30 Days of Fernet Branca: An experiment in healthy drinking
Janice Mansfield
For 30 days during January 2012, Janice decided to subject herself to a dose
of Fernet Branca every day to see if there might be any health benefits.
Fernet Branca was originally created in 1845, as a digestif and health remedy.
Over drinks one evening, Janice jokingly speculated that herbal-based drinks
such as Fernet Branca might have beneficial properties. In fact, as she began
to look more closely at some of the ingredients, she found they were, in fact
powerful medicinals … thus she embarked on a commitment to try Fernet Branca
for 30 Days.
She will highlight some of the changes she observed during that month, and
share some of the other surprising things she discovered about this elixer!
About Janice Mansfield:
Janice Mansfield is the personal chef behind Real Food Made Easy,
providing catering services and meal planning and preparation for
people with restricted diets, after working 18 years in government as
an economist. She also enjoys classic cocktails, and began incorporating
cocktails into catered dinners and special events.
In 2009, she began experimenting with bitters, in order to create products she
was unable to find in Canada, and found demand from others experiencing the
same frustration. Those first bitters experiments have evolved into “House
Made” bitters, a line of micro-batch, artisinal bitters, with a distinct
culinary edge. “House Made” now produces 8 standard flavours of bitters, with
a changing selection of one-time, seasonal flavours, and produces a line of
cocktail syrups.
Janice enjoys a well crafted cocktail from time to time, and while not
a full-blown barfly, is certainly working hard on being a bon vivant!
