Malört tonic — I actually like it

Please ignore the shitty setup, I didn’t make it with the intention I would drink more than a sip.

People say marlört is absolutely disgusting. After living for a few years in Chicago, I’ve never actually tried this (in)famous alcohol. So I grab a pack of shots, tried it straight today while making coffee; guess what, i actually don’t hate it. Sure it’s bitter but I’ve tasted more bitter stuff before so it’s tolerable for me. It tastes medicinal, but I don’t mind it. I can even taste some citrus, like lemon or tangy mandarins. I thought it’s just okay, not as hated as people make it to be, definitely feels better than when I tried vodka for the first time, but not something I would drink on a typical day.

Fast forward to a few minutes ago. I was staring at my fridge trying to decide what I’m going to do with my life, and I saw I still have some tonic water left, “gin tonic time” I thought. But since it’s 1am for me, my ADHD stimulant was wore off long ago, and after a few shots of scotch, I grabbed my huge 1.75L kirkland vodka instead of gin (I don’t know what I was thinking…), and before I realized it I already poured it into some tonic. “Too late to add gin now,” I thought, “I need something more flavorful, more botanical than that”. As I was looking around for alternatives in my kitchen area, I noticed the pack of marlort shots I opened during daytime. More botanical, check; stronger flavors, check, this is it. So I did the natural thing and made marlort+vodka tonic. I tried it. Surprise surprises! It actually doesn’t taste bad at all! The sugar in the tonic water balanced out the bitterness of the Marlort, and the weird botanical taste of the marlort actually complements the botanical of the tonic quite well! I give it an 8/10, way better than vodka tonic.