Product: Jagermeister Producer: Mast-Jagermeister AG Approximate Retail Value: $23/750 ml bottle Category: Liqueur Country of Origin: Germany Reviewer: Jacob Mathis The F Words: Flavor – Wicked licorice. Feel – Smooth when cold. Oily. Finish – Warm in the stomach; licorice taste clings to the mouth.

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It might clock in at 35 percent alcohol, but Jagermeister is 100 percent evil. The bottle looks like the kind of medicine bottles that traveling shiesters used to sell their tonics and potions out of the back of their wagons. While Jager won’t regrow hair or alleviate leprosy, it’ll have no problem curing your sobriety.

The distinctive green bottle has a picture of the head of a stag with a crucifix above it between the antlers. I thought it meant that before drinking Jager you should pray to deer-head Jesus for strength. According to Jagermeister, though, the label comes from old St. Hubert, a very powerful duke who saw a vision of a cross between the antlers of a stag on a hunting excursion. He then renounced his dukedom and became a bishop. Because of his encounter with the stag upon his sainthood, he became the patron saint of hunters. His relationship to Jager comes from Curt Mast, the creator of Jager’s recipe. Jagermeister literally translated means “hunting master” and Mast was himself a passionate hunter.

Jager has a reddish-brown hue and has a muted licorice taste that remains sweet and warms the stomach. It’s made with many other ingredients, which is why it doesn’t have the overwhelming licorice flavor of something like sambuca. Intended as a digestive spirit to help settle the stomach after a meal, it is now commonly served as shots which help to upset the stomach.

It seems like there are two kinds of people who live on this planet: People who love Jager and people who fear Jager. Maybe it’s the name. A long gothic-looking German name with the head of a deer and a cross certainly doesn’t do much to put someone at ease. It also sports a fairly hefty 70 proof, which seems to bring a drunk on faster than you think it should. Essentially, if you think getting wasted quickly and stumbling around till 5 in the morning then waking up not completely sure where you are is a good time then you’ll like Jagermeister. If you don’t, you won’t. Also as a word of caution, Jager is intended to be served very cold. This is not just a suggestion. It is much smoother and easier to drink then when it’s warm. For those of you out there who just buy the bottle and drink it at room temperature, I’ll be praying to deer-head Jesus for you.