CHICAGO — 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 Malört.

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 – trash day in his town– 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. 

“So I’ve got this interesting bottle, and everybody’s talking about it, and I don’t know what to do with it,” said Cissell. “And so I figured, well, it’s just sitting in my cabinet. I’m not going to drink it, so let me reach out to the people who make Malört.”

The search led him to the manufacturers at CH Distillery, who purchased the Carl Jeppson Company, the original makers of Malört, in 2018. They brought the manufacturing of the liquor back to Chicago after nearly 30 years. 

“It’s always a pleasure to meet people who are fans of Malört or, in Ben’s case, a new fan,” said Anna Sokratov, the head of marketing at CH Distillery. “It 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.”

RELATED: Why Do Chicagoans Love (And Loathe) Malört? Book Explores Iconic Brand’s History

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’s Research Hospital) and gifts, which included several bottles of Malört. 

Malört has little written history (aside from Josh Noel’s recent book “Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit”), 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’s knockoff or a watered-down mixture.

“Part of the fun about this story is that there is just really this big unknown. No one’s really sure about the bottle,” Sokratov said. “I think the story was just so special and something we had never heard.”

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.

“The old bottle had a faint aftertaste that was kind of floral, a little citric,” said Cissell. “And I said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s pretty good.’ And then the guy [from CH Distillery], he’s like, ‘No, no, let’s try the other stuff. You’ll see there’s a big difference.’”

Upon leaving his “second home,” 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.

“I’m just glad that I didn’t 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,” said Cissell. “We got to learn such a rich history about the city of Chicago and this drink. It’s funny how this one little bottle has brought so many people together and created a lot of new stories.”

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