Here's the thing about Malort - it used to be really vile, although there was a lot of bottle variability so it could depend. The OG company that made it outsourced production to FL and quality control was weak. But in 2015 CH distillery took over production, and since then it's much better. 1/

It IS bitter. But so are many popular alcohols, like Campari or Fernet. I bet you'd get equal Malort face giving those to people who weren't bitter fans. Current Malort is perfectly tasty within its category. It's just not a category that everyone loves. 2/

I had the chance to do a side-by-side a couple years ago, and with the old bottle, I couldn't NOT make a horrible grimace when tasting it, whereas the modern one was just fine. Open tasting, double blind tasting, we tried all different ways, and everyone in our group could tell the difference. 3/3

It’s intensely bitter, but if you mix it into sweeter drinks it can help balance out the flavor and give it a bit of herbiness

I honestly like it, but I like medicinal and bitter flavors like horehound, Campari, black licorice (even the salted “drop” popular in Scandinavia), etc.

I found out a couple weeks ago, on a visit to Chicago, that i, too, like malort! But my tastes are similar to yours.

The people I know who will drink the stuff don't exactly claim to "like" it. It's complicated. They sort of enjoy how awful it is, but that's not quite the same thing as liking it? If that makes any sense?