Malört: How the bitter liqueur became an unlikely Chicago icon

CHICAGO - It’s a beverage closely tied to the history of Chicago and one you’ll find at most bars across the city and suburbs.

In a Fox 32 special report, Sylvia Perez takes a look at how it got its start and how it became so connected to our city’s bar culture.

You can tell by their decor that Nisei Lounge in Wrigleyville is all in when it comes to Malort.

"Malort keeps all of our lights on," said Jay Westbrook of Nisei Lounge. "All of our lights on. It keeps the bills paid."

Westbrook said the bar regularly orders some 31 gallons a week and goes through that rapidly.

"Hence the wall behind me. We go through a lot of Malort. That is 100% function and not fashion. It behooves us to have that ready because people come in from all over the world. I heard this was the Malort bar," Westbrook said.

Malort is a beverage that dates back long before Nisei and its Chicago roots are thanks to a man named Carl Jeppson, who immigrated to the city from Sweden in the 1880s.

"He brought this flavor of home with him," said Tremaine Atkinson, CEO of CH Distillery. "And he started making what the Swedish called ‘besk’."

"The southern Swedes will take things that are left over at the end of the harvest and preserve them. The farm country where Carl Jeppson came from. There’s a plant called ‘wormwood’ - that’s the American word for it – ‘wormwood’. In Swedish it’s the Malort plant," Atkinson added.

Atkinson said his company bought the brand in 2018 and has been the caretaker of its history since then. The brand is very rooted in the past. And it’s rooted in tradition.

"Malort comes from a very old Swedish liquor tradition really," said Lisa Lindstrom, collection manager at the Swedish American Museum in Andersonville. "And we know that this dates back to at least the 1400s. It was used as a medicine, but also just as a drink."

Lindstrom said Jeppson would have likely found a ready audience for his brand in Chicago.

"He settled into a community that already had a very strong Swedish presence. There was already a lot of Swedish social clubs. We had Swedish restaurants. And it’s likely that is why he chose to come here. And it probably gave him a pretty good base to start this business," Lindstrom said.

The brand made it through prohibition by being marketed as a medicinal tonic. After it was repealed, Jeppson sold the recipe to a local family with a distillery in Chicago. It was made here until production moved out of state in the 90s, but was eventually brought back thanks to CH. Malort ultimately saw its quick rise in popularity largely due to a man named Sam Mechling, who was hooked at the first shot.

"Tasting how it did," Mechling said. "There’s nothing else like it, and I was hooked."

Mechling worked as a bartender and took it upon himself to get as many people as possible to taste Malort. He eventually made Malort t-shirts, which led to him connecting to the brand’s owners and finding himself hired to do promotion work on their behalf.

"And as time went on and I continued to do good work and show myself to be a true fan," Mechling said.

As part of those promotional efforts, Mechling played a big role in the brand’s resurgence and joined with an Old Style rep to create one of its most popular pairings, the "Chicago Handshake."

"It’s something that I’m more proud of than just about anything I’ve done in my career," Mechling said.

"A shot of Malort and a can of Old Style," said Atkinson.

"The Malort would come in really strong. But the Old Style, nice and cold, would be like throwing a bucket of water on a car fire," Mechling said.

Gradually, as the word about Malort spread, so did creative descriptions of its very unique flavor that has gained quite the reputation.

"It’s like a grapefruit, a whole grapefruit. And just take a big bite out of it. That’s kind of like taking a shot of Malort," Atkinson described.

"So scientifically I think it tastes like a baby aspirin wrapped in grapefruit peel, bound with rubber bands and then soaked in well gin," was Mechling’s description.

The strong flavor comes from Malort’s key ingredient - wormwood. CH actually sources it from Carl Jeppson’s hometown in Sweden.

"Some people love it and then some people hate it," Atkinson said. And then there are a lot of people who love to hate it."

So with a flavor like that, why do people keep coming back for more?

"This is a town of locals. And we like things that are a little bit tough, like we are. And Malort very much fits that category. But it takes a Chicagoan to take a shot of Malort and whoo," Atkinson said.

These days, Malort is more popular than ever and CH predicts it will only continue to grow from here.

"We’re predicting that this year in 2024, that there will be about 10 million shots of Malort consumed in this country. And of that, probably 80% is in the city of Chicago," Atkinson suggested.

"I think Malort is a perfect kind of analog for Chicago. Like on first blush, we’re a little bit rough and a little bit assertive. But if you give us time, you’ll find that there’s so much more going on and there’s such a great story," Mechling said.

Malort is now sold in some 30 states and CH said it plans to keep looking at expanding.