In Chicago, Malört is a tradition

The Nisei Lounge in the Wrigleyville neighborhood of Chicago produces a candy cane Malört for the holidays.

Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

Malört is a digestif distilled from the wormwood plant that tastes of pencil shavings, old battery rust, citrus zest, and ear wax.

It’s a version of Swedish bitters introduced to Chicagoans in the 1920s by Carl Jeppson, a Swedish immigrant. He convinced officials of the Prohibition era that his 70-proof liquor tasted so odiously medicinal, it was obviously a treatment for stomach worms, and not an alcoholic drink anyone would quaff for sinful purposes.

I’ve had Malört two or three times, always on a dare. I have no stomach worms. I guess it works!

Bartenders often keep Malört on a back-shelf to “treat” inebriated blowhards to a drink, on the house, after they’ve led the bar in singing the “SpongeBob SquarePants” theme seven or eight times.

You may wonder: why is a spirit that tastes like cigar ash, singed eyebrows, and Liquid Plumr still brewed? It’s a tradition, darn it, so Chicagoans can tell visiting New Yorkers, “You think you’re tough? Take a swig of this, Gothamite!”

This year, the CH Distillery, which now brews Malört, produced a candy cane infused version — as festive as a mouthful of Christmas lighter fluid!

But the people who run the Nisei Lounge, a sticky-floored bar which has sat just south of Wrigley Field for 67 years, felt the distillery’s Candy Cane Malört amounts to rotgut plagiarism.

Val Capone, the Nisei Lounge Director of Infusions, has soused candy canes into Malört for holidays since 2016, alongside Kosher Dill Pickle Malört for Hanukkah.

“They co-opted…