Bitter Home Chicago: Malort Production Returning To Windy City

CHICAGO — One of the most uniquely Chicagoan of spirits will be made in Chicago once again, as production of the bitter wormwood liquor Jeppson's Malört will shift to Pilsen. In a deal that closed Sept. 28, CH Distillery purchased the brand for an undisclosed amount and will begin making the especially potent potable at its 1629 S. Clinton St. facility in 2019, according to the Chicago Tribune, which first reported the sale.

Though it is consumed almost entirely in Chicago, the drink has been distilled at Florida Caribbean Distillers in Auburndale, Florida following the 1986 closure of the Mar-Salle Distillery in Chicago and a brief period during which it was made in Kentucky.

Although once only available at the more old-school of Chicago dive bars, the drink has picked up popularity among hipsters of the Windy City, and it's not unusual to see bearded, bicycle-riding bar patrons sporting Malört-themed clothes or even tattoos.

The new owner, CH Distillery founder Tremaine Atkinson, 54, told the Tribune he expects to serve Malört at the distillery's tasting room at 564 W. Randolph St. and plans to expand distribution to certain markets, including such hipster havens as Milwaukee, Seattle and Austin.

Last year, the company, known for its organic vodka and opened a 20,000-square-foot, $12 million facility which is capable of producing more than 350,000 gallons of spirits a year, according to Crain's Chicago Business. It is located in part of the former Schoenhofen brewery.

The recipe for the Swedish-style liquor was first introduced to Chicago by Swedish immigrant Carl Jeppson. According to a 2013 NPR profile, Swedish people began distilling bäsk – liquor infused with wormwood, also the key ingredient in absinthe – in the 1400s as a "remedy" for digestive problems.

Jeppson's recipe was sold to Chicago lawyer George Brode, whose wife's family business purchased a variety of such recipes from local immigrant communities and then marketed them across cultures, according to NPR, eventually becoming popular with Chicago's Polish and Hispanic communities.

Brode died in 1999 and left the business to Pat Gabelick, 75, the retiring president of Carl Jeppson Co., who had begun working for Brode as a legal secretary in 1966 and went on to run the business herself out of her North Side apartment for the past nearly two decades, according to the Tribune. She credited Chicago hipsters with the spirit's steadily growing sales, which are up 5 percent compared to last year at a local liquor retailer.

“My entire identity has been Malort for the past 20 years,” Gabelick told the paper. “Malört was my life, and now it’s gone.”

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