Chartreuse: A History of the Prized Green and Yellow Liqueur
Chartreuse, the renowned French herbal liqueur, boasts a rich and intriguing history, intertwined with the Carthusian monks who have been its guardians for centuries. This article delves into the fascinating journey of Chartreuse, from its origins in a secluded monastery to its resurgence in the modern cocktail renaissance.
The Monastic Origins
In 1084, the Carthusian order was formed, and the monks established their monastery in the Chartreuse mountain range in southeastern France. They were apparently making liqueur since perhaps the early 1600s, but at least since the 1700s. Over time, the recipe was honed, tweaked, and finally perfected until 1840, when Green and Yellow Chartreuse were formalized and began being sold to support the order.
The Carthusian monks, who have taken a vow of silence!, found themselves unexpectedly at the center of attention. The monks, dedicated to a life of prayer and contemplation, now faced the challenge of balancing their spiritual calling with the demands of a growing commercial enterprise.
Early Recognition and the "Chartreuse Secret"
The New York Times was founded a decade later but it would take until 1876 for the newspaper to mention the liqueur, in an obituary for Dom Louis Garnier, the monk who supposedly invented the current Green and Yellow incarnations. The Times, in fact, would cover the monks quite a bit over the final two decades of the 19th century, including a big article in 1889 about “The Chartreuse Secret,” calling it a “monopoly that millions cannot buy,” perhaps foreshadowing this current era of allocation.
Expulsion and a Loss of Favor
In 1903, the monks were expelled from their monastery by an anti-clerical French government, and their property, including the distillery (though not their recipes), was confiscated. Chartreuse would mostly fall out of favor in America, certainly among the mainstream, over the ensuing decades, post World War II. In fact, as far as I can tell, Chartreuse was not mentioned once in The New York Times between 1941 and 1972, and then it only reappeared in a cooking article about the same-named vegetable dish.
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Rediscovering Vintage Chartreuse
While researching my recent book, “Dusty Booze: In Search of Vintage Spirits,” I was stunned to learn that collecting vintage spirits is not a strictly modern phenomenon. It was held at the Hotel Westbury, on East 66th Street and Madison Avenue. The writer joined two New York importers of the monk-made libation along with a local wine expert, William Massee, to taste modern versions of the “supreme contemporary cordial,” according to the article, as well as versions of Green and Yellow that had been produced sometime between 1878 and 1903, right before the monks were expelled.
Of course, if there’s long been a debate about whether spirits such as a bourbon or Scotch change once in the bottle, it quickly becomes evident to anyone who tries it that Chartreuse absolutely transforms in the bottle, and even Massee would immediately realize that as well. “The pre-Expulsion Chartreuse,” claimed the writer, “has all the delightful qualities of the new, plus tragic wisdom.
Marketing Attempts and Slumping Sales
marketing team, however, that attempted to revive sales in the mid-1970s by creating a batchable party drink, having already seen the great success Galliano had had in getting consumers to drink the Italian liqueur in something the brand had created called the Harvey Wallbanger. Galliano sales reportedly increased 40 percent in the first year of the Wallbanger alone. Other ads from the era encouraged youthful drinkers to have a “Swampwater Party,” now offering large-batch recipes that called for an entire bottle of Green Chartreuse alongside three quarts of pineapple juice and four-and-a-half limes. Despite these marketing efforts, however, by the 1980s Chartreuse was slumping. In 1980, sales finally dipped, breaking from a 3 to 4 percent annual growth rate the brand had shown since the 1940s.
“The monks don’t want us to grow too big,” said Louis Giordano, the president of Compagnie Française de la Grande Chartreuse, then the liqueur’s bottler and distributor. “There are currents inside the order worried about contributing to the alcoholization of the world. On the other hand, they know they need money to live and for their charitable works. A year before, the Carthusians had only earned $287,000 for the year off of 1 million bottle sales - that amount needed to support 460 members of the Carthusian order, who then lived in 24 monasteries around the world. For comparison’s sake, at this same time Cointreau was selling around 8 million bottles per year and Grand Marnier 6 million bottles.
The Cocktail Renaissance and Chartreuse's Revival
It would take this modern cocktail renaissance - now in its 25th year! - to again return Chartreuse to its rightful glory. Many credit Murray Stenson, however, a bartender at Seattle’s Zig Zag Café for ultimately resurrecting Chartreuse when he likewise resurrected the Green Chartreuse-spiked Last Word cocktail in 2003, based on a recipe he had found in a 1951 book. Both quickly became handshakes of the cocktail bar cognoscenti.
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By the 2010s, Chartreuse - both Green and Yellow - was being put in almost everything, from the Death Flip (2010) to the Naked & Famous (2011) and the Piña Verde (2012), Erick Castro’s Piña Colada riff. “There wasn’t any real demand for it [at the time],” says co-owner Joaquin Simó who, along with his partner Troy Sidle, gobbled up old bottles for sale on eBay.
Chartreuse Today: Scarcity and Popularity
I spend far too much of my time trying to figure out how to “go viral,” yet some Carthusian monks - who have taken a vow of silence! In the spring, rumors began circulating that Chartreuse, the much-ballyhooed French herbal liqueur, had suddenly become hard to find. I’ve even neglected to mention that in November of last year, the monks again went viral when they announced they were opening a visitors center in Paris, making many folks question whether there had ever been a Chartreuse shortage in the first place. You want to be a monk, and now you have all these cocktail hipsters clamoring for your booze, getting in the way of your praying and not talking.
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