[9][10] Fernet was introduced to Argentina by Italians during the great European immigration wave to the country of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a period in Argentine history characterized by vast economic growth and rapid social change.

[14] In 1941, Fratelli Branca opened its first and only production plant outside Italy in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Parque Patricios,[12] which indicates that already at that time the fernet market in Argentina was considerable.

[17][20] Some sources say that the cocktail already existed in the 1950s, as a "gentler" variation of the common combination of fernet and soda water,[4] while others affirm that it was invented in the 1970s by Oscar "el Negro" Becerra, a drummer and bartender from Cruz del Eje, a city in the province's northwest.

[21] Fratelli Branca head of marketing since 1992 Hernán Mutti told Fortune in 2016: "We had to convince Argentina that this was the way to drink fernet: to be shared between friends.

And with it, an emotional economy of ethyl pleasure was also imposed, which harmonized with the end of the period and replaced the Menemist champagne[nb 2] with the post-convertibility fernet."

"[3] Branca brand ambassador Nicola Olianas told the Spirits Business in 2017 that he "has obviously contemplated how to replicate the success in other markets, but wonders whether the conditions in Argentina were somehow unique, with the long-established distillery and the millions of emigré Italians".

[19] On the contrary, since 2002 fernet's production and marketing underwent intense transformations, establishing itself as "one of the most striking phenomena in the entire region", making way for women and young people as new consumers and cementing its popularity at bars, parties, asados and gatherings.

[14][17] The International Bartenders Association recipe—first published in 2020—[9]calls for 50 millilitres Fernet-Branca poured into a double old fashioned glass with ice, filled up with cola.

[35] Over the years, fernet products in Argentina have been "lightened" in relation to the traditional amari of Italy, as they are now intended for consumption with cola—reducing their bitterness, alcohol content and "syrupy texture".

[citation needed] Walkers commonly make a viajero (meaning 'traveller' in Spanish),[3][37] using half-cut plastic bottles of Coca-Cola as containers for communal drinking and to carry the cocktail.

[49] Three-quarters of the amaro's sales are concentrated in "the Interior" provinces,[26] that is, the portion of the Argentine territory that is not part of the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

[50] Fernet consumption per capita increases between 15% and 18% in the Northwest, which includes the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, Catamarca, La Rioja and Santiago del Estero, as the region has a greater historical tradition of herbal liqueur drinking.

In the 1990s, rock band Vilma Palma e Vampiros from Rosario released a song named after the cocktail, which featured the lyrics: "I do not want to end up in a cell without my fernet con coca".

[51][52] Fito Páez names the drink in his song "Las cosas que me hacen bien", off his 2020 album La conquista del espacio.