Fernet liqueur - New Experience - Baptized in Italian Herbals

[indelibleface]

This is going to be an oddity of a trip report, inasmuch as I'm not exactly sure that my subjective experience with this drink is a realistic account of what would happen if other people drank the same beverage. However, I can say that I experienced this with another drinking buddy, and she had experienced exactly what I felt as well, so take it as you will. Your mileage may vary.

Anyway, so me and my good friend Ashley decided to take a jaunt around Hollywood after attending a Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell protest down on Santa Monica Blvd. After sharing beers at a local dive, we decided to find a bar that would serve us a Grasshopper (equal parts creme de cacao, creme de menthe, and cream). It kind of tastes like a minty milkshake, and has the color of blue toothpaste. It's marvelous, trust me. None of the bars that we could find on Santa Monica had the required ingredients, so we made for the Beauty Bar a few miles northeast near the main drag of Hollywood Blvd.

After arriving, we made small talk with the bartender (very easy when the place is completely dead) and discovered that he had no cream available, but he did have Baileys, which actually provided for a pretty tasty concoction. Because this was a bit of an experiment, he gave us our Baileys Grasshopper thingies for free, and then offered us something a bit different.

Fernet is apparently a classic herbal liqueur that was immensely popular during Prohibition in San Francisco. Having lived in the Bay Area and having sampled copious amounts of alcohol during my many scientific barhopping expeditions, I was surprised I'd never heard of it. He served us each a large glass of the dark, Jager-looking fluid along with a chaser of ginger ale as tradition commands. He explained that it's a very strange sort of drunkenness akin to absinthe, but not as alcoholic. Me and my friend downed the beverage; I was surprised that it went down so easily, considering the bartender had emphasized that it would not taste good (but we would feel good).

After a couple minutes, I felt the drunkenness, but let me tell you, it was different. And, I'm not saying this from a naive, "oh em gee I'm seauu high" perspective. I've sampled countless inebriants in the past, as well as my share of ethanol, and this felt different. My inhibitions were gone, but I felt very little loss of motor control. And, I was stimulated, but not in the same sort of paradoxical way that alcohol stimulates you to act foolish and drunken. Everything looked a little hazy, like the brightness dial on my eyes had been turned up 50%, very much akin to having smoked incredibly benign and gentle weed. It felt like mild marijuana feels, without anxiety or too much cloudiness fogging up my sensorium. Bottom line: I felt good, as described, and far more up and active than with the same concentration of another alcohol coursing through my veins.

I don't really have an explanation, unless one of the herbs contained within has some other kind of psychoactive effect. It's possible, I'm sure. I wonder what? According to Wikipedia, the ingredients include "myrrh, rhubarb, chamomile, cardamom, aloe, and saffron, with a base of grape distilled spirits, and colored with caramel coloring."

Obviously, I'm willing to concede this was all my imagination; I admit it could have been just a random, idiosyncratic reaction to a new alcoholic drink I hadn't sampled before. Except, this seems to be the usual with this beverage; my friend who had some as well reported the same things, even going as far to say that she felt high instead of drunk, and that everything looked like watercolors. Take our experiences with a grain of salt, but hey, I'm just sayin'. This is how it went for us.

A quotation taken from a magazine on Fernet:

The easiest way to explain the taste is to imagine Jägermeister without the sugar. You shoot it, immediately getting a strong hit of mouthwash - drying the mouth out, stinging the tongue. Its kind of like getting hit in the nose. Your brain hurts, your eyes sting and water, you cough a bit. Then, as soon as it begins a warm wave of relief washes over and you are left baptized in Italian herbals and golf ball eyed awake.

%)

 

[yucatanboy2]

Hmmm interesting. I'll have to try Fernet sometime.

 

[tragiclemming]

My old local in Vienna used to dish this stuff out to the 'regulars' by the bucket load instead of schnapps. Known locally as 'black gold.' Gives me the worst hangover imaginable Can't say I experienced any different effects than any other strong alcohol, but this may be due to me drinking lots of beer at the same time. The taste is pure medicinal (think cough medicine) and I am breaking out into a cold sweat just thinking about it!
Good luck with this one. Tread carefully

 

[Downloader08]

Not too sure here, but I've heard saffron has some sort of psychoactive affect (although I doubt in the dose of a single shot of your tasty beverage ) I'd google it but I'm typing off a phone so it's a bit of a hassle. Anyway, glad you had fun

 

[JBrandon]

I think you should try it again and see how it feels during round 2! I drank some absinthe when I was about 20 and drug naive. I was totally convinced it was a "different" type of drunkeness. About two years later with the same brand but a lot more experience under my belt, I realized it had been entirely placebo.

Even if it is placebo effect at play, it's still fun sometimes!

Thanks for the TR.

 

[Downloader08]

^^ absinthe? On new years eve, I was with some friends overseas (central/eastern europe) and we went to this party some kid had at his place. Anyway, just after midnight, I was given a plastic cup of green liquid and told it was absinthe. COMPLETELY forgot that they have real absinthe there and not the pure ethanol one we have here in Aussie... I would say that it was definitely a different type of drunkeness, maybe more dissociative? Just weird really. Anyway, sorry for going off topic, but I thought the story might interest someone Gonna try and give the Fernet liqueur a go if i ever find it, see how it compares

 

[Jamshyd]

You should try Unicum (Hungary's national liquor). They love it so much that they sell it at train stations. The very act of tasting it is a trip in and of itself (to note: my final verdict on it is that it is something one MUST try, but it is not my cup of 'cum).

I am not surprised that bitters and the like may have effects that are distinctly different from plain ethanol. After all, of the thousands of chemicals that give these drinks their bouquet, at least one or two ought to be slightly psychoactive.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

Hmm... I don't know about saffron being psychoactive (and really don't have a thick enough bankroll to find out), but chamomile certainly is very mildly psychoactive, and I wouldn't be surprised if cardamom and myrrh were also.

I made myself a very strong chai yesterday using three tea bags and about a tablespoon of freshly pulverized spices, including cinnamon stick, nutmeg, black pepper, cloves, cardamom pods, one whole star anise, allspice, chili pepper, dried orange peel, and the juice of 2 cubic inches of fresh ginger. I added the spice powder directly to the tea and ingested it all, rather than using an infuser. (Only the first 4 dry spices I listed, and the ginger, are the traditional seasonings of chai -- the rest are my creative addition). All I can say is, it was a very different, long-lasting, subtly complicated, and SPEEDY overall effect, with a subtle and complicated body load too, that was qualitatively quite different than tea alone, and left me unable to sleep for many hours. I really think the aromatic compounds in some spices, which include some true phenethylamines, when ingested in large enough quantities, are capable of having a neurostimulating effect.

I don't think the idea of a liqueur steeped with aromatic compounds producing a qualitatively different effect than alcohol alone is all that far-fetched, but I bet the subtleties would be lost on someone who was already fairly drunk on other sorts of alcohol.

 

[Downloader08]

^^ about the saffron, you're right, it's not psychoactive, I just thought I had heard somewhere that it was...? The tea sounds interesting though, hope it tasted alright!