Meet The New Malört, Mostly The Same As The Old Malört

By Jon Graef in Food on Jan 19, 2014 5:15PM

Photo by Sarah Freeman.

The Chicago Tribune's Josh Noel talked to Jeppson's Malört's Director of Marketing Sam Mechling about the new Malört. Turns out it's mostly the same as the old Malört, but the reason Mechling tells Noel as to why the new-in-a-sense Malört is more bitter than Malört of past makes the brief piece a fascinating read indeed.

If you've thought that the notoriously bitter spirit had lost some of its punch over the years, it may not be just because your taste buds have acclimated themselves to Malört. Nor is it because the recipe has changed; rather, according to Mechling, the original wormwood -- that fun little plant that gives Malört its nuclear holocaust of an aftertaste -- from which the company sourced Malört's flavor has become milder.

But the ... good? ... news is that Malört has found a new, more intense wormwood plant to infuse into the spirit. And the result? Well:

I tasted both new and old Jeppson's Malort ... and can confirm that the new stuff is clearly more bitter. The old has a thicker and slightly more syrupy -- and I would say pleasant -- body. The new stuff doesn't taste so different for a second, but then its bitterness slams the back of the tongue like an anvil. It lingers mightily. And then it lingers some more. It's intense stuff.

So there you have it. You can tell the new stuff from serial numbers on the back. The news of the new flavor follows Noel's story about the history of the Malört name and the surge in popularity the beverage has had.

So who's up for a round of shots?