Ingredients
Fifty-six herbs, roots, blossoms and fruits macerated in five batches over several weeks, filtered, then rested for roughly a year in large oak tanks before blending with sugar, caramel and water.
- ✦Star anise
- ✦Cinnamon bark
- ✦Ginger root
- ✦Bitter orange peel
- ✦Saffron
- ✦Liquorice root
History of the Brand
Curt Mast, son of a Wolfenbüttel vinegar and wine merchant, finalised the recipe in 1934 and named it for the German hunt-master.
The stag-and-cross label references Saint Hubertus, patron of hunters, and the Rilke-derived verse on the label reinforces the theme.
For decades it was a German digestif drunk at room temperature; the frozen shot is an American import from 1970s and 80s bar culture.
Serious bars have circled back to it as an ingredient — its anise-and-citrus structure works exactly like an amaro in stirred drinks.
Tasting Characteristics
Star anise, liquorice, orange peel, cough-drop herbs.
Sweet and syrupy up front with warm spice, ginger heat and a modest bitter edge.
Cooling anise and liquorice.
Flavor meter
How to serve it
- 01Ice cold from the freezer, the way the brand insists.
- 02Neat at cellar temperature as a genuine after-dinner digestif.
- 03With ginger beer and lime over ice.
- 04Swapped for sweet vermouth in a stirred whiskey drink.
Where to Get It
One of the most widely distributed herbal liqueurs on earth.
Any liquor store
Universally stocked at low prices.
Supermarkets
Available wherever spirits are sold in groceries.
Online retailers
Cheapest by the litre.
Where to buy Jägermeister
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Jägermeister FAQ
Is Jägermeister an amaro?
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Not Italian, but structurally the same idea: a bittered herbal digestif. Germans call the category Kräuterlikör.
Does Jägermeister contain deer blood?
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No. That is an old myth. It is a botanical maceration of 56 herbs, roots, fruits and spices.
Should it be served frozen?
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The brand recommends −18°C, which mutes the bitterness. Try it at cellar temperature to taste the herbs properly.