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10-23-2007, 10:15 AM
High-test booze blast a real buzz
Misty Harris, CanWest News Service
Published: Thursday, January 11, 2007
Did you hear the one about the guy whose heart exploded after he drank a Jager Bomb? How about the girl who was date-raped after being "drugged'' with the trendy nightclub drink, or the man who took a single gulp and went into cardiac arrest?
The Tom Cruise of potent potables, Jager Bombs are drinks so steeped in urban lore that it's nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction. Some Canadian bar owners have even banned the mixed beverage, which consists of one ounce of the 70-proof herbal liqueur Jagermeister dropped into a chaser of the caffeinated "energy drink'' Red Bull and then downed like a shot.
Ron Woodford, who enjoyed his first Jager Bomb over the holidays, describes the drink as "fizzy and sweet, kind of like root beer, followed immediately by a slight fluttering of the eyeballs, a buzzing feeling between the frontal lobes, coupled with a strong desire to run the Boston Marathon -- twice.''
But, when the middle-aged oil worker from Sherwood Park, Alta, tried to buy his "time-weathered friends'' a round of the high-octane elixir at a local lounge, he was rebuffed, with the bartender suggesting Jager Bombs are liquid invitations to a heart attack.
"I felt like a fiend - some diabolical urban terrorist who was trying to Jager Bomb his buddies,'' recalls Woodford. "So I wished them all a Merry Christmas, knowing I could have possibly killed them by simply buying them a drink, and went home.''
The owner of the watering hole says his decision not to serve the drinks is simply precautionary.
"A lot of our customers have asked for it, but we're just a small lounge,'' says Frank Reda. "We don't want to have any problems.''
Unless patrons are predisposed to heart problems, or have previously experienced a cardiovascular event, a Canadian cardiologist says a Jager Bomb realistically poses no more of a threat than a Baileys mixed with Starbucks coffee.
"The concern with young, healthy people would be the stimulus of caffeine going against the tranquilizing effect of alcohol EYou might stay up all night and drink as opposed to flaking out and going home,'' says Dr. David Johnstone, clinical director of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute. "Also, both are diuretics, so you get progressively dehydrated.''
In general, however, the doctor dismisses the widely whispered stories of Jager Bombs leading to exploding hearts and other sinister ends.
"In moderation, young people without underlying heart disease can probably get away with a lot in life,'' says Johnstone, laughing.
But because there are genuine concerns about mixing stimulants with alcohol for people with heart conditions -- and some folks don't realize they're at risk -- a universe of speculation and tall tales has developed online, mixing medical facts with what experts call "scarelore.''
An American scholar specializing in urban myths says the Jager Bomb is well on its way to becoming this generation's "Mikey'' - the untrue but widely believed story of how the child actor portrayed in Life cereal commercials was felled by an exploding stomach after mixing a six-pack of Pepsi with Pop Rocks candy.
"There's a long tradition of these bogus warnings,'' says Gary Grizzle, an associate professor of sociology at Barry University in Florida. "And many of them do end up being reported as fact.''
In the 1960s, for instance, respected news organizations across North America ran an article about a group of California teenagers who allegedly dropped LSD and then stared at the sun until they went blind. The story was later revealed to be a hoax cooked up by someone frustrated over drug abuse.
mharris@canwest.com
Misty Harris, CanWest News Service
Published: Thursday, January 11, 2007
Did you hear the one about the guy whose heart exploded after he drank a Jager Bomb? How about the girl who was date-raped after being "drugged'' with the trendy nightclub drink, or the man who took a single gulp and went into cardiac arrest?
The Tom Cruise of potent potables, Jager Bombs are drinks so steeped in urban lore that it's nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction. Some Canadian bar owners have even banned the mixed beverage, which consists of one ounce of the 70-proof herbal liqueur Jagermeister dropped into a chaser of the caffeinated "energy drink'' Red Bull and then downed like a shot.
Ron Woodford, who enjoyed his first Jager Bomb over the holidays, describes the drink as "fizzy and sweet, kind of like root beer, followed immediately by a slight fluttering of the eyeballs, a buzzing feeling between the frontal lobes, coupled with a strong desire to run the Boston Marathon -- twice.''
But, when the middle-aged oil worker from Sherwood Park, Alta, tried to buy his "time-weathered friends'' a round of the high-octane elixir at a local lounge, he was rebuffed, with the bartender suggesting Jager Bombs are liquid invitations to a heart attack.
"I felt like a fiend - some diabolical urban terrorist who was trying to Jager Bomb his buddies,'' recalls Woodford. "So I wished them all a Merry Christmas, knowing I could have possibly killed them by simply buying them a drink, and went home.''
The owner of the watering hole says his decision not to serve the drinks is simply precautionary.
"A lot of our customers have asked for it, but we're just a small lounge,'' says Frank Reda. "We don't want to have any problems.''
Unless patrons are predisposed to heart problems, or have previously experienced a cardiovascular event, a Canadian cardiologist says a Jager Bomb realistically poses no more of a threat than a Baileys mixed with Starbucks coffee.
"The concern with young, healthy people would be the stimulus of caffeine going against the tranquilizing effect of alcohol EYou might stay up all night and drink as opposed to flaking out and going home,'' says Dr. David Johnstone, clinical director of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute. "Also, both are diuretics, so you get progressively dehydrated.''
In general, however, the doctor dismisses the widely whispered stories of Jager Bombs leading to exploding hearts and other sinister ends.
"In moderation, young people without underlying heart disease can probably get away with a lot in life,'' says Johnstone, laughing.
But because there are genuine concerns about mixing stimulants with alcohol for people with heart conditions -- and some folks don't realize they're at risk -- a universe of speculation and tall tales has developed online, mixing medical facts with what experts call "scarelore.''
An American scholar specializing in urban myths says the Jager Bomb is well on its way to becoming this generation's "Mikey'' - the untrue but widely believed story of how the child actor portrayed in Life cereal commercials was felled by an exploding stomach after mixing a six-pack of Pepsi with Pop Rocks candy.
"There's a long tradition of these bogus warnings,'' says Gary Grizzle, an associate professor of sociology at Barry University in Florida. "And many of them do end up being reported as fact.''
In the 1960s, for instance, respected news organizations across North America ran an article about a group of California teenagers who allegedly dropped LSD and then stared at the sun until they went blind. The story was later revealed to be a hoax cooked up by someone frustrated over drug abuse.
mharris@canwest.com