Fernet Branca, 70cl, ABV 39%

Product Information

It looks and tastes a bit like you’re drinking a blitzed-up Christmas tree – minty candy canes and all – and that whisper of bark, and the cooling mouthfeel it leaves you with, is what separates Fernet from the rest of the amaro taking up space on your favourite dive bar’s shelves. Fernet is popularly mixed with Coca-Cola, contributing to Argentina's world-beating thirst for the soda. With such a complex flavour profile, it is no surprise that Fernet Branca is creeping from the bar into the kitchen.

It’s hard to pin down what it is about Fernet Branca that makes it so popular but there’s no denying that it is. I love how it’s not heavy on your palate, either – you almost feel like it cleans your mouth and makes your stomach ready for another meal.The flavour is overwhelmingly bitter, medicinal and herbal, dark and oily - its popularity endures and its especially popular in Argentina where 75% of the entire production is consumed. Maybe, like Frank tells me, it’s because “it’s strong and bitter like all of as the end of a week of doubles.

Empty bottles of Fernet-Branca are seen scattered across the kitchen area in FX’s The Bear – a savvy signifier of verisimilitude from the set designers looking to give the restaurant of their television show a much-needed sense of realism. Bizarrely though, in Argentina it’s so popular that the country now consumes more than 75% of all Fernet produced globally. Although most of those medicinal claims have now been largely debunked, Fernet is still a delicious serve that’s rightfully earned its place in the hearts and minds of hospitality workers. Needless to say, Fernet’s herby freshness was a pleasant surprise and lacked the negative associations with the unpleasant consequences of sweet drinks,” she says. These testers in the Flores neighborhood of Buenos Aires were asked to reenact the face that they made the first time they tried the beverage.So if Fernet Branca really is going to escape the back bar, and move onto the bar menu - or even in to the kitchen - then perhaps it's time to furtle out that bottle from the back of the drinks cabinet. The many faces of Fernet — Juan Chico is the manager of a bar in the upscale Palermo neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Both sides of the pond are having it as the pre-shift slap to the face," says Ali Reynolds, manager at the Spitalfields Hawksmoor bar. While it's predominantly popular with those in the hospitality industry here in the UK, Fernet’s appeal goes far and wide. Whatever Argentina’s drinkers are suffering from, clearly this “disgusting” Italian medicine is the cure.

Those sorts of factors become important to consider when a big part of your job involves consuming an endless stream of rich and delicious food.Since the year 1845 the secret formula of Fernet-Branca has been based on an infusion from a unique blend of selected blossoms and rare aromatic herbs, carefully aged in historic Branca cellars.

But its invention has long been attributed to Dr Fernet Svedse - a fictional Swedish medic - to try and legitimise the marketing campaign which persuaded people of Fernet's curative properties.The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The herbs and spices are macerated in alcohol and then aged in oak barrels for a minimum of one year. S. university system, meaning I spent the better part of four years of my life drinking nauseatingly sweet grain alcohol mixed with Kool-Aid,” says Emily Sarah, managing partner of a financial advice company in Buenos Aires.