Chicago has once again proven that it knows how to turn dubious decisions into a citywide celebration.
Almost two thousand people — 1 969 participants — simultaneously raised shots of Malört, one of the city's most famous and at the same time most controversial drinks, and drank them in unison for a Guinness record.
Sounds fun.
Unless you know that Malört has long been famous for a taste that its fans call "characterful," while less diplomatic people describe it as something between medicine, wormwood, burnt rubber, and personal betrayal.
And yet 1 969 people voluntarily decided to experience this all at once.
Chicago's most bitter minute
Participants lined up with their shots, waited for the signal, and drank the beverage in sync.
After that began perhaps the most interesting part of the record — the facial expressions.
Some smiled heroically.
Some stared into space.
Some, probably, reviewed all their life choices within a few seconds.
But it was too late to back out: the record had already happened.
Guinness counted the mass synchronized shot, and Chicago got another reason to be proud of itself.
Or to reflect.
Why Malört at all?
Because for Chicago, Malört is already almost a cultural phenomenon.
People drink it not so much for pleasure as for the experience. It is a challenge drink.
Something like a gastronomic question:
"Well, are you up for it?"
That is why the idea of gathering almost two thousand people and making them drink Malört at once seems perfectly Chicagoan.
In other cities, they set records for mass dancing, hugging, or eating pizza.
Chicago decided differently:
let's make it bitter for everyone at once.
A record of willpower
The most beautiful part of this story is not even the number 1 969.
But that all these people came there voluntarily.
No one forced them.
They bought a ticket themselves, came, got a shot, and said:
"Yes. This is exactly how I want to spend this evening."
And for that, perhaps, they truly deserve a world record.
Not so much for the mass consumption of Malört.
But for collective bravery.
And, possibly, for the largest number of people simultaneously thinking:
"Why did I do this?"
