The Unlikely Staying Power Of Jeppson’s Malört

How did a spirit that “tastes like bandaids” and has been the butt of many jokes survive generations and go from a lone bottle collecting dust in the back of bars to so closely linked with Chicago that bartenders and enthusiasts alike tattoo it on their bodies? Well, it has to do with a plucky businessman named George Brode and his secretary Pat Gabelick. Reset learns the history as laid out in a new book from a veteran food writer Josh Noel, author of Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.