Fernet’s backstory actually has roots — no pun intended — in naturopathic medicine. Or, more accurately, the unlikely crossroads where centuries of naturopathic medicine collide with robust capitalism. Fernet-Branca founder and “self-taught apothecary” Bernardino Branca began providing Milan’s Fatebenefratelli hospital with his recipe during a particularly bad 19th-century outbreak of Asiatic cholera. While it certainly wasn’t a cure, the stuff seemed to help — and, like Dimetapp, just so happened to taste good. From there it was a matter of distilling and marketing, with Fernet-Branca being taken for everything from menstrual cramps to digestion issues to virility.
Also, Fernet uses a whopping 75 percent of the global supply of saffron.
