At 7:50 p.m. on Sunday, more than 1,000 people packed into a West Loop bar called Recess and, on cue, threw back a shot of Jeppson's Malört — the wormwood-based liqueur that has become a rite of passage, and a running joke, in Chicago.
The synchronized grimace was the centerpiece of an attempt at what organizers billed as the largest mass shot of Malört ever recorded, a category that has never before had a Guinness World Records holder. Roughly 2,000 tickets to the event, called "Bad Decision for a Good Cause," sold out in advance, with $10 of each ticket going to Ravenswood Community Services. Dozens of bars from California to Maryland reportedly joined in remotely, raising their own glasses at the same moment.
Malört has built its reputation on being nearly undrinkable since Swedish immigrant Carl Jeppson began selling it door to door as a Prohibition-era "medicine" on Chicago's Near North Side in the 1920s. Bartenders in the city have long used first-timers' reactions as a kind of hazing ritual, filming the grimaces that follow a sip. Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, a longtime booster of the spirit, made an appearance and offered a civic explanation for its appeal.
"The communal suffering brings us together."
Susana Mendoza, Illinois Comptroller, via Block Club Chicago
Franky Everleigh, whose company Everleigh Entertainment organized the event with the liqueur's maker, said the turnout dwarfed anything the team had attempted before.
"This is such a dream come true. A year ago, we had a festival with about 100 people ... and it was amazing."
Franky Everleigh, event director, via Block Club Chicago
Guinness does not certify records on the spot; organizers said they were compiling video and headcount evidence to submit to the Guinness World Records review team in the coming weeks. If confirmed, it would be the first time "most people taking a shot of Malört simultaneously" has appeared in the record book — an entry that would surprise no one who has spent a night out in Chicago.
