Chartreuse (US: /ʃɑːrˈtruːz, -ˈtruːs/ ⓘ, UK: /-ˈtrɜːz/, French: [ʃaʁtʁøz]) is a French herbal liqueur that has been made by Carthusian monks since 1737, reportedly according to instructions set out in a manuscript given to them by François Annibal d’Estrées in 1605.[1] It was named after the monks’ Grande Chartreuse monastery, located in the Chartreuse Mountains north of Grenoble, France. Today the liqueur is produced in their distillery in nearby Aiguenoire. It is composed of distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbs, plants and flowers, and sweetened, though the exact recipe is known only to select monks. The color chartreuse takes its name from the drink.
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The only naturally green alcoholic drink, and it’s delicious
The story of the liqueur is fascinating.
To start the original manuscript was an alchemist recipe for the elixir of life, it might have been brought back from Constantinople by one of François Annibal d’Estrées ancestor.
Since it seems valuable but he couldn’t do anything with it, he brought it to the best herbalists he knew: the cartusian monks.
The monks worked on it for a while but it’s only in 1755 that he brother Jerome Maubec managed to refine the recipe to create the first chartreuse “Elixir de Santé”. The recipe was written down in a manuscript and kept secret at all cost.
A lot of events happened after that, the monk got expelled and the monastery was seized by the French revolutionaries. They came back few decades later. They created the brand “Chartreuse” in 1840.
In 1903 the monastery and the brand “Chartreuse” was seized by the French government and the monks expelled once again. This time the monks saw the wind turn in advance and moved all the production equipment in Spain to protect it and started the production there. From 1903 the Chartreuse was produced in Tarragona (Spain) by the monk.
At this period the recognition of the liquor grew internationally. In 1925 it appears in the novel “The Magnificent Gatsby”.
The monks finally regains the brand after decades of trials and the right to move back their monasteries.
In 1935 a landslide destroyed their facilities at “la Fourvoirie”. They saved what they could and moved everything to Voiron, to be close to a train station for logistic. (I have a picture of my great grandfather supervising the transportation of the barrels after the landslide, I can share it if I manage to find it again).
They moved the distillery to Aiguenoire in 2018.
The monks created a company that produce the chartreuse, all the technical steps (bottling, labeling …) are done by this company under the monks supervision but the recipe is still kept secret and only a few monks have access to it. So, despite the million of bottles produced every year, the critical steps of the recipe, the mix of plants, are still done by the monks themselves in secret.
Chartreuse can be hard to find in the US right now since it grew in popularity since the early 2010s but the monks don’t want to increase production. From what I understand their mindset is that there is no point of increasing the production for a trend that might be gone in a few decades.
Super interesting! Have you tasted it; can you describe the flavor?
I have a bottle at home since i got from relatives that live close to the region. Its a unique flavor that resembles tea and liquorice maybe… Hard to describe but you can tell it’s a mix of lots of herbs.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for that!
TIL there’s a colour named after the liqueur.
Curiouser and curiouser!
The flavour profile has been described as "being punched in the mouth by a bowl of potpourri " by a colleague of mine.
How is you colleagues able to taste color?
Synesthesia.
As with another well-known French hard liquor, drink enough and you, too, just might taste colors swirling on your tongue and hear emotions swirling in the sky.
spoiler
~Absinthe does not actually cause hallucinations~
Thought it depended on what kind you get. The one generally available in North America is just strong liquor like bacardi 150 (though more of a zambooka flavour), but actual absinthe is made from some tree wood that is hallucigenic. At least, that’s how I understood it; I’ve only tried the boring kind.
Wormwood. Pretty much banned everywhere now though.
It tastes like the essence of green. I love it.
It goes quite well in a drink called “The Last Word”. It’s 1 part gin, 1 part green Chartreuse, and 1 part maraschino liqueur.
You’re missing 1 part lime juice in there.
Good taste though ;).
It’s a pretty good ratio for a lot of drinks when experimenting as well.
- 1 part strong
- 1 part herbal
- 1 part sweet
- 1 part sour
That sounds delightful! Would it be blasphemy to add a bit of club soda? I think that’d make it really refreshing
You’d want to tweak the ratios a bit for that — but yeah, I think it’s a great base for an enhanced gin rickey.
I’d probably aim for something like
- 1.5 oz gin
- .5 oz luxardo
- .5 oz green chart
- 1-2 oz lime
with 6-10 oz of club soda, as a very loose starting point.–
Saved this comment, thank you
I’d have to buy literally everything on the list but my family likes making cocktails when we’re together; this seems like a good one for that!
It’s like drinking flowers.
The same way smoking opium is like smoking flowers.
By their powers combined I’m gonna be insufferable
The color orange is named after the fruit, not the other way round
That’s how stuff gets their names.
Orange was considered a shade of red until the 1670s. That’s why people with orange hair are called redheads: the word “redhead” predates the naming of the color orange.
The fruit was originally called a norange, from Spanish naranja, but that sounds a bit awkward in English so the n moved over to make it an orange instead.
Not unlike aluminium, et al.
IIRC the original british scientist that named it just kept spelling it inconsistently like alumium, alumin, aluminum, and such, and other british scientists just called it aluminium because they wanted it to end in ‘ium’ like lithium, sodium, potassium, etc. Seemed alright to me except the people that spell it aluminum but pronounce it aluminium can get fucked.
What about those of us who have worked with expats long enough that we no longer know how to say it correctly so we kinda mash the multiple versions together?
Previously, it was hard to discuss these shades of green with your non-drinking or uncultured friends.
"yeah the frog was this really unique shade of green. Say, have you ever been to Aiguenoire? No? Well the monks make this liqueur there. Oh, you don’t drink? You don’t know what liqueur is? It’s like hard liquor but cut with sugar. Anyways. The monks make this beverage that’s like neon green and the frog reminded me of that. Oh, yeah, neon. Like the green signs? Made with tube lights? "
I still think that it should switch names with vermillion.
Green is the name of a liqueur?!?! 🤯
Midori is the name of a liqueur and “green” in Japanese.
Wait until you hear about orange juice being named for the color and not the fruit.
Not quite sure if you are joking but if people don’t know, the english word orange (for the color) actually comes from the fruit! Before that the color was called saffron (or crog) or often “yellow red” or “yellow crog/saffron”.
Ah, but the color was named after the fruit!
Before oranges were introduced to English speaking areas the color was called yellow red. The use of orange for the color is only attested from c1500.
My partner from France introduced this to me, I buy a bottle every other month now. Green over Yellow!
It’s good stuff! I might go have a glass right now.
I had one last night
Oof. Thata a lot of strong stuff. It’s 55% alcohol iirc. You drink that every month? Wow i am living dry at the Moment 😂
Well to be fair, two months lol. Also when my Alsatian brother in laws visit they help kill the bottle
How about that MOF blend?
This is the best one in my opinion (after the VEP, but the VEPs are in another budget range)
What is that? Not sure what that is.
Are you reading dungeon crawler carl too?
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Okay, now I really want to try Chartreuse
Make sure it’s the green one and not the yellow version.
Go to any cocktail bar that has a deep bar and ask for a Last Word. Basically the gin version of a Daiquiri.
Yes you do.
