If Malört tasted as cool as it sounded, we'd all be in heaven. For now, Chicago will have to do!
Malört is, in one word, unforgiving. Made from neutral spirits, wormwood and sugar, it tastes a little like sucking dandelion juice through a straw made of car tires. It is also kind of good. Intensely bitter, it's herbaceous and a touch citrusy, as if you were to bite a grapefruit like an apple. It is also, in five words, the unofficial liquor of Chicago. … But some bartenders and fans are concerned that the liquor is losing the down-home energy that made it popular. "When it went national, it stopped being a quirky local secret," Mr. Basilo said, "and turned into the kind of thing annoying tourists ask about." You can take Malört out of the Midwest, but can you take the Midwest out of Malört?
Context not mentioned in the story: Malört was an absinthe substitute, like Pastis (i.e. "Pernod"), emergent in the years after the real thing was banned. Its domestic history and branding allows it to escape the effete continental connotations of the original while doubling down on the love-it-or-hate-it flavor; perfect for the times.
