Jägermeister

Jagermeister was created by Curt Mast in Wolfenbuttel in 1934; the name means master hunter, and the label carries the glowing cross of Saint Hubertus, patron of the hunt. Fifty six herbs, roots, fruits and spices are macerated and rested in oak for around a year before bottling at 35%, the recipe famously secret.

The palate is full and complex, its sweetness, bitterness and herbal spice in balance, with cinnamon, clove, orange peel and ginger to the fore. Long served as a freezer cold digestif, it found a second life as the base of the Jagerbomb, and a growing number of bartenders now treat it like an amaro, stirring it into dark, spirit forward drinks for bittersweet herbal depth. However it is used, serve it very cold.