Chances are, depending on your age, and current experience with quality cocktails, that one word either causes you to roll your eyes in disgust, or gleefully smile in anticipation of your next party shot.
Most bartenders/mixologists who consider themselves to be dedicated to quality cocktails will relegate Jägermeister into the same dark and dusty cabinet where they keep their blenders, hoping that neither see the light of day anytime soon.
What is it about this German liquor which can alienate people so much against its use? Frankly, I feel it is the way it is marketed. Jägermeister was first introduced to the German market in 1935, where it was marketed in much the same way that “medicinal bitters” were marketed in the US during the 1800’s. Jägermeister was a health tonic, digestive, restorative. It was something you took to cure what ails you, and often with slightly nebulous claims. It wasn’t until around 1970 that they started actively distributing the product to the world at large, at which time they decided to change their tactics a little bit, and go more mainstream. This was done by going after the younger drinking audience, and associating it with partying and heavy metal rock concerts. And then of course there were also the Jägerettes, the scantily clad “shot girls” who would tour the country promoting the product at various venues.
Like most “self respecting mixologists”, I viewed Jägermeister with the same disdain I viewed such things as the “brain hemorrhage” shot, simply a silly “how to get drunk without really trying” toy of the college crowd. Make a cocktail with Jägermeister? Never. They were all silly concoctions which tasted nasty.
It wasn’t until a good friend pointed out to me that I needed to see Jägermeister in a slightly different light that I learned a certain level of respect for it. She correctly pointed out, that I needed to realize that Jagemeister was similar to bitters, and in that role could perhaps discover an appropriate place in a mixologists liquor cabinet.
With this new mindset in place, I took it upon myself to see what I could come up with that used Jägermeister as an ingredient, and resulted in an interesting, if not tasty, cocktail. I wanted the resultant drink to be in the style of a classic cocktail, and also to be one in which Jägermeister played a noticeable role, thus I couldn’t just add a drop or two to the drink and call it good. I played around with a variety of combinations, and finally fell upon one which I felt maintained flavors which played well with each other. Jägermeister, Benedictine, and dry vermouth. There was however some small little edge missing out of the drink, it wasn’t the depth and complexity that might be solved with the addition of a normal cocktail bitters, it was just a “note” that was out of place or missing. I had been playing around with tinctures (a single herb, or spice soaked in alcohol to extract its essential flavor), and tried a couple of them to see if they could provide a solution. It turned out that with just a slight addition of cinnamon the flavor profile was made complete.
For some time I was at a loss as to what to name the drink, until I was having one at a dinner party and noticed that the color in the glass was similar to the Mahogany table we were sitting at.
Mahogany
- 1 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
- 3/4 oz. Jägermeister
- 3/4 oz Benedictine
Stir with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass which has been misted with cinnamon tincture.
Cinnamon Tincture: I made mine by simply buying a jar of cinnamon sticks, opening it up, and then filling it up with vodka and letting it sit for a couple weeks. Putting the tincture in an atomizer makes it easy to coat the glass with a couple of quick sprays.
Now I’m not saying that suddenly Jägermeister is a prime ingredient that all bartenders should be suddenly be enamored with, only that by seeing it in a slightly different light, it’s possible to see its value as a product, despite the poor reputation that has been bestowed upon it by the marketing department.
