Chartreuse Jaune
Served ice cold. In the most beautiful liqueur glass you find in your closet. Set the glass a few minutes before the Serve in the freezer.
Like the better-known green Chartreuse, the yellow Chartreuse comes from a monastery of the Carthusian order in Voiron, in the French Auvergne-Rhone Alps.
The herbal liqueur contains 130 different herbs and plant extracts and, with 43 percent alcohol, its effect should not be underestimated. However, you can hardly finish a nice meal more delicious.
Only two monks each guard the exact recipe of the liqueur, whose yellow color comes exclusively from the herbs used. The monastery’s bakery houses the herb room, where the herbs and other plants are dried and blended before being macerated with alcohol and distilled in the distillery, which was redesigned in 2018.
Then the herbal liqueur is stored in barrels in the cellar of the monastery for several years and then bottled. Here you have time to produce a quality product.
How good that the Carthusian monksmonks knew the recipe copied
In 1605, the Carthusian monks in France received a valuable gift from Francois Annibal d’Estrées, a court marshal of the then French King Henri IV: the recipe for an elixir that presumably goes back to a 16th century alchemist.
The recipe was passed on to the monks’ motherhouse in the French Alps, near Grenoble. The complexity of the recipe meant that it was not until the 18th century that the monks there managed to produce the herbal liqueur and sell it under the name “Elixir Vegetal de la Grande-Chartreuse”.
The strong herbal liqueur has an interesting and varied history.
As a result of the French Revolution, many monks were forced to leave France in 1793. The monks made a copy of the closely guarded recipe for making the liqueur and gave the copy to a friar who remained in the monastery in Chartreuse.
The monk, who had the original recipe with him when he escaped, was captured and taken to Bordeaux prison. Shortly before his arrest, he gave the prescription to a friend of the Order, who subsequently sold it to the pharmacist Llotard in Grenoble.
How fortunate that a ministry did not recognize the quality of the recipe recognized
Monsieur Llotard refrained from producing the liqueur, but sent the recipe to Paris, in accordance with a decree from Napoleon, who ordered that all “secret” medicine recipes be sent to the then Ministry of the Interior.
The ministry there did not recognize the value hidden in the liqueur recipe and sent the recipe back to Grenoble with the note “rejected”.
Monsieur Llotard’s heirs returned the recipe to the monks of the Carthusian Order.
In addition to the green Chartreuse liqueur, they developed a yellow version, Chartreuse Jaune, in 1840.
To this day, the monks still produce the herbal liqueur according to the now closely guarded recipe. Only two friars are initiated into the recipe at a time and know the 130 herbs and their mixing ratio.
Even an interim nationalization of the distillery and the expulsion to Spain have survived the monks and their liqueur. The state distillery went bankrupt.
Friends of the monastic order secured the patent and trademark rights and handed them back to the Carthusian monks, who had returned to France from Spain in the meantime.
How good that a bartender introduced us to the Chartreuse Jaune
This story also begins with: Once upon a time … because the restaurant Andrej’s Oyster Bar in Düsseldorf unfortunately no longer exists. It was a wonderful place to enjoy oysters and many other fish dishesin the best French style.
The tiny bar counter in the restaurant was also a meeting place for the chefs from surrounding restaurants, who liked to stop by for a drink after their shift.
During a visit on a cold, wet February evening, the bartender asked if we were in the mood for a digestif recommendation after enjoying fish and served two iced glasses of Chartreuse Jaune. Perfect.
Especially after a hearty meal in the cold season, the herbs of the yellow Chartreuse are an excellent finish. Since the herbal liqueur, like all liqueurs, contains sugar, it can replace a dessert.
If you want less sweetness, simply drink it with a nice big ice cube in the glass.
Bruce Springsten, Quentin Tarantino and Tom Waits
The Carthusian monks still live a life of silence and seclusion. The documentary “The Great Silence” by Philip Groening gives an impression of this.
The monks invited Philip Groening to make a film about their lives. The conditions they set: The film was to have no film crew, no artificial light, no interviews and no music. Only the choral songs of the monks themselves were allowed.
Philip Groening accepted the challenge, lived for four months in a monk’s cell in the monastery of the Carthusian monks and communicated with them by letter. This resulted in a fascinating film document that brings close the strictly planned and repetitive course of life in the monastery.
The unusual film unexpectedly became a great success.
80 percent of the novices of the Carthusian Order leave the monastery again after a short time. The austere life of seclusion, contemplation and work turns out to be too demanding for them.
The complex herbal liqueur, on the other hand, is booming. Bruce Springsteen mentions him in his biography, Quentin Tarantino likes him and Tom Waits sings about him. In the small town of Voiron, a small visitor center has been set up to provide an insight into Chartreuse production. Naturally with a bar and tasting facilities.
Let the taste of history linger on your tongue.
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