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It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region and investigate.

Report.

Explore. From WB.E.Z. And investigate. Report. Explore.

From WB.EZ.

Hi, it's Curiosity Reporter, Adriana Cardona Magigad.

Guess what liquor is being described here?

If I had to kind of boil it down scientifically, I would say it tasted like baby aspirin,

wrapped in grapefruit peel, tied up with rubber bands, and then soaked in well gin.

If you guess, my lord, you're right. The spirit has become a Chicago ride of passage over the past decade.

In Curious City listener, Kevin McDermott wondered.

How it went from a very obscure drink in a handful of dive bars to becoming a symbol of Chicago. My Lord has been around since the 1920s when Swedish immigrant Carl Jepson first produced it in Chicago during the Prohibition era.

He marketed this warm wood-infused alcohol as medicine to treat parasites.

But how did this Swedish tonic go from collecting dust on bar shelves to becoming a Chicago staple?

Well, that has a lot to do with a bartender named Sam Mecklin. Sam didn't quite enjoy his

first taste of Mallort, but there was an undeniable spark. I was so just gobsmacked with the

novelty of it and the uniqueness of it. And as a person that has a sense of humor that's a little bit biting

...