Malort Liqueur Rebrands as Disgusting Ways People Describe Its Flavour

“Fermented back sweat.”

“A nail polish enema.”

“Back-alley surgery and pesticides.”

These are some of the more family-friendly ways drinkers who’ve tasted Jeppson’s Malort, a bitter wormwood-based Swedish concoction bottled for nearly a century in Chicago, describe the polarising spirit’s taste.

And now the brand, renowned throughout midwestern bars as a Chicago rite of passage, has launched a new campaign as it seeks to expand into new markets, grow brand recognition and build upon its lore. The 'Malort Tastes Like' campaign encourages people to taste it for themselves and share their own take on how it tastes, with the ultimate prize of getting your own colourful descriptor as the name on the label.

The campaign, created by boutique agency Quality Meats, launched this week on Malort’s social channels showcasing a range of candid bargoer reactions to tasting the shot, with comparisons including 'a rat’s farthole' and “donkey dick dipped in gasoline.” The content drives viewers to enter their own descriptions over the next month here, where the Malort will select fifteen names for fans to vote on, ultimately rebranding their bottle as the top three taste descriptors.

“We wanted to embrace the instinctual reaction everyone has when they taste a spirit as distinct as Malort, which is to describe it in the most fowl, visceral way possible,” says Quality Meats group creative director Jamie Stark. “It’s human nature to want to experience it yourself, even if it’s called Jeppson’s “Chewed-Up Aspirin From An Unwashed Butt” on the label.”

The campaign will be running over the next few months on social media and on premise on bottles, posters and coasters in bars that serve Malort