Jägermeister is the liqueur everybody likes to hate. Blame the Jägerbomb—or school, on the whole. However the German amaro’s fortunes have improved. Over the past a number of years, “Jäger,” because it’s higher identified, has graduated to search out its place in a number of grown-up cocktails. Whereas some iterations elevate the liqueur, finessing it into established formulation just like the Outdated-Normal or Negroni, others totally embrace its down-market enchantment.
Think about the Jägerita. As Jäger is commonly served ice-cold in shot type, incorporating it right into a frozen drink appears solely pure. David Cordoba did simply that, subbing tequila with the natural liqueur for a extra biting tackle the frozen Margarita. However in contrast, the sometimes chilled Jägermeister turns steaming scorching in Dave Arnold’s Flaming Jäger, during which the method of caramelizing sugar yields an amaro caldo–like drink that’s heat in each temperature and taste.
In the meantime, Sother Teague, associate at Overthrow Hospitality, attracts parallels between Jäger’s strong-bitter-sweet profile and the core parts of an Outdated-Normal. His Black Apple Outdated-Normal builds off of the liqueur as a base, merely upping the spirit and bitters quotient by including apple brandy and apple bitters to the combination. Equally, Gaz Regan’s Negroni requires Jäger instead of the common Campari, retaining the drink’s signature bitter aptitude, however with darker, extra intense natural notes.
In an surprising pairing, bittersweet Jäger groups up with funky aged cachaça within the Rio Grande Bitter, the place the 2 substances face off throughout the context of a conventional bitter. Maybe much more unconventional, the fashionable basic Dying Flip includes a frightening mixture of the amaro, tequila, yellow Chartreuse and an entire egg. However whereas a number of recipes creatively incorporate Jäger, the late Brother Cleve’s Loser—named for the track by Seattle grunge band Tad—would be the most unorthodox. The liqueur is backed up by Pepsi, beef broth, espresso liqueur and spicy habanero bitters. It’s a daring lineup, made solely extra so by the completion, which comes within the type of a Slim Jim. It’s meant to drink like a distant relative of the Jack and Coke, and it’s simply the form of recipe that manages to pay homage to Jäger’s previous and current.
