alt Hacker NewsThe Rise of Malört, an Unexpected Midwest princess
Comments
I'm a complete weirdo apparently who really likes the flavor of malort, it's bitter and herbal and so if you like those flavors you'll enjoy it. I kinda resent the amount of marketing that the new owners have churned out hyping it up, although I do appreciate what they're doing.
If you think you might enjoy it, give it a shot I'd describe the flavor as sweetened church pew, then grapefruit bitterness. If you're not expecting it you'll almost certainly hate it, but it's really not that bad.
I like it fine, it doesn't taste especially unusual among other herbal bitter liquors, a category I like. It's not the best (or as expensive as the best! they can get pricey), but it's not the worst, it's a fine drink.
The NYT story above mostly stayed away from how it's become known as like "the worst drink ever" or something, something you drink as a kind of challenge rather than that it's enjoyable.
I've suspected that the manufacturer has been actually encouraging this story. In the age of "challenges", a narrative that this is an incredibly hard to drink thing that's a challenge to drink is actually good marketting, that has been part of it's successful national awareness?
It's not especially challenging, it's just an herbal bitter, which is not for everyone, sure. But it's not gross, it's a fine drink -- and ironically saying this, that it's not actually exceptionally bad, hurts it's marketing! Better to be exceptionally noteworthy bad than simply typical.
I happen to enjoy malort, so there's probably something wrong with me.
Malort has been seeing wider distribution recently, which i hear may due to a buyout a while ago. Their website lists distribution in Delaware, Maryland, DC, and randomly checking San Francisco shows availability as well.
No more having to visit Chicago to purchase it enables a lot more people to buy it and businesses to serve it.
The weird Chicago only malort variants do disturb me, but i would try them.
Malört is the name of the herb wormwood in Swedish. The swedish name means "clothing moth herb", and has been used to fight cloth moths among other uses. Also especially popular spirit flavoring, which it's latin name hints of.
Artemisia absinthium
The only thing I know about Malört is that tptacek enjoys complaining about Malört, so I'm looking forward to learning even more about that one thing.
It's basically a bottom shelf amaro. If you like amaros, you can probably find malort palatable.
But bitterness is a very divisive flavor so lots of people just have extreme reactions to amaros in general and malort in particular.
I went on a stag do (bachelor party for non-Brits) last year. The groom had just returned from Chicago on a business trip the morning we went away. He brought back a bottle of Malört.
I developed a taste for it that weekend - it's not that bad (I'd take it over something like Becharovka). Annoyingly years ago (2009ish) I spent a fair amount of time over in the Midwest with work and never drank the stuff.
I’ve noticed an increase in small distilleries creating their own versions of Malört over the past five or so years. It reminds me of the renaissance Fernet experienced 7 or 8 years ago. Malört is definitely an acquired taste—taking a shot of it feels like punishment—but if you enjoy bitter liquors, sipping some chilled Malört after a heavy meal might not be unpleasant.
I’d guess that bitterness is the flavor most people are least interested in exploring, and that makes sense. It doesn’t seem to have the same endorphin payoff as other tastes. It’s an interesting flavor, and I think you need to have an interest in digging into unusual flavors before diving into the world of bitter-forward spirits. I think it makes sense that the rise of better cocktails has led to spirits like Malört seeing growth.
Love Malort, we serve it at my bar and it's absolutely something that grows on people.
I never understood why everyone hates this. I used to order a round of shots for everyone at the bar and they all hated it.
I (a brit) have drunk Malört on a few occasions. It's foul, I only drank it because it was part of fun nights out with a group of work friends. My ex boss' review "the worst thing I've ever had in my mouth".
As a Chicagoan, I enjoy Malort regularly, and I like to chase it with light beer. It makes the beer taste amazingly sweet.
I'm Swedish, and this tastes exactly as I remember the Swedish "Bäska Droppar" ("Bitter drops"). I haven't had the opportunity to compare them side by side, and don't particularly wish to.
I used to think of it as the booze for a final stage alcoholic to get a reaction from a drink.
https://www.raschvin.com/en/product/baeska-droppar-prima-sna...
the bar Little Brother in Austin has a fun deal. for $5, you roll a d20 and if you get a 20 you get a shot of whistle pig. anything 1-5 and you get a shot of malort.
We had a bottle or two in our FarmLogs (yc12) office. Would bring it out once in a while to celebrate something, and would always snag a noobie or intern to fall for the trap.
Even just reading the word Malört gives me Malört face.
https://web.archive.org/web/20241115175926/https://www.nytim...
edit: IDK how ethically right it is (in my opinion it is) but when posting paywalled content we should post the archive link directly or at least as part of the submission
Ok, Malört is the name of an alcoholic beverage. It is unclear to me why a liquid would be called a "princess" but maybe it reflects the jargon of aficionados.
Malört was introduced in Chicago in the 1930s and was long produced by the Carl Jeppson Company. In 2018, as its last employee was retiring, the brand and company name were sold to CH Distillery of Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. Jeppson's Malört is named after Carl Jeppson, a Swedish immigrant who first distilled and popularized the liquor in Chicago. Malört (literally moth herb) is the Swedish word for wormwood, which is the key ingredient in bäsk. Malört is extremely low in thujone, a chemical once prevalent in absinthe and similar drinks.
> Mr. Wurth, who tended bar in Chicago for 10 years before moving down South, takes Polaroids of Malört first-timers and asks them to write descriptions of the drink on the border. Hundreds of snapshots plaster the walls of the bar’s two bathrooms. A sampling of their tiny captions: “Swamp grass in July,” “Pain” and, Mr. Wurth’s favorite, “The powder inside of a balloon.” Malört turns even the most prosaic into unexpected poets.
I have not had Malort, but I have had absinthe, which I believe is similar? And I'd like to contribute.
I wouldn't say it tastes bad. If you drank boiling bleach, you wouldn't say it "tastes bad." That's not the right category of word. It tastes like something that should never, ever go in your mouth.
It’s disgusting. It’s liquid ear wax shared by people who like to piss other people off. I say this as a person who typically enjoys bitter.
> It is also, in five words, the unofficial liquor of Chicago
No, it's a meme that hipsters have somehow latched onto because the Chicago aesthetic seems to be popular now.
If a native Chicagoan tells you that you have to have a shot of Malort when you're at the bar because it's the "unofficial liquor of Chicago" - they're pulling a prank. It's somehow lasted a century as a prank you pull on your buddies who don't drink that often.
My friends make a cocktail with Malort, White Monster, and C4 preworkout. They also have a multi-year running gag where they offer me a bottle of fine whiskey or bourbon at a campfire but it has in fact been replaced by Malort. Then, when I am choking and gagging someone else offers me some water to wash away the taste, which is in fact also Malort.