MalörT

The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit

Few things fascinate Chicago like Jeppson’s Malört. This is obvious.

I also learned it first hand as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune, covering how the nation’s third-largest city ate and drank. Whenever I wrote about Malört, those stories were read like few others. Fascination ran deep for an intensely bitter spirit routinely called “terrible” or “notorious” or even “the world’s worst liquor.” Malört’s sordid reputation became its charm.

The fervor has spread. After decades available only in Chicago, it is now sold in more than 30 states, with resonance in unlikely places — Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle and New Orleans among them.

The cursory history has been told and retold: A Swedish immigrant peddled Malört in Chicago in the early 20th century before selling it to a local businessman. The businessman had it for decades. He died in 1999 and left the brand to his secretary.

It somehow reentered the public consciousness around 2012 and became a cultural sensation inspiring songs, poems, tattoos — so many tattoos! — and more. Meanwhile, sales spiked. What was an oddball cultural afterthought became a city’s badge of honor.

Finally, the secretary sold Malört to Chicago’s CH Distillery, which brought production back from Florida (where it had been made for years) and expanded distribution for a new generation of fans.

It’s a narrative that begs far more questions than it answers.

How did such a strange product survive so long?

How did it suddenly become so popular?

Why was it made in Florida to be sold only in Chicago?

He left it … to his secretary?

I suspected a book-length narrative lurked in the answers, but those answers wound up even richer than I expected. The story of Malört is the unlikely redemption of an oddball liqueur, yes, but it is also a story of changing cultural tastes and how generations find meaning where the generations before did not. Above all it is a story of people and relationships — love, dedication, betrayal, heartbreak, disappointment and even prison. Through it all, Jeppson’s Malört survived — and then it thrived.

Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit will be released Sept. 3, 2024 by Chicago Review Press. As with my last book, “Barrel-Aged Stout And Selling Out,” I’m planning to host a series of lively readings and events in Chicago and beyond. Please keep an eye on the Events page as those details are finalized.

I’ll be selling and signing books at those events, but you can also preorder now at IndieBound and Amazon or through your favorite local bookstore. See you in September!