it goes down smooth today on weird history food we're on capping the history of Jagermeister [Music] but before we get started be sure to subscribe to the weird history Food Channel and let us know in the comments below what other brewful histories you would like to hear about okay time to call the bomb squad [Music] the year was 1878 the place the extremely German city of wolfenbital back then wolfenbiddle was home to a bustling mining industry the local miners would use a process called fire setting to warm Stone usually rock salt or potash until it cracked then they would use vinegar to cool the stone back down before extracting it naturally these miners had a need for vinegar that outpaced their local small town Supply and it was only a matter of time before someone stepped up to meet their vinegar demand enter Wilhelm Mast Mast had moved from Wilson battle early in the 1870s after some time spent surveying The Local Economic landscape he decided he was just the man the miners needed and he opened up his very own vinegar production plant with a built-in buyer already nearby the business was an instant success as the company grew wilhelm's product line grew with it since the creation process for vinegar and wine are closely linked vinegar literally means sour wine in Middle English Wilhelm soon started fermenting Wines in his production plant as well we assume productivity took a hit as morale went Sky High however as the decades went on business began to drag and by the early 1900s the company had racked up a considerable amount of debt when Wilhelm died in 1918 his son Kurt took over the family business Kurt knew things had to change if he wanted to stay afloat and so he immediately halted all of the plants vinegar production and decided to focus solely on winemaking what's more he began to experiment with creating his own liqueur just to give his company that little extra something to keep customers coming back he spent over a decade experimenting on this liqueur sometimes finding his Creations too sweet sometimes finding them to citrusy after presumably inventing and Reinventing Mountain Dew a few dozen times Kurt Mast ultimately settled on a recipe that used a whopping 56 natural herbs and spices which included at everything from Ginger and cardamom to star anise and licorice root he called his new creation Jagermeister which translated from German means hunt master and his recipe has not changed to this day while his company has since confirmed some of the ingredients the majority of them still remain a secret the drinks label likewise features the saint Hubertus stag Aura sent you purchase if you like a mythical creature adorned with a radiant cross nestled between its antlers and despite the popular myth the recipe does not contain today any amount of deer blood unless you add your own according to Catholic accounts on one fateful Good Friday this stag once materialized before a down and out recently widowed hunter in medieval France converting him to Christianity in an instant and changing the course of his life for this experience the hunter was subsequently canonized by the Catholic church and Saint Hubertus has ever since been known as the patron saint of huntsman and and by extension those camouflaged cans of Busch Light for a drink whose name means hunt Master hubertus's stag is just about as good a mascot as one could come up with so it has been stamped on every bottle of Jagermeister since speaking of the drink's distinct green bottle that was the product of serious scientific research Mast smashed hundreds of bottles onto his Oak floor and picked up the only one that didn't break upon impact hey what did you expect him to do math he filled one of these bottles up slapped a label on it and in 1934 just one year after Hitler came to power Kurt's creation was finally ready for the big leagues that same year Germany's then second most powerful man Hermann Gering had assumed the role of reich's Jagermeister or imperial huntmaster it was apparently a real stag head this made Garing the head of Germany's biggest Hunting Society and anyone who wanted a hunting license had to go through his organization so is Kurt mast's Jagermeister gained popularity it naturally got its very own hair mongering related nickname Gering schnapps which was unflattering to say the least schnapps is the worst thing you can call a drink or not this was intentional on Kurt mast's part remains unclear he distanced himself from the Nazis after the war but then again so did a lot of Nazis [Applause] regardless of mast's original intentions gearing schnapps um Jagermeister soon became commonplace within Germany for its alleged medicinal benefits it was most commonly used as a dejeskief a post-dinner drink meant to aid in digestion but it was also kept on hand for any other medical ailments that may arise got a stomach ache drink some Jagermeister caught a cold drink some Jagermeister hungover drank some Jagermeister it's good for whatever ails you [Music] as the world descended once more into war Connecticut born Sidney Frank was sent over to India by Pratt Whitney Motors to help improve engine performance for Allied aircraft he would later use this engineering skill to become a hooch billionaire after the wars close he married into the illustrious rosenstyle family and got a new job with their company Shenley Industries which had at the time a large distillery in the country Frank's first major job for the company was to head over to England where he was told to fix a dysfunctional Scotch Distillery that Shenley Industries had recently acquired while there he managed to up production from a million gallons of scotch per week to 3.6 million gallons enough to fuel every business lunch in the world the production boost added nearly 10 million dollars in weekly profits securing Frank's job with Shenley Industries and eventually Landing him the Shenley Industries presidency as president his primary achievement was Secure during the importation of Dewar's white label Scotch making it into an American Mainstay but in 1970 Frank was pushed out of Shenley Industries altogether apparently as the result of a family conflict Frank and his wife were left to fend for themselves so just three years later he decided to start his own competing liquor company the Sydney Frank importing company clearly he wanted Shenley Industries to know exactly who was cutting into their customer base around 1974 Sydney was drinking at a New York Bar when he stumbled Upon A Certain obscure German liqueur with a stag on the bottle its taste reminded him of root beer black licorice and Vic formula 44. in other words it tasted like spicy cough syrup and it was a flavor Frank absolutely had to have at the time Jagermeister was already on the Move in Europe just two years earlier it had gotten a sponsorship deal with the German football team and talked Braunschweig since advertising on team shirts was illegal in Germany at the time NASCAR would have had a difficult time in 1970s Germany the company planned to slyly replace the team's previous lion logo with a Jagermeister stag like sliding Garfield into the MGM logo they were caught in the apple and it took a whole year of legal battles for the Stag to finally make it onto team jerseys setting a new template for Jersey advertising for years to come even as it hit football fields across the Atlantic though Jagermeister still had very little presence in the U.S at the time only a mere 600 cases were sold from sea to shining sea each year and so spotting an opportunity in that New York Bar Frank booked a trip to Germany and met with the Jaeger chief executive Valdez andvos at first he only managed to obtain the rights to sell Jagermeister along the east coast from Maryland to Florida otherwise known as the summer vacation route but when other suppliers struggled to do their part he stepped in and slowly took over distribution rights for the entire country in 1985 the Baton Rouge Advocate published an article detailing jagermeister's growing popularity among Louisiana college kids to some it had become a sort of goof beverage that you drink ironically like the malort liqueur of the Bayou state to others the mystery of its 56 natural herbs and spices created an Allure for the unknown was Jagermeister an aphrodisiac did it secretly contain opium can the Stag see me when I think of what Jagermeister taste like to me it tastes like money because I'm making money on it this article reached Sydney Frank's desk and he saw an opportunity so he headed down south to Leverage The drink's existing success there he apparently printed out thousands of photocopies of the Baton Rouge Advocate article and distributed them to bars all over New Orleans he also hired the first ever jagerets a group of young women scantily dressed in Jagermeister attire who would hit the Louisiana College bars to float with the male students there and to persuade them to drink more Jagermeister this is how ninety percent of products are sold today it wasn't long before Jagermeister exploded out of its Louisiana fan base and into college towns all across America by the 1990s Jagermeister was just about everywhere but since the ideal temperature for Jagermeister is negative 18 degrees Celsius it was often hidden out of sight in some far-off freezer to fix this Injustice Jagermeister developed its very own tap machines which allowed Jagermeister a front and center spot along bars across America and helped to grow the brand even bigger than ever before and while Frank moved on to develop Gray Goose vodka his European import continued its meteoric rise into the New Millennium by the mid-2000s the company had over a thousand jigarette San Diego dudes under its employment under these circumstances the arrival of the jaeger bomb was inevitable it's from this period that the first ever Jager Bombs appeared but it remains unclear who or Dare we say what first created them [Applause] while Jagermeister has never officially endorsed or embraced the jaeger bomb its rise and fall in popularity has had a huge impact on the company's overall success but as other drinks like Fireball and flavored vodkas have risen up in recent years to take over a large chunk of jagermeister's college party market share the company has had to Pivot just like when you need to switch to water after too many jager bombs in 2015 Jagermeister bought up the Sydney Frank importing company allowing it to take full control over its own U.S distribution they've since used that acquisition as a springboard for their pivot turning away from their youthful party past in an attempt to reach an older more upscale audience it was around this time that the Milwaukee Bucks introduced their newest logo which bore some resemblance to jagermeister's presumably hammered stag Jagermeister immediately filed a formal notice of opposition to the new bucks logo but apparently the two just had to get to know each each other just Days Later a spokesman for Jagermeister said they were now working with the team and shortly thereafter launched the be the Meister Campaign which brought the new super premium Jagermeister manifest onto the market manifest contains more ingredients than traditional Jagermeister and is slightly more potent for refined drinkers who like to get tipsy while listening to Opera they've also since developed Jagermeister cold brew coffee which boasts the caffeine of a Jager Bomb but in a classier all-in-one bottle and a Jagermeister Scharf which is just like the regular Jagermeister but with a spicy hot Ginger taste regardless of which Jagermeister product you choose to this day each bottle's label Sports the same words that Jagermeister sported for just shy of a century an excerpt from a poem by German ornithologist Ed Ryder Oscar Von riesenthal it is the Hunter's honor that he protects and preserves his game hunt sportsmanlike honors the Creator in his creatures [Music] below and while you're at it check out some of these other videos from our weird history food [Music]

Channel: Weird History Food

Views: 2,403,356

Keywords: The History of Jägermeister, the origins of Jagermeister, everything you need to know about Jagermeister, who invented jagermeister?, why is jagermeister so popular?, weird history food, weird history food drinks, jagermeister drink, facts about jagermeister, what kind alcohol is jagermeister?, why do college students drink jagermeister, alcohol history, beverage history, baronjager, cocktail history, college drinks, jagermeister inventor, munchies, war academy, the real barman

Id: 7QSb4rs_s1s

Length: 13min 7sec (787 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 20 2023