Proud Aunt Moment: My nephew Aidan is about to start his third year as a Cadet and rugby player at the West Point Military Academy in NY. He recently spent 3 weeks in Germany on an exchange training with their military and he was excited to share some of his stories from his time there. Being well trained from a young age by his aunt Nikki, he was curious about German wine, beer and spirits and brought home some different things that he wanted to share with us along with the stories of his time in the field.

Listen to our 3 generation gathering as Aidan and I are joined my mom, Susan, and my sisters Dana (his mom) and Amanda as we listen, learn and taste all the German things.

Takeaways:

• Aidan shares his insights from his military exchange in Germany, including cultural differences in drinking habits
• We talk about the generational shift in alcohol consumption, and I get his thoughts on Gen Z's preferences
• We taste a surprising Wine he brought back from the Baden region
• We do a side by side tasting of German and American Jagermeister
• He shares about military "patch culture" as we learn about an interesting (ahem) cocktail that was a staple for him during his training in the field

Links and resources:

Purchase my Sollevato Sangiovese 2022and Sollevato "Fortunato" Red Blend

(Use the code PODLISTENER for 10% off Nikki and Michael's Sollevato Wines!

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Dirty fruit bag.

It's harsher. It's German.

Dirty fruit bomb. Thank you for bringing this back in your bag, dude.

Yeah, it might have been rats in some underwear, I'm not going to lie.

Well, hello. Welcome back to Sip with Nikki.

I'm Nikki Lamberti back here in Sonoma County, California, after another wonderful visit to to my home state of New Jersey. And while I was there, I had really the honor and privilege to sit down with my nephew Aiden, who is a cadet at West Point, part of the US Army.

Aiden is, I think just over six three, and plays rugby for West Point and recently spent three weeks in Germany as part of an exchange program where he got to train with the German military.

And I was excited to hear his stories of what his experience was like, and he was really excited to not only share the stories of that part, but the beverages that he had been introduced to. Especially as someone recently of drinking age in the US he can now officially enjoy all of the things that we as a family love so much.

So before he went to Germany, he asked me about purchasing German wine and how to get it back home. So I gave him some tips. And little did I know that he was going to come home not only with some German wine, German beer, and Jagermeister.

So what you'll hear is after we had a family dinner, we sat down and it was myself and Aiden, his mom, my sister Dana, and my other sister Amanda. And if you've listened to sipping with my sister's episode, both of those voices should be familiar.

Our mom, AKA Little sue, also joining at the coffee table, which means we had three generations at this table. I mean, just so fun for us to sit and talk and listen to his stories.

You'll hear us taste a couple different German beers and you'll hear our impressions, as well as my mom's very cool story of how she started drinking beer at the ripe young age of three. What? He surprised me with a red wine from Germany that we all had some pretty interesting reactions to.

And in the final segment, we try side by side, a bottle of Jagermeister that brought home from Germany with a bottle of Jaeger purchased here in the US and we talk about if there are any differences. And then the final surprise is an unexpected cocktail that was apparently a regular occurrence in the German field.

We also learned a lot about the military culture, especially patch culture, and I very much enjoyed this part, and I hope you do too, because Aden is really the first military in our family, so. So we are learning a lot of this with him. As we go.

I also get Aiden's take as a Gen Z 21 year old on the hot topic of alcohol culture and what young people these days are and aren't drinking. And I kind of put him on the spot.

But it's a very interesting part of the conversation as we get some insight as to how young people are enjoying alcohol or if they are at all. So here we go with our mixed tasting of German beverages with Aidan from West Point. Aiden, is this your first really official podcast appearance?

This is.

I love that you came back from Germany so excited to talk about all of your beverage education that was happening as part of your military exchange program.

It was a good time, though. And I am a beer guy, and it was fun to be over there and get it shoved in your face for three weeks. So can't complain about that.

So for our listeners, tell them a little bit about why you were in Germany other than to drink beer and Jagermeister. Why were you there, and what was your experience like?

Yeah. So West Point offers a bunch of different experiences for their cadets.

And I know guys that went all over the world, down to Kenya, Puerto Rico, out in other Asian countries, South America.

But I got offered the opportunity to go to Germany, and it was literally like I was sitting in my German class because every dad has to take two semesters.

Can you pause for a second? As your mother. He took German for two semesters. Wait, are you proud of that or you're saying that was short? I'm going to Germany. Oh, okay.

We were just. We were just sitting in the middle.

Class and you're fluent. Go.

Yeah. And we were sitting in the middle of class, and literally my teacher just put up casually like, hey, this is available to you guys?

And threw my name in the hat. And I got selected for it and went off June 16, got back July 5.

And while we were over there, the first few days were, like, mostly getting us settled in. Then they had some Christian holiday, but they gave us four days off right before we did some field training. There was me and two other cadets.

We had the opportunity to go and take the train to Cologne, or in German, Kuhn. And we got to see the cathedral over there down by the Rhine river and just experience all that.

I didn't bring any with me, but, like, the beer for that city is called Kolsch.

I've been called Kolsch.

Yeah, Germans, they say they hate it. I'm not gonna lie.

Really?

People that love it.

I'm American and I like it. You wanna know why you like it.

Because it's very similar to American beer.

That's why.

Very light blonde.

Yeah, that's why.

Exactly. Other beers are much darker.

And I brought light beer with me, but like a common, traditional, more of a southern Germany by Munich is called Duno, which is D, the U with the two dots over it. N, K, E, L. We tried a little bit of that. That's a more darker. Kind of like a Guinness type too.

I like that.

It was really good. And yes, we were there. And then we went to a different base for two weeks, and there we were in the woods doing cool stuff.

So shooting. Am I allowed to say that? I saw some videos of you shooting.

Shooting Shit. So we got to experience their G36, which is Gewehr. Sex and dry Sik, which is their standard rifle.

Sounded like you said something dirty. Don't say dirty things, nephew. Say it again. What was it called?

Gewehr, which is rifle.

Uhhuh.

Zex undre 6 is Z. Drey is 30. They. I don't know why they reverse your German.

Sounds good. It does sound good.

I mean, I was forced to get good at it. So.

Yeah, they said you were fluent when you drank Jagermeister.

They. When I drank enough Jagermeister, I did get fluent.

Going to put that to the test in just a minute. I do believe my French was fluent when we were all in France as well.

Yeah.

Yeah. And we were drinking. It happens. And this was. I believe this was your first time overseas, right?

Yeah. In Europe. Yes. Like, we went to. When we. Mexico, Cancun. We went to the Bahamas on the.

European continent, in the eu. This was your first time. It was a good time across the pond. And what'd you learn? What were some of your takeaways from your time there?

Honestly, everybody talks about, you know, how strict the Germans are. They were some of the nicest people I ever met. Obviously, like, maybe the military, they were like, hey, be nice to them because they're Americans.

You have to look good in front of the American army. But even, like, when I was out in Cologne, we were just in a bar. Like, people would talk to me initially.

They'll talk to me in German, and I'll try and talk to them a little bit through my broken German. And then everybody was super nice and super outgoing there.

Even, like, waiters, waitresses are one thing, but even this random dude at the bar that was next to me, all pretty good people.

That's very cool. I love to hear that. For some reason, the Sip with Nikki podcast already has a lot of Listeners in Germany.

It's like the third country behind the US as far as listeners. So maybe we'll gain some more friends and listeners there. But people listen to it already there, which is pretty cool.

You and I spoke before you left, and you were asking about how do I bring back wine and what kind of wine should I get? And then I know that you just busted out your duty free bag, that you schlepped these beers in from Germany from the airport.

So let's start with some beer. Why don't we taste this beer? Tell us a little bit about it, why you picked this and any stories that may be related to this beer.

We start with the Krembacher.

You mean the Krambacher? That one. Kombuchar with a K. Can you say it properly again?

I think I'm saying it right. The Krambacher. And you just see an H. Like you connect them. I'm like, all right, I gotta grab. I want to grab beer from Germany.

Was this the German airport or newer?

This was in the German airport.

All right, just checking. Did the label look familiar?

This is German.

Well known.

Yeah, it's more of a cheaper beer. I wouldn't say it's the Natty Light level, but it is a lighter beer for them. Yes.

So then I don't think anything on that side of the world is as terrible as Natty Light. You couldn't have found something that terrible over there for us in your beautiful German? The rest of the detail on that label.

Mit fel quel wasse gibral.

Okay. Any idea what that means with something?

Water. Gibraltar. I recognize that word. I think it's made with a certain type of water.

Okay.

You drank this beer when you were there before the airport pass. Had you had this beer before you went to Germany?

No.

So forever and ever this beer will remind you of being there?

Yes.

That's pretty freaking cool. I think that's worth a toast. And tell us the proper way to toast.

All right. So how they do it is they would say, prost. Pr. It sounds like pr. Ost.

And then the big thing is, like, you look everybody in the eyes when you do it, you know? Cheers. You all look each other in the eyes and take a step. So. Prost.

Prost. Prost. Prost. Oh. Oh. Little cereal almost fell down. Mom on the liver. Sister. Nephew.

Yeah. And the one thing that I mostly notice about German beer, it's Light. It's very light.

Like when you have like your Miller lights, your Budweisers, American beers, typically you almost taste like you almost ate like a piece of bread. Like you have that aftertaste. Exactly. You don't really get that with German beer is kind of what I've noticed. So usually it's a little bit heavier.

Like this is gonna be heavier than your normal, your standard beer on tap. In the States. You don't have that bread, wheat aftertaste usually that you would get with American beer. That's like the biggest thing that I noticed.

So proud right now. So I have so many questions to unpack after just that description. Now, Nikki, let's talk about yeast.

You are 21 years old, so you have been able to legally drink for two months. Only pet beer for two months. For two months, yes. Two months, clearly. Except when Aunt Nikki started training you drinking wine when you were 13.

But it's a young, fresh palate.

Yeah.

Here's my question, and this could go in a lot of different directions, but one of the things, especially in the wine industry, but just in the beverage industry overall, one of the trends that everyone keeps talking about and the issues and the challenges is your generation. And people keep saying this generation, right?

Gen Z, 21 years old, even going into Gen Alpha, like they're not drinking as much or they're drinking differently, or they're more into cannabis or they're more into seltzers. And yet here you are like loving beer and we're going to do Jaeger and wine. So think about yourself and your friends.

And I know it's just a small cross section, but as a 21 year old in the US right now, what is your relationship and interest with alcohol?

Yeah, in the US it's definitely more of a social thing. I'll tie back to Germany as well. Like Germany, that's just like a lifestyle thing. Like they just drink. Yeah, they drink to drink.

Well, you just said it was cheaper than water.

Yeah. I could buy a half a liter bottle of beer out in Cologne for €2.

And for a 12 ounce bottle of water that was, I think $2.40 Euro, which was it's more expensive to get water than it is beer. Like to put in perspective like the culture difference there in terms of Gen Z, I think what you said.

Can you please speak on behalf of your entire generation right now, accurately, please? Thank you. We like Surfsides.

I think a lot of things that people can agree with is like the whole cannabis thing, obviously it's legal. Now, so it's a lot easier to get. And it's easier. You pop an edible, you hit a cart, you smoke weed, whatever you want to do.

Like, anything of that sorts. Like, you do it, and then you achieve that.

When it comes to alcohol, depending on what you drink, it's hard because, like, I could drink X amount of bottles of beer versus X amount of glasses of wine. And then if I throw shots in there, and then if I throw this in there and throw that in there, like, it's all mixing and stuff like that.

And then you're puking in the bushes in your front yard. Don't ask about that, Mom.

No one here has ever done that, clearly.

But it's stuff like that, I think, like, it's just a lot easier with cannabis. And then when it comes to alcohol, like, I think a lot more people, like, when they do drink, they. Especially my age group, like, you get.

You drink to get drunk.

Yeah.

More.

Yeah.

Which I feel like most people in college.

Yeah. I mean, in our generation, when we were 21, we were not drinking because we. Like the notes of BlackBerry. Yeah, we were drinking. Yeah.

I'll tell you what I have witnessed in watching this generation. They drink wine. They drink. Like, we didn't drink. We did not drink wine.

I also think it's about.

Unless it was. Maybe that's my influence on your neighborhood. Maybe. But I do feel like, as a whole, their caliber of what they would drink is higher. Yeah.

I think there's more options now for them to drink, but affordable options.

So, like, I can't really speak on fraternities because, like, I go to West Point, we don't have those. But, like, in terms, like, me, like, my friends and I, like. I think you're also right with there's more options, like, none of those.

Seltzers.

Yeah, seltzers.

We had Zima. I didn't even have Zima. We did Zima with a Jolly Rancher. That was very, like, malt beverage clear.

A fun bottle that you could then drop candies in to flavor it even.

I like. I love beer.

She's sitting at this very table when I had Ezema. Mom. What? She just worked up.

She just sat up really quick.

Yeah.

Where was I? I don't know.

There's just more options now.

Yeah.

Like you and I, like, I love to drink beer. I enjoy it. But, like, there's something becomes a point like that we all agree with you get really full after eight beers. Three beers.

Yeah, one and a half.

Exactly. Like, after X amount of beer, like, you start to get really full. So I think your seltzers, your. Your surfside, your Sunday cruisers, all those.

Stuff like the White Claw, High Noon, all that category, they're not carbonated.

Yeah.

Oh. They're not carbon.

And some people just don't like the taste of beer. And it's another option for them.

I love the taste of beer, and I actually enjoyed this beer. I thought it was nice. What did you guys think? Mom, you liked it? Oh, I liked it a lot. Amanda's is done.

Amanda mine, I don't like a very happy beer, which is why Michael. Michael loves a good, hoppy beer. I do not. Which is, I think, why I like Guinness. I like. I love Guinness.

Aiden, you also brought to the table some Becks. Tell me why.

Yeah, so Beck's was the most common beer that we drank out in the.

I want to hear about when you say this is the beer that we drank out in the field. So it's like, hey, I'm going to shoot some and then I'm just going to sit down and drink a beer.

It wouldn't be that extreme, but so in the field. So it was like a training area that we were out there.

And a field, though. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. There are fields there, but fieldish. There's barracks that we would. We weren't sleeping in the woods the whole time.

Like, just the field is just like field exercises, like your military exercises, shooting, stuff like that.

Did you do a dive roll?

I did not do a dive roll. I did.

Yeah, but Amanda. What? Let him talk. One day he will.

But when we were over there, we were staying barracks. It sucked because there was no ac, which sucked because Germany was having a crazy heat wave at that time. And this would just be like the beer.

But while we were in those barracks, like, we would go out to the field. We'll leave at 5, 6, 15 in the morning, get back around the same ish time at night, and they'd be like, let's go get beer and I'll go sit down.

And where did you get the beer from?

They have platoon. Like, just like a group of soldiers, like, their platoon will have, like, almost a shop.

They'll go out on a supply mission, buy a ton of beer that you can buy off of them, essentially. But it was like €2 for a 0.3 liter bottle of beer, which is pretty good considering that we're on a military base.

Away from all shop as well as it's the only beer that you can.

Get if you want a little bit marked up.

But yeah, even then it's still like about $3 a beer, like in the States, because the Euro is more valuable than a dollar right now. But yeah. And like, even then, though, I think because we were Americans, they were helping us out.

But like one guy would go, get up, they do crates, they don't do boxes, they don't do anything like that. They do like big plastic crates.

Yeah, yeah.

And they'll get a crate, place it down, and they're like, here you go. And then we drink until.

And then you said, they're not cold.

They are not cold. They were never cold. So all that, this beer is cold now. Like, when I would drink it, it would be 80 degrees. Like it was hot beer.

Sometimes they had refrigeration, sometimes they had it. But if you're buying a crate, like, it's not gonna be cold beer. But I'm doing the training, like, they wouldn't let us drink and shoot.

That's a probably good idea. Good idea.

Like the guys that were like the safety control, like the range control guys, basically making sure the targets popped up. Like when we were done training, like, they had a crate of beer for them to sip on, like once the training was over.

And like they were like, while everybody else was cleaning up.

It's almost like. Like you're drinking a Coke, honestly.

Yeah, that's a good. That's a good way to describe it. It's like drinking a Coke, honestly.

Okay, that's right.

Build up the other one.

The bags also light.

It's a little bit lighter.

I would agree with that. Nephew Beauty's room is interesting. It just is a little more like a Coke. I think it's very refreshing. Refreshing. My mom. Nice. You love beer. I do.

Your German is showing. Your German is showing beer. Like at three years old. Here's the confessional.

That's a story in itself right there.

The next door neighbor was a laborer. He would come home, 5, 6 o', clock, sitting in Adirondack's chair in the backyard. I'd sit in the one next to him and he'd give me a jelly.

Are you gonna publish some fan?

Yeah, there's gonna be like a Like a jingle or something Anyhow, So, yeah, I've always liked beer. Anything else you want to say about beer or this beer?

Like, we would drink beer any given situation here. It's like a social thing. If you drink beer here, typically, like, you're doing it out and about with people, stuff like that there.

It's just a way of life.

It's just hydration. Yeah.

And another cool thing about it is, like, each part of Germany's beer is completely different.

So they typically say that Munich, which is the south of Germany, and their beer over there is typically like, what they say is, like the beer capital of the world. Like that city, their style of beer. But they're gonna have different beer. From Frankfurt, from Cologne, who had Kolsch.

That was the one that I had, like, their signature beer from Hamburg, from Berlin, like, each areas, like, region.

Yeah, yeah, we'll have different beers, and that's either from the how they brew it, what they put in it, like the type of grain that they use similar to wine, like, just the different parts. Will have different tasting beer at different styles.

I love it. It's very cool. Should we shift gears? I feel like Jaeger's gonna change the palette. Should we shift gears to some wine?

Yeah, let's do it.

All right, everyone has a glass. I'm gonna let you pronounce this because your pronunciation is beautiful.

Yeah. So it's Baden, Spit, Burgunda. Trachen. And then, oh, gosh, long German words. Great. Mark Greiflich, Badisches Wienhaus, which is the.

Winery or the producer. But the type of wine. Speyte. Burgunder.

Burgunder, yeah.

Speed rhymes with late, because it's referring to the lateness of the ripening of the scrape. Burgunder. Like Burgundy. Because this is Pinot Noir. This is a German Pinot Noir. And trachen is the German word for dry, meaning the opposite of sweet.

So this is a dry German Pinot Noir. Perfect. Tell me why you picked this.

Honestly.

Screw cap.

It is a screw cap. Yeah. So what they said was, the guy I was with, my buddy Ralph Raphael, he's actually a South African German soldier.

He had his car, and he gave me a ride over to the stores.

And we started at, like, a supermarket, which had a little bit more options, and I thought the liquor store would have a little bit more options than the supermarket. And the guy that took me there, Raphael, called him Raph. He said, typically, anything over €6 is pretty good. And I think this was like 840.

I'm like, all Right. Let's go all out for this one.

Don't get alcohol right off the bat, which is nice.

A little bit fruitier to me. Yeah.

American fruit percentage 12.5 alcohol, which is lower than most California wines. Smells fruity, but not a fruit bomb. Dana, to use your words, definitely you would be like, oh, this is not California.

This is not sunshine in the glass. There's almost a little flintiness to it, like a matchsticky, which is not necessarily a negative or a bad thing. It's a mineral Y note.

Dirty fruit bomb. Dirty fruit bomb.

Yeah, it's harsher. It's German.

Dirty fruit bottom. Thank you for bringing this back in your bag, dude.

Yeah, it was. Might have been wrapped in some underwear. I'm not gonna lie.

Washed in three weeks, maybe that's plenty. I will say it smells like something not common.

I like it.

It's very light.

Different.

Very light. Easy, quaffable. Light body.

Might have been my only €8.

But no. Nice acidity. But not acidic. No. Just kind of lively. A little bit of tannin. Yeah. Pretty light all around.

Light body, light color, light alcohol, light tannin. Just a lovely red wine. We're serving it, like, wine fridge chilled, which I think is a nice temperature to drink. This especially.

It's a hot summer day here in New Jersey. I think, like, a little chill on there is nice, but it's very translucent in the glass. What do you think of it, sir?

I like it. Like, it's not, like, really dominant in anything. They said it's just kind of like a little bit of everything.

I feel like that's. We're all saying, where'd you get that wine vocabulary, young man?

Being around you.

That's nice. I like it. It's fruity, though. There's fruit dark. Something dark like. Come on, little Sue. You got the nose. Come on. What are you, current?

Maybe there is, like, a date or something. My mom is a date.

I can't explain what it is. There's something once it goes through.

Pretty cherry for me. Cherry or cherry? Black cherry. I don't drink enough German wine. I tasted a lot of it during wine school at the CIA.

When we go to Epcot and food and wine, we stop in the German pavilion and go to their wine bar and have their wine and drink beer. Speak for yourselves. But I don't drink enough of it and certainly not enough red. So this is a really special treat. Thank you.

Yeah.

Do you know anything about the terroir, the terrain there, and what their wine country is like? Baden is the region. B A D E N. Very curious.

I think more white wine when I think of Germany, but it just might be that because you think of Riesling and George Jameer.

So Baden is in the southwest part of Germany, so it's literally bordering France and Switzerland in the south of the Alps. So typically, it's more of a mountainous region. The higher elevation as well in the north is much flatter. Really flat in the north.

And like, you have your rivers going through, this is going to be your higher elevation a little bit colder, which is.

Did you learn this in your dirt class? Maybe you took a class about dirt? Well, it was a geography.

They called it dirt, but yeah, it's basically. It's human geography, but we call it dirt.

That's great. The area is known for quality wine. There's a lot of Pinot Noir in that region. Also Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. So all the Pinots are there.

And this area is often referred to as the Burgundy Paradise. Explain what that means in case people don't know in France. Burgundy is the main region for Pinot Noir in France.

So it's almost like Germany's Burgundian region, where you have all those Pinots. It's really nice. It's a nice wine. I would like to try more from this area. Baden is also the third largest wine district in Germany.

There's 13 wine regions in Germany. Baden is one of them. Mosel, that's the one I've had the most. Rhein Gau. That's nice. Thanks. Good. Good job. For your 8 Euros.

I'm not going to lie. So I looked at which ones were German. I just grabbed one, but glad it worked out.

All right. You ready to taste some Jagermeister?

I've been. I've had a lot of this, so.

I feel like you were so passionate about wanting to do this. So were you drinking Jager before you went, or is this a new passion?

My first time I drank Jaeger was German Jaeger, so I've not drank American Jaeger yet. So.

Wow.

So I'm hoping this will not ruin it for me, and I have to savor this bottle as long as.

Okay, so we've got two bottles here. One that you bought in Germany and brought home with you, and then one that was just purchased in the American liquor store.

The Label is exactly the same, just literally. One is in English and one is in German and they both have the number 56 on them. I know you know a little bit about that. Tell me about that.

So the whole thing about that is it's made out of 56 herbs and it's supposed to be like a supernatural type of liqueur. It's funny, one of the German soldiers that I was talking to there, Lily said, yeah, my grandmother, when I had a cold, give me a shot of Jaeger.

But on the back it also explains it too, if you want.

That's the back?

Yes, the back says your hands hold. Our Jagermeister crafted from a secret and closely guarded German recipe of 56 hand selected botanicals.

The botanicals undergo a gentle maceration process to extract the precious essence, which is refined and harmonized in oak barrels. Our master distiller completes the ritual blending process to ensure the complex and balanced flavor of our herbal liqueur Jagermeister.

Nice. I love that hearing maceration and barrels because those are all parallels with the wine making process.

And I think Jaeger honestly gets like that bad look, because when you say you're drinking Jaeger, everything's Jaeger bombs. We're going to have a get in a fist fight type of thing.

There's shock culture culture and that shots are never a good idea. Is it expensive over there either?

So the American one was about $30 and I think in Germany that was around €20. So it's pretty much the same.

So it's the liqueur.

Yeah.

Do you think or do you know, are these made in the same distillery and then the one is just exported and they put an American label on it or are you led to believe that they are somehow different formulations or made on different soils?

I don't know. To be honest. I want to say because like American stuff is like very different.

Like even if you go to the biggest one I saw the difference was were monsters because shocker monster like energy drink because shocker German soldiers also need a crap ton of caffeine as well. So that was like a big thing there. But like they would have a quarter of the caffeine contents as.

But still the same brand monster, but different formulation everything.

Yeah.

So I want to say if they were made differently, which I do not know, I feel like the German one would definitely be a lot cleaner, a lot more of that straight 56 herbs. Whereas the American one that's gonna. There might be.

Has corn syrup in it.

Yes. They might add more sugar to it. To make it sweeter.

But I think these are probably made in the same place. And then just that's what I'm sent over here. So we are gonna do a side by side. So I'm gonna pour the ones with the English label.

So there's two of those. Let's not get them confused.

One of the things while I'm pouring this that I learned, this was initially used by hunters to celebrate their hunting successes.

And one of the reasons for this really chunky, blocky, almost like a brick bottle is because they needed a really sturdy bottle because they were taking them on hunting expeditions with them. So here's two of the German ones, and here's two American ones. So did you also say, nicky, we're not shooting people, we're sitting there? No.

It even says here that it falls into the category of it looks the same digestif.

So almost looks a little bit lighter. Holding up to light.

That's life.

Honestly, you might set these and they will be. They might be the exact same. To be honest, I have no idea.

When you just take a tiny little sip. Really nice. This is German licorice anise. Do you know already know these notes or you put. No, I'm just seeing all of the different.

If you look them up, it gives you the main of the 56. Go ahead, Amanda. Yeah. Citrus peel, licorice, anise, poppy seeds, saffron, ginger, juniper berries, and ginseng.

Juniper I can get because there's almost like a gin note to it. And gin is gingerbread. Right.

The desire to look for a difference. I feel like the German one almost tastes a little bit stronger, but it also might be me just like, searching for difference.

It's definitely more in your mouth.

Yeah.

The German one, I guess. Meant to be sick after dinner. I feel like the alcohol's higher. And the German one. Let me look, let me try.

Like I said, like it tastes stronger in the German one.

Like it's more medicinal. They are different. The bottles are not the same size, for starters. Alcohol by volume on both. 35. 35% alcohol by volume.

The English bottle is a 750mil, so same as a wine bot. The German bottle is a 700 mil, so 50 mils smaller. Interesting, because Americans like big portions. Says best served ice cold. But they're both 35%.

But we are perceiving differences on them. I didn't necessarily feel stronger alcohol. I just felt like the German was louder. In my mouth, the German, there was more flavor.

There's the gopher for the episode. Can you say that. One more time for the back row. Dana. The German was louder in my mouth.

Dana. Mom. Right here.

They don't smell different on the nose. I don't think. It's actually quite delicious if you just sip it. And if you have one after dinner. Supposed to be. Yes.

The one article says, interestingly, although it's mostly known for its role in nightlife, Jagermeister is technically a digestive meant to aid digestion after a meal. A lot of those herbs.

And we would never really drink the Jaeger last. That was the first thing that we would open when we were over there drinking. Yeah.

Really? So after you shot shit, then it was Jaeger, and then it was beer.

Yeah. So, you know, the beer before liquor, never sicker.

So liquor before beer, you're in the clear.

Yeah.

Okay, so how is this working tonight? We've had everything tonight. We started with wine. Oh, God. And now we're gonna add Santa. We had some nice wine with. Monday is gonna be real fun.

So you were introduced to this for the first time in Germany. You would sip on it. What would you drink it out of? Especially in the field.

Literally just a plastic cup.

Okay. Cause we're drinking like, it's not a solar cup. I do not have those. Okay.

They were asking me questions like, are solo cups real? I'm like, yes, yes, they are real.

They're not just in movies with Will Ferrell running down the street.

They're not just in Project X either. So that was a big question. They were always asking me, like, what.

Temperature would you sip it there? Probably war. It was war.

75 to 85.

What do you think of it? Chilled a little.

It's easier to drink.

Yeah. Probably a little more enjoyable.

Europeans, other than the cold beer, don't really drink cold stuff. Everything was warm there. Like, it wasn't that unenjoyable. Like, it really. I'd say you get more flavor when it's cold. When it's warm, it's.

You just get that burn hot, burn down. Like, just from the alcohol contents. But, like, when it's cold, you definitely get more of the flavors.

Okay. So it's nice. We're drinking out of these little cordial glasses, slightly chilled, and it's really pleasant.

I'm actually enjoying it after the big meal that we had. I think the American is darker.

They're very similar, almost negligible.

It's interesting. What was the alcohol? 35%. Whoa. Yes. Really? Yes. That's a spirit. It's a distilled spirit. I'm looking up our German and American Jagermeister the same?

Yes. They're essentially the same product.

Despite potential perceptions, the core recipe, including the 56 herbs, spices and ingredients, is consistent regardless of the market. While the product is associated with different consumption styles, meaning party drink versus digestif.

In the US And Germany, Jagermeister still produces bottles, except exclusively in Germany at the linden and kemin plants.

So they are the same?

Pretty much. So they are the same. I want to know if it. Because the bottle size is different, I know if the sugar content's the same. Neither one.

That one we would have to dig into just because I feel like Americans tend to like more sweeter sugar. Jagermeister is a globally recognized brand and the core product is consistent worldwide.

Yeah.

Tell me about the large orange bottle in the center of our tasting table. What's happening here?

I also had the exact same thought process of what the hell are you showing me? And they said, trust me, drink it. And it was good.

Okay.

And they would mix their Jagermeister with Fanta, which is also you many didn't know. It's basically like the German version of Coke. Like how it started up.

And it's Fanta from Germany. Yeah, I don't think I knew that.

So when they were.

Is that why the commercials were so bad?

Famous or so before pre. Yeah, pretty sure I'm correct about this. If you want to fact check me. Pre World War II, Coca Cola was baking. It baked.

That's when it was really stepping up. And they were making factories all over the world and they made some in Germany. World War II started up and Germany was like, screw.

The Americans took over the factories and they made their inversion and then that became Fanta.

Pretty spot on, dudes. Just fact checking you over here.

Fanta, the fruit flavored, carbonated beverage was indeed first created in Germany during World War II as a Coca Cola substitute.

Due to wartime trade embargoes, Coca Cola ingredients were scarce, prompting the German branch to develop a new drink from available resources like apple fibers, whey, and beet sugar. The name Fanta was inspired by the German word fantasy, meaning imagination. Pour me some of that imagination in my glass, Aiden.

So this is how you guys drank it?

Yeah, except it was be a lot warmer.

Is it warm or. It's still nice. So does everybody have a little bit of Jaeger in there? Did you mix it?

Yeah, just pour it in the same glass.

Like a one to one ratio depending.

On how drunk you wanted to get. Tells about the extent they pour some in there. Pour some in there. They wouldn't even shake it up. They just handed it to you.

I've had a Jaeger bomb where it's dropped in a beer. I'm gonna do like, a one to one here because I'm just curious about the flavor combination. Here's a one to one.

No, I don't think it was one to one.

It might have been, like, quite a lot in there.

It might be a little. It was usually. I think it's usually more fancy than that now.

You tell her.

I had to let her take a sip first.

Tastes like might pass.

There's more.

What is that?

Let me make it here.

Make another cocktail there. Something someone hands you. Sure. Let's just keep dancing. Before, it was dangerous to take something from. Spoken like the mom in the group.

Yes, ma', am. I am still alive. That's terrible. So we're just pouring it in a large shot glass with no ice. Jaeger and orange. The super orangiest Fanta ever.

More Fanta is a little bit better.

Could you do it with grape, like, grape soda? That I feel like that could be.

It might be better, but the flavor.

Notes would be more complementary.

It was usually like a one to.

Two ratio, like warm Coca Cola. Oh. The aftertaste does. Now that it's lingering. I'm like, still the whole, like licorice. Yeah. But it does taste like licorice soda.

I think it's more of, like a one to two ratio.

All right. Two to one. Oh. Trying to recreate it because they couldn't get it now that I'm. And it does almost taste like Coke. Yeah.

The finish on my tongue does interesting. Warm coke that makes you get drunk. Aiden, you used the word tradition a minute ago.

And so the last thing I wanted to ask you about one of your stories was about the patches and the swapping. Can you tell us about that?

Yeah. So I brought so much stuff with me and came back with none of it, except it was just swapping.

Well, how much stuff? Like what?

So there's a shop at West Point, and I got 10 of the same. The West Point patch, some American flag patches.

These are all like Velcro. Velcro on the right, right?

Yes. Name tags on the right. You do not want to be soldier U.S. army. You want to be U.S. army soldier, Kucio. Yeah. I think I came back with 30 patches.

So that was through trading patches. Through trading uniforms. They just gave me extra stuff, too, like, for stuff that I gave them. So it's cool, though it's a little bit different.

So in the US The Unit patches that we wear, like, there can be 10,000, 15, 50,000 people wear the same patch. At West Point, there's one west point patch. We also have our company patches too.

But in the actual army, like the 101st, everybody in the 101st has that patch. Okay, that's it. Everybody in the 82nd Airborne has that patch. Everybody in the 9th Cavalry and the 11th Airborne, forever and ever.

Now, if they deploy with that unit, they can wear that patch on their right arm. They wear the normal patch that they're currently with on the left. If they deploy with the unit, they can wear on the right.

And that's any unit in Germany, they would wear their company patch on the left arm. So they're the unit I was with, it was the. The 203rd Panzer Battalion. There's six companies in the battalion.

Two of those companies were off on a deployment, so I was with the other four companies there. So on their left arm, they would wear their. Their company, and then they have their platoon patch on the right arm.

And there's four platoons in each company. So in the US you have one patch or tens of thousands of people.

In Germany, there's a different patch for every 40 people, so there's a lot more variety.

Oh, interesting.

So I'll go train with the company that day so I can go get a company patch. And I can also get a couple platoon patches too. And I'll go to a different company the next day, and I'll get a few of one patch, a few another bang.

And then can you wear them and do you wear them on your uniform or it's just something that you hold and have? It's just a collection giant board now.

Yeah, so it's a big velcro board, so just all the patches of. Collected over the ears, the coolest on the way home.

Oh, another cool thing was we were flying out of Frankfurt just to come back home, and I walk into the airport, and I see 200 Italian soldiers. Oh, and I had, hello, one more patch with me. And I went up to him like, hey, I'm the US Army. I'm American. Flag patch.

Would you want to trade me for the Italian one? And he gave me an Italian patch in turn.

Oh, it's just a military culture thing to trade these patches.

Like, in the u. S. Army. I've had some people give me weird looks like when they were training. Like, why do you want to do that? I'm like, it's cool.

And Germany, almost everybody had a patch wall. Everybody does that mostly I think because like of the patch culture there, there's so many.

Like in the US it's just not that common to see a different patch. But I got so much stuff. I think I got three full uniforms from guys. I want to trade different parts.

I got a boonie hat, which is a bucket hat patrol cap. I got two berets.

Oh, that was a tough one.

That was a tough one. So in the US army, berets are typically like the most elite of elite. Like you have your rangers that wear them.

You have airborne units that wear them. Those are maroon. Rangers is tan. And then green berets and the German army, everybody has a beret.

And the color of your beret determines what branch you are.

So that's their typical uniform as a beret.

Yes, it's a beret.

Oh, I was going to say, when did they wear a beret? When they're.

All time. They wore it all time.

I'm learning so much. I know.

And then I got. Yeah. The coolest thing is one guy gave me his snow uniform stuff. So I'm like, that's gonna be my snowboarding fit for the rest of my life.

I'm totally gonna wear that snowboarding.

Sounds like this was a pretty life changing experience.

It's trip. I'll never forget. It was so much. It was. It's hard to say. I could have had an extra three weeks off this summer hanging out home.

I literally got paid to go on this life changing trip which was really cool. And we're also doing like a care package thing.

So I send two packages over there to two guys that I know they're both sitting on the package package back over here of just extra German stuff and extra American stuff for them that I just didn't have with me.

That's very cool. Thank you for bringing back this care package for us with this beautiful German Pinot noir, the Jaeger, the beer, the Fanta.

I don't think that came from Germany. No, that came from around the corner. Thanks for the story that came. Yeah. Cheers everyone. Or something. You can drink the yogurt and Fantastic.

Thank you for your service. So proud Ant moment.

All of the fun beverage chatter aside, I am so impressed with Aiden's knowledge and the experience that he has gained already in his time at West Point and just really excited to see where his future goes, his travels as he gets to discover all of the cultures and things that we love about exploring the world. So a huge thank you to everyone in my family for sitting down and recording that.

And I hope you learned some interesting things about a German red wine, the difference between German Jagermeister and Jaeger that you can buy in the us. If you'd like to support the podcast, there's a link in the show Notes where you can be an angel and we would be ever so grateful.

And finally, if you are craving some California wine, don't forget Sollevato.

My handcrafted small lot brand here in Sonoma County, California is available on Sollevatowines.com We've got a beautiful Sangiovese as well as a red blend inspired by super Tuscan wines that we love to drink and I can ship to most states in the US. Be sure to use the code podlistener for 10% off your order at solevatowines.com whatever you do between now and next week, I hope that you sip well.

Wow.