Chartreuse
Imbiber blog archive

The Mystery of Chartreuse

Jan/09/2007
char_grn
Folklore, of the sort propagated by resourceful publicists, has it that the recipe for the liqueur Chartreuse is a mystery to the entire world excepting three Carthusian monks cloistered inside a monastery in the French Alps. And even those three holy men each knows but a portion of the complete formula. Protecting trade secrets is one thing, but this sounds a bit excessive if you ask me. After all, if you can’t trust a cloistered monk, then who in the hell can you trust? (Oprah, maybe? The Dalai Lama?) What we do know about the production of the mysterious Chartreuse is that it contains over 130 herbs and botanicals, it’s the only liqueur to be aged in oak vats, and the Carthusian Order has been at it nonstop for 400 years.

There are two types of Chartreuse – green and yellow. The former is intensely floral, with strong hints of fennel, rosemary, cinnamon and cloves. Yellow Chartreuse is the more citrusy of the two, brimming with flavors such as blood orange, lemon and honey. Chartreuse isn’t really the type of elixir to be enjoyed straight, but it can really spruce up a cocktail. Fortunately, I know a guy on the inside at the monastery who managed to smuggle out a few cocktail recipes:To read the rest click here...
|