amaros

Googling for wormwood amaros finds a variety to try, if the wormwood bitters is what you're looking for.

Several of the famous Italian amaros like Fernet-Branca and Campari are solidly second half of C19; so is Angostura.

But bitterness is a very divisive flavor so lots of people just have extreme reactions to amaros in general and malort in particular.

I think the Nordic countries' Aquavit is more like Malort than the Italian Amaros are.

Personally, Italian Amaros are much better than Aquavit or Malort though.

I love amaros and these sound like a similar thing from a very different background.

If you like amaros, you can probably find malort palatable.

Yes, Americans don't historically usually drink amaros or bitters.

I love amaros and bitter liqueurs, but malort is a hard pass.

There are probably some similarly high proof amaros out there but they're pretty rare even within that category and an american would probably only encounter them mixed into a cocktail if even then.

Amaros seem to be gaining in popularity though, perhaps the malort resurgence is part of that trend.