OK, so I’m watching VH1’s Rockumentary on Metallica. Their talking about booze, and Hetfield is explaining the effects of a particular libation which they take a liking to. He says they discover Jagermeister, and he says that it contains a paticular type of opiate that makes you want to kick ass, and it was significantly responsible for much nudity, and showering with 8 women at a time. Now the kicking ass part I’ve experienced drinking the classic Jager most of us have come to know and love, but the opiate ingredient is not apparent. This interview was a while back before Jager became common to most bar goers. So the question is, does Jager contain any opiates? If so, are the federal regulators worried, and what makes it legal? Second, if it doesn’t here in the US (which I assume) is it likely that the European version may contain them? I’m familiar with absinth, and it contains opiates, or some hallucinagenic, so this claim could be possible. Finally, where could I get my hands on some opiate laced Jager? I’m eager to get to that showering part, and I’m convinced the lack of Jager is the obstacle.
As far as I know, Jagger is analagous to productes we get from the same sources that give us cocaine. Meaning, close, but not quite, and maybe taking some of the effects but not nearly to the degree of the main item in question.
Call me crazy, but I love the stuff with a cheap beer chaser!
Yer pal,
Satan
as far as i know, it has nothing out of the ordinary. no deer blood. nothing strange.
but maaaannnn is it ever good. a 6 dollar bottle Jager does me well.
the band Lit also partakes, according to their liner notes (which i read). their publishing company (or at least one of the member’s) is called Jagermaestro (sp?).
Omni, does this mean we’re going to be helping the barkeep mop up licorice-scented vomit on Sunday night?
Uke
I’ve heard that European jagermeister has some stuff in it we can’t get in the states; IIRC the addition was codine. So all you have to do it make a quick trip to Europe…
I’ve heard this before as well. Several friends have told me that the European version of Jagermeister is different from the Ameerican, having several ingredients (one of which is an opiate) that are not legal in the U.S.
There’s also a Hungarian drink called Unicum that’s similar to Jagermeister except that it has a stronger licorice taste as well as other strong flavors (having over 40 different herbs). The bottle looks like the holy hand grenade of Antioch. From my experience with it, something in there has to be an opiate or a hallucinogen.
Well, I could have this all wrong, but here’s a WAG: since the main flavoring agent of both is anise, are people confusing Jagermeister with the infamous absinthe?
(I’m worried about the above being a ghastly mistake because I’m not familiar with the stuff, reaching for the gin or bourbon when I want a stiff drink. The Bright Young Things in the office, whom I asked, were mixed on whether the predominant taste was licorice or sassafras.)
Uke
I’ve heard the same thing, but I’ve never bothered to check it out. Since I am currently in Germany, I guess I could make a quick trip to the liquor store tomorrow and make a list of the ingredients. Personally, I can’t stand the stuff, the smell makes me gag.
Ahhh, Jagermeister. The drink that seperates the men from the boys and Shirley from the rest of them… Good stuff. I happen to have on hand, ice cold, three bottles in my freezer. All from Germany.
Now, being the militant pursuer of truth, justice and knowledge, I would gladly volunteer to do a comparative analysis of German-made to American-made Jagermeister. However, this would probably cause my unborn daughter to grown up to be a barfly with skanky hair and bad teeth, so understandably, you all will just have to wait.
For the record, I haven’t been drunk in three years,and what I wouldn’t give for something stronger than water.
I’ve asked the “Is there opium in it” question to the German relations and have only received the answer of, " It use to be used as medicine. So, there you have it. Jagermeister, the Coca Cola of Germany.
I can tell you right now that UncleBeer ain’t gonna be drinkin’ no Jagermeister in Chicago. I rarely have a shot of anything.
In my opinion, shots are for sprinters, and cocktails and beer are for distance runners. I’m a marathon guy.
Dopeler effect:
The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
Unca Beer, I have never been a big proponent of beer. Can’t stand the taste. More of a liquor ( not drinks with little umbrella’s in it either) gal myself. However, I have discovered total amazement to the reaction of my distate for beer.
When beer drinking friends of mine ask,
" HOW can you not like beer?" I respond, " Beer is the drink of peasants."
Shirley, if you’re going to bash my religion like that, at least take it to Great Debates.
“drink of peasants” forsooth. Hmpht. Fume.
-andros-
When I was first stationed in Germany, someone introduced me to Jagermeister. I liked it, but always thought it tasted a lot like Vicks Formula 44.
–Baloo
It’s more important to understand than it is to agree.
http://members.tripod.com/~Bob_Baloo/index.htm
Yes, but it’s one of the coolest-sounding liquors around, besides Rumplemintz and Goldschlager.
German is SUCH a hot language!
I’ll be there
Where I’ll teach what I’ve been taught
And I’ve been taught…
Shirley, to paraphrase the Frugal Gourmet, peasants always know how to drink well.
Armed, dangerous…
and off my medication.
I went to a store here in Germany yesterday, and the bottle says zilch about the ingredients. (Maybe ‘zilch’ is the secret formula…?) It is simply termed a “Kräuterlikör” (literally, ‘herbal liquor’ – does that make sense in English?). Their Webseite ( www.jaegermeister.de – German only) states that it is made from 56 different herbs, root, and flowers, and that the formula is secret. So, if there’s anything in it, they don’t tell.
From a legal point of view, I can’t imagine that any type of opiates would be allowed in such a drink even in Europe. Or perhaps there’s a harmless substance that’s just chemically classified as an opiate.
BTW, Jägermeister is nowhere near as popular in its land of origin as it seems to be over in the U.S. Or maybe I’m just helplessly out of touch with what’s hip, having turned 30 and all…
I don’t know the ingredients of Jagermeister, but the active component of Absinthe is the herb wormwood, Artemisia Absinthium. It’s used as a worming agent in people and animals. The active principal is thujone, which in large doses is a convulsant poison and narcotic. Addictive, and long term use often resulted in " absinthe epilepsy". Thujone and THC, the active principal in marijuana have similarities, and speculation is that they react with the same receptor sites in the brain.
As a high ,not recommended, as side effects can be delerium, loss of intellect, paralysis and death. Because of this, absinthe was generally banned in 1915. I know of one death in recent years; a man used the essential oil of wormwood to get his yayas, and ended up in convulsions (essential oils are extremely concentrated).
Legend has it that Van Gogh was whacked out on absinthe during the famous cutting-off-his-ear episode. Could be a contemporary (of that time) urban legend though.
i can see that this post is eons old and i finally gave up reading responses from those who weren’t sure… so it’s possible someone already responded, but here’s what i have for those who are intrigued by the “shower”… the booze & the REST…
i went on an absinth discovery binge, years ago… and am still a fan. (absinth in some countries/thujon and thujone/absinthe, in others; but absinth, in the most hardcore places…). one of the websites i used to order from (via the uk & czech republic), carried & shipped the actual german jager. it contains thujone (spelling in that country) and you can find the intel on it, on the web. for my part: the jager was significantly smoother (for one who despises anise flavoring; a blessing and a curse). the drunk of the german version is akin to an absinth drunk (3 or more and you’re fighting, or fu…ing; 2oz min shot size). it’s a very social drunk and though you may find yourself starting fight clubs at each bar you bring your flask of it to… you’re not fighting in anger… and when you look at your gal and her friend and ask your wingman which one you should f first… she’ll understand. however, 3- 2oz shots seems to be the price of admission, every time. each bottle/drunk is a story all its own. amnesia seems pretty common and both jailers and again, the gf- seem to be pretty understanding; long as you brought enough. so that’s it. i’ve not seen a website for the uk in recent years, where i could buy the jager, but bevmo has recently started carrying some of the thujone containing brands of absinthe so you can explore for yourself; i.e. the laws are changing. now, bevmo doesn’t carry my fav (and incidentally, czech brands)… but they did/do have “la clandestine”, la fee and at least one other. the la fee is rank/harsh, but is probably one of the more familiar brands/labels. each bottle has as much of a story/history behind the brand, as your experiences with them will. be careful. be among friends (not family!- u don’t want to f, or f family members!). be away from THE MAN! and don’t play with sharps. enjoy! p.s. absinth is a much “funner” ride, than jager… and one tends to wake up still drunk. hydrate! hydrate! hydrate! and bring sharp chasers! proofs are high, too… stop at 3 to enjoy the difference, before you head to “just drunk” and, or blackout status. u can also burn off some of the booze to get ahead in the “head change”/trip status and stave off some of the “just drunk”. black licorice sux, but it’s worth it!
p.s.s. bevmo beats a 60per shipping fee… but beware! bevmo carries both the non-thujone/fake absinthe, now… as well as the good stuff so- if ya dunno… ask!
Speaking as a German who’s sampled the native Jägermeister in statistically significant quantities in his misspent youth, it’s a quite ordinary herbal liqueur, whose thujone (Thujon in German; Thujone is the plural) content doesn’t exceed that of others—it’s regulated by law to a maximum amount of 35mg/kg, which has no psychotropic effects. Every special effect you get upon drinking it comes from inside your head, not out of the bottle (as is the case with absinth, as well, whose thujone content is likewise typically quite low). It does cause spectacular hangovers, though.
I am born in central europe, have lived in NYC most of my life, and have partied and worked in over 30 countries. There is a sort of myth around these drinks, here is what I have to say…
The famous pelinkovac is Croatia’s version of Jaegermeister, which is Hungary’s version of Unicum. Of course, the Czech Republic has its own version, but when I was there, I did not go outside of Prague, which I regret. But there is so much to do in the city!
The Bohemes or Bohemian artists of Paris – this is prior to the era of Ernest Hemingway, by the Rotonde; just like Greenwich Village in the 1950s had real artists, but today, it is unaffordable for anyone who has the courage to build any message that refers to the chaos living in the neocon USA of today – allegedly partied with drinks containing high concentrations of pelin (slavic), absinthe (from the French?), wormwood (English). That is where the Absinthe legend begins in the West. It comes from the Bohemian artists who got to experience stash from central europe.
Note that I have family who found themselves in Paris from Central Europe. After trench warfare, mustard gas, and so on… there was a LACK OF MEN after WWI. So dirt poor central europeans, also destroyed by war, went to Paris to seek adventure and MONEY.
To write about this, I decided to translate a few words from my native Croatian: I found out something interesting… when you translate “pelin” it means absinthe. When you translate “pelinkovac” it translates to “bitter”… When you explain, linguistically, the etymology of how you get from Pelin to Pelinkovac… it is like this…
pelin is the HERB
adding --OVAC… in slavic languages, means FROM.
Not unlike croatian names ending in -IC … it means SON OF… or FROM…
Due to toxification concerns, it seems that each country has placed legal limits (10 parts per million) of absinthe. So, in the conservative US, for example, we can not even market chocolate that has a drop of brandy in it, for fear that kids would get drunk on it. Yuck. You would get more sick from sugar and chocolate than you would from the booze in it… But thats how things fly in the USA these days.
That is why people in this forum say that you can get higher doses of the active ingredient, THUJON, if you buy these after-dinner bitters in europe.
Then, other herbs like aniseed (anisette oil), rosemary and many others are used. Unicum claims 50 herbs! It is a great after-dinner. In my opinion, these drinks in small quantities (a shot per week) are very healthy. It is one way to break the fact that we do not get enough variety in our diet. I intentionally look for variety in vegetables. For example, the tip of certain pine trees or bushes, I eat the light green leaf. It is very sour and very high in vitamin C. No one does that anymore!
So here is my opinion… If you go to northern Italy, the Udine region, where “northern italian” cuisine has partly originated from, you will find entrepreneurs experimenting with ideas from their elders, selling grappa (vodka) with all kinds of herbal infusions. In Croatia, there are over 300 different travaricas (rough translation, herb-infused grape-vodka)… Grappa in Italian is Rakija in Croatian. This is roughly related to Raki, the Greek liquor that will form a precipitate and become cloudy when you add some water.
There is room in this area for a clever and respectful connoisseur of cultures to go in deep and separate fact from fiction.
In this world, there is so much to discover. Lamb’s lettuce, stinging nettles, ramsons (medvehagyma in Italian) …
Also check out this web site for more info:
Where I extracted this:
The alpha-thujone contained in absinthe comes from Artemisia absinthium, a wild plant commonly known as wormwood. An essential ingredient of the celebrated drink, wormwood perhaps is nature’s richest source of thujone: by weight, wormwood oil typically contains over 40% of the substance.