This photo shows a Carthusian monk mixing ingredients for the liqueur known as “Chartreuse,” a beverage so famous that it gave its name to a color. The monks have been producing this drink for centuries.
The Carthusian order has been consistently strict since their founding in the late eleventh century. The monks have prayed and meditated in silence, but they also needed to make a living. The alchemical traditions popular in the Early Modern Period brought forth many who attempted to prolong life, and in the 17th century one Marshall d’Estees gave a recipe for an elixir that he claimed would do just that to the monks. But the directions to make the concoction were bewilderingly difficult to follow, and it was well over a century before the Carthusians of the Monastery of Grand Chartreuse (Chartreuse being a mountain in France) came up with something close to the modern recipe.
By the late 1700s, a monk called Brother Antoine brought forward the drink to be sold to the public, using 130 different herbs from around the world. Its official title was the “Herbal Elixir of the Grande Chartreuse”, and the Green Chartreuse was particularly famous for its flavor and allegedly curative properties. It is the same recipe used today — at 55% alcohol, it is infused with herbaceous and spicy flavors that can clear the sinuses with its heat.
The Carthusian monks faced challenges in producing Chartreuse — they fled to Tarragona in Spain in 1904 during a period of anti-Cleric sentiment rather than give up their trade secrets and nationalize the elixir. But in a couple of decades they made their way back to France (as of 2017 they are at Aiguenoire), and today only two abbots, Dom Benoît and Brother Jean-Jacques, know the entire recipe from start to finish.
Fascinatingly, Chartreuse has boomed in popularity with the craft cocktail market, many references in popular culture, and the increased demand for liqueur caused by COVID. However, the monks decided in 2019 to cap their production (wanting to spend more time in prayer and limit the environmental impact caused by the drink’s production). Chartreuse thus maintains its elusive reputation.
Sources: Guardian, “Connoisseur’s firewater: green Chartreuse” April 3, 2015, Henry Jeffreys, photo Bert Hardy/Getty Images. Atlas Obscura “Green Chartreuse.” Difford’s Guide, “Chartreuse Diffusion”. “History of Chartreuse”, www.chartreuse.fr/en/story/
