Looking For a Good Book

Tell me about a book of a spirit that I’m not familiar with, and I’m interested. Tell me it’s roots are of Scandinavian origin and I’m very interested.

Author Josh Noel details the history, rise, fall, and rise again of the world’s worst-tasting alcohol – Jeppson’s Malört. And that’s not entirely hyperbole. One of the great appeals to this spirit is the taste. The shockingly horrible taste by all accounts.  A taste so bad that you had to be of a special calibre person to be able to drink it and much of the advertising focused on it: “Are you man enough to drink our two-fisted liquor?” “Can a panty-waist drink Jeppson? … Not twice.”

Malört is essentially a neutral spirit (ala vodka) with some botanicals and aged on wormwood.  In fact, “Malört” is the Swedish word for wormwood.

The book dives deep into the recent history of the specific Jeppson’s Malört – from Chicago lawyer George Bode, to Pat Gabelick, to Tremaine Atkinson. By necessity, we get some biography of Bode and more of Gabelick. Necessity because it’s nearly impossible to separate their personal lives from Malört.

I found the book fascinating, and the social atmosphere surrounding Malört fascinating. It had developed what we might consider a cult following. True fans even had Malört tattoos. Members seemed to be proud to belong to an unofficial club of something that most had never heard of and those that had probably wished they hadn’t. Self-deprecation was popular, and all in good fun.  Perhaps my favorite moment from the book:

A theology doctoral candidate launched a Malört 5K race in 2014 as a fundraiser for a Chicago food depository. Participants got a shot before the starting whistle and another at the finish line (plus a can of beer). The first-place finisher won a bottle of Jeppson’s Malört. The last-place finisher got two.

The book definitely plays up the connection to Chicago and its Chicago roots. Fortunately, for those of us not from Chicago and who like to find unusual liquor, the current owners have understood the need to branch out some in order to keep sales growing.

Yes, I know where I can buy Malört and it’s only 30 minutes away.  By the time this review has posted, I’ll likely have sampled “the world’s worst-tasting liquor.” Whether you want to try the drink yourself is up to you, but I would encourage you to at least read the book.

Looking for a good book? Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit by Josh Noel is a well written, well researched look at a little-known liquor.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit

author: Josh Noel

publisher: Chicago Review Press

ISBN: 9780914091677

paperback, 264 pages