CHICAGO \u2014 After he posted a picture of five antique bottles of liquor on Reddit, Ben Cissell received a multitude of messages. Many people asked if he was willing to sell what he just posted on the whiskey subreddit, and to name a price. Some wanted it shipped. Others were willing to go all the way to his home in the Memphis suburbs and pick it up in person. The post might have seemed unassuming to non-Chicagoans. But for locals, it was like striking gold. Because on the left of the photo stood a very old full bottle of Mal\u00f6rt.<\/p>\n
Cissell had no idea what he had stumbled on. He came across the bottles a few months ago while getting ready for work, he said. It was a Monday \u2013 trash day in his town\u2013 and his next-door neighbor was cleaning out his attic and dumping everything on the curb for the trucks to pick up. The neighbor gave him a box of liquor and, curious, Cissell dusted off the bottles, posted the photo and asked Reddit for any information they might have. The post blew up.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019ve got this interesting bottle, and everybody\u2019s talking about it, and I don\u2019t know what to do with it,\u201d said Cissell. \u201cAnd so I figured, well, it\u2019s just sitting in my cabinet. I\u2019m not going to drink it, so let me reach out to the people who make Mal\u00f6rt.\u201d The search led him to the manufacturers at CH Distillery, who purchased the Carl Jeppson Company, the original makers of Mal\u00f6rt, in 2018. They brought the manufacturing of the liquor back to Chicago after nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a pleasure to meet people who are fans of Mal\u00f6rt or, in Ben\u2019s case, a new fan,\u201d said Anna Sokratov, the head of marketing at CH Distillery. \u201cIt was a really special experience for him but also for us, being able to support him and get this little piece of history and meet a really nice group of people.\u201d <\/p>\n
CH Distillery paid for Cissell and his wife to make the 8-hour drive from their Tennessee home to the Chicago factory at 1629 S. Clinton St. They greeted him with a tour of the facility, a donation to a charity of his choice (Cissell picked St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital) and gifts, which included several bottles of Mal\u00f6rt. Mal\u00f6rt has little written history (aside from Josh Noel\u2019s recent book \u201cMal\u00f6rt: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit\u201d), which made figuring out the age of the bottle a unique challenge. Cissell estimates it to have been made between 1953 to 1985. Sokratov thinks it was made anywhere from 1964 to the 1980s. Another difficulty that the Distillery ran into was figuring out if the bottle was even real. According to Sokratov, the label was something they had never seen before. The color of the liquid and its taste also pointed to the possibility of it being a competitor\u2019s knockoff or a watered-down mixture.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of the fun about this story is that there is just really this big unknown. No one\u2019s really sure about the bottle,\u201d Sokratov said. \u201cI think the story was just so special and something we had never heard.\u201d Cissell said that vintage bottle was the first time he had ever tried the brand and the wormwood in the bottle likely absorbed most of the flavor. \u201cThe old bottle had a faint aftertaste that was kind of floral, a little citric,\u201d said Cissell. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Oh yeah, that\u2019s pretty good.\u2019 And then the guy [from CH Distillery], he\u2019s like, \u2018No, no, let me try the other stuff. You\u2019ll see there\u2019s a big difference.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Upon leaving his \u201csecond home,\u201d which he and his wife now call Chicago, Cissell posted an update on the Chicago Reddit. That post garnered thousands of reactions, with users expressing their excitement over him enjoying the city. \u201cI\u2019m just glad that I didn\u2019t sell it to some buyer who just wanted to keep it on a shelf in their house and show off to their buddies when they come over,\u201d said Cissell. \u201cWe got to learn such a rich history about the city of Chicago and this drink. It\u2019s funny how this one little bottle has brought so many people together and created a lot of new stories.\u201d<\/p>\n Q: What is the significance of the vintage Mal\u00f6rt bottle? Introduction to the Journey of a Vintage Mal\u00f6rt Bottle CHICAGO \u2014 After he posted a picture of five antique bottles of liquor on Reddit, Ben Cissell received a multitude of messages. Many people asked if he was willing to sell what he just posted on the whiskey subreddit, and to name a price. Some wanted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dining"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/06\/MixCollage-05-Jun-2025-06-26-PM-9360.jpg?w=1920&resize=1920,1248&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22061,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22059\/revisions\/22061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPat Odon pours a shot of Jeppson\u2019s Mal\u00f6rt at Nisei Lounge during the Chicago Cubs\u2019 home opener as they host the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field on April 7, 2022. Credit:<\/span> Colin Boyle\/Block Club Chicago<\/span><\/p>\nUncovering the History of the Bottle<\/h2>\n
The Experience of Trying Mal\u00f6rt for the First Time<\/h2>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
FAQs<\/h2>\n
\nA: The vintage Mal\u00f6rt bottle is significant because it is a rare and old bottle of the liquor, with an unknown age and authenticity.
\nQ: How did Ben Cissell come across the vintage bottle?
\nA: Ben Cissell came across the vintage bottle when his neighbor was cleaning out his attic and gave him a box of liquor.
\nQ: What did CH Distillery do for Ben Cissell?
\nA: CH Distillery paid for Ben Cissell and his wife to make the 8-hour drive from their Tennessee home to the Chicago factory, gave them a tour of the facility, made a donation to a charity of his choice, and gave them gifts, including several bottles of Mal\u00f6rt.
\nQ: What is the estimated age of the vintage bottle?
\nA: The estimated age of the vintage bottle is between 1953 to 1985, according to Ben Cissell, and between 1964 to the 1980s, according to Anna Sokratov from CH Distillery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"