A bittersweet long drink of fernet topped with chilled cola over ice, it pours nearly black and rises into a velvety, gold-tinted foam. The fernet's herbal bitterness runs straight through the cola's sweetness, so each sip lands cool, fizzy and unmistakably dark.
Built · Double Rocks · On the Rocks
build
Fill a double old fashioned glass with ice.
add
Pour the Fernet over the ice.
top
Fill up with cola, pouring gently down the side to preserve the carbonation and build the characteristic gold-tinted foam.
stir
Stir gently to combine. No garnish.
Its beginnings are thinly recorded and wrapped in legend: most accounts point to Córdoba, where one story makes it a gentler 1950s cousin of fernet-and-soda and another credits the 1970s bartender and drummer Oscar "el Negro" Becerra, while some northern provinces press their own claims. Whatever its source, it swept through student bars once Argentina returned to democracy and settled in as something close to the country's national pour. In 2020 the IBA added it to its New Era list under the name Fernandito, making it the first Argentine cocktail to win that recognition.