Two vignettes led to one drink. Bear with me.
Have you watched “The Bear” yet? I need you to watch The Bear. I was casually observing that apparently I like TV shows that make me tense, but the point stands, it’s one of the best things I’ve watched in a long time.
It gives nothing away to say that it takes place in Chicago, and the show is imbued well with a sense of place. Some notes more subtle than others. Wilco is unavoidably entangled with the city so if you put them on your soundtrack, and specifically if you put “Via Chicago” on there, well, what am I to think?
But this isn’t a space where I normally go on deep and long musings about music (at least, too too long), so let’s get back to the other thing that makes it VERY Chicago, and that is the Malört ad over The Original Beef of Chicagoland location (I also appreciated the bottle of Fernet Branca on Carmy’s desk).
It’s hard to get more Chicago than Jeppson’s Malört. Think of it as a wormwoody cousin to Fernet, and certainly an institution among industry people more than something most people will drink. A good friend brought me back a bottle the last time he was in Chicago, and I eternally appreciate it. Is it good? I’ll leave that for others to decide but it is certainly its own uniqueness, and outside of there and Washington State, idk where you can even pick up a bottle.
Anyway, that’s how I came to own my own bottle (and occasionally take advantage of trusting friends who don’t know what it is).
I was in Los Angeles in May, and once again this past weekend. It’s nice. It had been way too long. I cannot recall when my last LA proper trip was, I was in Long Beach in 2019, and certainly it’s only been 5-6 years, but for how close it is, I have been way overdue. I’ll be back again soon.
Los Angeles is a magnificent food and drink city. It’s only slightly annoying that it’s so hard to get to all the good stuff because it’s all sprinkled among disparate strip malls and far-reaching neighborhoods. At least I’m staying by the Metro next trip.
But the Metro doesn’t really take you to Echo Park or Silver Lake, where I found myself a lot in between what I was down there to do. One, because it’s a good place to be if you are vegan, and two, because I had to go back to the Semi-Tropic. Up Glendale a couple blocks from an area I used to know quite well (I miss going to shows at the Echo), you’ll find a bar that is doing some creative and wonderful drinks with witty bartenders and killer music selection (you play The Cleaners From Venus, I will remember). I had one of the best drinks I’ve had in a while again, a Mango Cart (pictured below, if you are in or will be in LA soon, go drink this, I did not know you could do this with yellow bell pepper), but it was something else on their menu that got me thinking a bit, La Petite Mort.
La Petite Mort is a French phrase, it literally means “the little death”, it popularly means…well, something different lol (this is a family newsletter, thank you). Anyway, the name itself plus powering through “The Bear” got me jokingly thinking about La Petite Malört, or literally, “the little Malört” :)
Now how the hell does one mix with such a powerful kind of beverage. Fernet, absinthe, these kinds of liquors poses the same problems because finding the right balance between bringing some of that flavor out versus completely burying it is difficult. Some amount of experimentation is normal to try and nail the amount.
I tend to be a “throw strong and strong” together kind of drinkmaker (see: Carthusian Trip). There is something exciting about clashing a few strong flavors together and seeing what happens. Of the juices I normally work with, certainly the strongest and most confrontational is grapefruit. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s certainly bitter, but that does some interesting things when you start putting it together with other flavors. As two strong flavors go, putting grapefruit and Malört together is certainly…a decision. So let’s round out that decision, shall we?
First, a natural compliment to grapefruit while we are still on the citrus side of things, a bit of lime. It never hurts. Next, how to sweeten it or add some more complex flavors to this mix?
I decided to ditch simple all together after thinking about that in the first go round. In its place? Allspice dram. In addition to a bit of sweetness, you get that rich earthiness to add in with the wormwood here.
Finally, I obviously needed rum. I wanted something a bit mellower, kinda caramel-y, and vanilla-y, if you will, and as mixing rums go, I couldn’t think of anything better in my collection than El Dorado 5.
So I put all that together…but wait. After mixing I realized it was coming up just a bit short, and that bit short is a barspoon of falernum. Trust me.
Now here you go:
2 oz grapefruit juice
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz allspice dram
a bar spoon of falernum
2 oz El Dorado 5
.5 oz Mälort
Take that all, put it in a shaker, do your thing, and then top with fresh crushed ice, garnish with mint, and serve with a straw. There you go, you got yourself a nice little tropical use case for Malört like you’ve always been hoping.
This is Trader Jane’s, a periodic newsletter about drinks (mostly tiki) and other fun writing. Follow me on Substack for something every couple of weeks (if we are being honest), and follow me on Twitter and Instagram for more timely updates on my beverages (and for lots of other things of course!)
And, as with any good drink, feel free to share (responsibly, of course)