Tales of Malört
Posted on July 9, 2009
Filed Under Sonja Kassebaum | 2 Comments
Sonja Kassebaum is a Chicago-based boutique distiller (North Shore Distillery) and cocktail blogger (Thinking of Drinking), as well as the president of Chicago LUPEC.
I imagine many cities around the world have a local favorite spirit that isn’t seen much outside that place. In Chicago, we have Jeppson’s Malört, which is a wormwood-infused bitter spirit. To get an idea of what you’re in for when tasting Malört, the main marketing pitch was/is “Are you man enough for our two fisted liquor?” And their brochure used to (and may still) say that only “1 in 49 men” will come back for a second sip.
And those 1 in 49 are out there, I’ve met a few of them. Apparently, they sell about at least 1,000 cases of the stuff each year, so there are people out there drinking it. This year, it’s been getting renewed attention – I have written about Malört a couple of times, and Mike Sula at the Chicago Reader wrote an in-depth article this year and ran a cocktail contest for it. So of course a bottle had to make it’s way to Tales, thanks to a friend who asked that I not name him.
I’ve had a great time introducing some of my fellow cocktail writers to Malört, and I’ve got a few new photos to submit to the “Malört Face” group on Flickr. Here the best one so far, just to give the general idea.
w00t! I have the best Malort Face! Wait, is that a good thing?
Ooohhh that stuff is bitter!!!