Jeppson’s Malört
From The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails
is a bitter wormwood-based liqueur based on bask brännvin, a Swedish schnapps popular in the early 1900s. After Skåne County native Carl Jeppson reportedly proffered his absinthe-like “two-fisted liquor” as a medicinal alcohol from a cigar shop in Prohibition-era Chicago, Jeppson’s Malört spent the latter half of the twentieth century as a dive-bar rite of passage for any local or unsuspecting out-of-towner willing to tolerate its notoriously punitive aftertaste. Due to a recent social media–powered resurgence, Jeppson’s Malört (now produced by Chicago’s CH distillery) has transcended its provincial inside-joke origins to become a hip cocktail ingredient in scattered American cities—sometimes even unironically.See also Prohibition, Temperance in America, Wormwood.
Hernandez, Joseph. “In Chicago, a Spirit Rises Despite Bitter Reviews.” Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2012.
Peters, Mark. “Malort’s Meteoric Rise.” Wine Enthusiast, February 2015.
This Story Will Never End: The Story of Jeppson’s Malört (film) Marc Pearlman, dir., (Fire Engine Red Films, 2014).
By: Jeff Ruby
This definition is from The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, edited by David Wondrich (Editor-in-Chief) and Noah Rothbaum (Associate Editor).