C h i ca g o’s
CH DISTILLERY Hyper-local, grain-to-glass spirits (and a Swedish concoction, too) Written by Lisa Truesdale /// Photography by Brett Bulthuis
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fter Carl Jeppson emigrated from Sweden to Chicago in the 1880s, he soon found that he really missed the taste of a traditional drink from back home, called bäskbrännvin. Truth be told, it probably wasn’t the taste of bäskbrännvin that he found himself longing for; the wormwood-based digestif has rarely been described by anyone as being “delicious.” Back in Sweden, it was used medicinally as a hangover cure, or a treatment for stomach worms and other parasites. The “kick” from the alcohol was just a bonus. However unpleasant the taste, Jeppson decided to start making and selling his own bäskbrännvin, hawking it out of a suitcase on the sidewalk near his Chicago cigar shop. Trouble is, Prohibition had just started, so Jeppson would often get visits from suspicious law enforcement
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