Fernet con Coca
Fernet-Branca lengthened with cola over ice.
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CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cropped, white-balanced, graded and re-encoded to WebP by eXir.
A dark Fernet con Coca in a tall glass over ice, on a wooden table
Serving
Drink spec, per drink
Every figure above is per drink and does not move with the count, which is what makes the two service modes comparable. Sugar per litre, strength and standard drinks stay in the units their own authorities publish, because they are figures for comparing rather than for pouring. Dilution is modelled rather than measured, as a fraction of the poured volume before any ice; dotted figures descend from that estimate.
Honey is not listed among the botanicals the producer publicises, but the producer told the vegan-tracking site Barnivore by email in August 2021 that the formula contains honey in a very low proportion, which is enough to withhold the vegan label. Honey is inside the vegetarian line, so that label stands.
Diet and allergen labels are computed from the ingredients listed on this page and nothing else. They cannot account for cross-contamination or for the particular product you buy, and they are not medical or safety guidance.
Ingredients
45 ml Fernet-BrancaProprietary
125 ml cola
- 45 ml Fernet-BrancaProprietary
- 125 ml cola
- ~43 ml water
Glass
Vessel
170 ml of liquid plus 230 ml of cubed ice occupies about 400 ml, inside the 400 ml the glass holds. The build fails if a recipe ever exceeds its stated vessel.
A batch needs a vessel that closes and fits a fridge shelf.
Method
3 steps · 1mFill a Collins glass with ice.
Pour in the 45 ml Fernet-Branca.
Top with the 125 ml cola and lift once with a bar spoon.
The two go in over a full glass of ice rather than a few cubes, because Fernet-Branca's bitterness and menthol carry through cola's sugar easily and the drink is meant to stay long and cold through a slow pour rather than a quick, concentrated one.
Common pitfallPoured with too little ice or left to sit, the menthol note turns medicinal rather than refreshing as the drink warms. This is the opposite fault from most highballs, where warming just makes the drink duller.
Keeping and make-ahead
Batched ahead, this keeps sealed and cold. The water line the engine adds is the dilution figure from the spec panel, not a rule of thumb.
About
An Italian bitter, brought to Argentina by immigrants and Córdoba's own drinking culture, that a decades-long marketing partnership with cola turned into the country's most consumed spirit by volume.
Fratelli Branca began exporting Fernet-Branca to Argentina in 1907 and opened a distillery in Buenos Aires in 1925, well ahead of the drink this page describes 1. The combination with cola is generally placed in Córdoba province, though its exact first mixing is not documented; accounts range from the 1950s to a specific 1970s attribution to a Cruz del Eje bartender, and none of them can be checked against a contemporary source 2.
What is documented is the scale it reached. Córdoba consumes about thirty per cent of the bitters sold in Argentina, more than any other province and enough to make it the heaviest per-capita market for the drink anywhere 1. Fratelli Branca's own Argentine marketing ran an implicit, then formal, co-branding campaign pairing Fernet with cola between 1994 and 1997, a campaign credited with helping consumption grow by 251% over the 2000s against a much smaller rise for beer over the same period 2. Argentina now accounts for more than three-quarters of the fernet produced worldwide 1.
The drink was recognised as an official IBA cocktail in 2020, under the name Fernandito, in the organisation's "new era drinks" category. It was the first Argentine drink to receive that recognition 2.
- 1Fernet Branca in Argentina and global consumption with colalicorea.com
- 2Fernet con cocaen.wikipedia.org