What Exactly Is Jägermeister?

Jägermeister is forever associated with college parties

thanks to the famous drink that sports its name, the Jägerbaum. 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 uncapping the history of Jägermeister. Okay, time to call the bomb squad

The year was 1878. The place? The extremely German city of Wolfenbüttel

Back then, Wolfenbüttel 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 Wolfenbüttel 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 plant's 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 too 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 everything from ginger and cardamom to star anise and licorice root

He called his new creation Jägermeister, which translated from German means Huntmaster

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 St. Hubertus stag

or a St. Hubertus, 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

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 huntsmen

and by extension, those camouflaged cans of bush light. For a drink whose name means Hunt Master

Hubertus' stag is just about as good a mascot as one could come up with

So it has been stamped on every bottle of Jägermeister 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 Göring, had assumed

the role of Reichsjägermeister, or Imperial Huntmaster. He was apparently a real staghead

This made Gehring the head of Germany's biggest hunting society, and anyone who wanted a hunting license had to go through his organization

So as Kurt Mast's Jägermeister gained popularity, it naturally got its very own Hermann Gehring-related nickname

Gehringschnapps, which was unflattering to say the least. Schnapps is the worst thing you can call a drink

Schnapps, schnapps, schnapps, schnapps. Whether 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

Regardless of Mast's original intentions, Goering schnapps, a Jägermeister, soon became commonplace within Germany for its alleged medicinal benefits

It was most commonly used as a Dugestgief, 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 stomachache? Drink some Jägermeister. Caught a cold? Drink some Jägermeister

Hungover? Drink some Jägermeister. It's good for whatever ails you. 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 closed, he married into the illustrious Rosenstahl 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 million gallons enough to fuel every business lunch in the world The production boost added nearly million in weekly profits

securing Frank's job with Shenley Industries and eventually landing him the Shenley Industries presidency

As president, his primary achievement was securing 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 Sidney Frank Importing Company. Clearly, he wanted Shenley Industries to know exactly who was cutting into their customer base

Around 1974, Sidney 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 Vick's Formula 44. In other words, it tasted like spicy cough syrup

and it was a flavor Frank absolutely had to have. At the time, Jägermeister was already on the move in Europe

Just two years earlier, it had gotten a sponsorship deal with the German football team Eintracht Braunschweig

Since advertising on Team Schürz was illegal in Germany at the time, NASCAR would have had a difficult time in 1970s Germany, the company planned to

slightly replace the team's previous Lion logo with a Jägermeister stag, like sliding Garfield

into the MGM logo. They were caught in the act, though, 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, Jägermeister still

had very little presence in the US. 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 Jäger chief executive, Walter Zandvoss

At first, he only managed to obtain the rights to sell Jägermeister 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 Jägermeister'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 Jägermeister an aphrodisiac? Did it secretly contain opium? Can the stag see me

When I think of what Jägermeister tastes like, to me it tastes like money because I'm making money on it

This article reached Sidney 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 Jagerettes a group of young women scantily dressed in J attire who would hit the Louise He also hired the first Jagerettes a group of young women scantily dressed in Jaegermeister attire who would hit the Louisiana college bars to flirt with the male students there

and to persuade them to drink more Jaegermeister. This is how 90% of products are sold today

It wasn't long before Jaegermeister exploded out of its Louisiana fan base and into college towns all across America

By the 1990s, Jaegermeister was just about everywhere. But since the ideal temperature for Jägermeister is negative 18 degrees Celsius

it was often hidden out of sight in some far-off freezer. To fix this injustice, Jägermeister developed its very own tap machines

which allowed Jägermeister 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 Grey Goose Vodka

his European import continued its meteoric rise into the new millennium. By the mid-2000s, the company had over 1,000 Jaegerettes and Jaeger dudes under its employment

Under these circumstances, the arrival of the Jaeger bomb was inevitable. It's from this period that the first ever Jaeger bombs appeared

but it remains unclear who, or dare we say what, first created them

While Jaegermeister 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 Jägermeister's college party market share, the company has had to pivot

just like when you need to switch to water after too many Jäger bombs. In 2015, Jägermeister bought up the Sidney 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 Jägermeister's presumably hammered stag

Jägermeister immediately filed a formal notice of opposition to the new Bucks logo

but apparently the two just had to get to know each other. Just days later, a spokesman for Jägermeister said they were now working with the team

and shortly thereafter launched the Be the Meister campaign, which brought the new super-premium Jägermeister Manifest onto the market

Manifest contains more ingredients than traditional Jägermeister, and is slightly more potent for refined drinkers who like to get tipsy while listening to opera

They've also since developed Jägermeister Cold Brew Coffee, which boasts the caffeine of a Jägermalm, but in a classier all-in-one bottle

and the Jägermeister Scharf, which is just like the regular Jägermeister, but with a spicy hot ginger taste

Regardless of which Jägermeister product you choose, to this day, each bottle's label sports the same words

that Jägermeister sported for just shy of a century. An excerpt from a poem by German ornithologist

and writer, Oskar von Riesenthal. It is the hunter's honor that he protects

and preserves his game. Hunt sportsman-like honors the creator in his creatures