A Little Bit About Chartreuse

Walk into any true craft cocktail bar on Long Island and ask the bartender for Chartreuse. If their eyes don’t light up or if their gag reflex isn’t slightly triggered, then you’ve met a bartender you cannot trust.

Why, you may ask, is this odd bottle such an integral indicator in the area? Because whether you love Chartreuse or hate Chartreuse, a good bartender respects history.

The green liqueur’s story begins near Paris in 1605 with the Chartreuse order of monks, who received a gift of an ancient manuscript describing a secret elixir with curative powers. Fast-forward more than a century and the monks finally decipher the recipe: a digestif dubbed the Elixir of Long Life. They began distilling it as a drink in 1764, and it wasn’t until the mid 1800’s that it became a liqueur. The elixir has 130 herbs and botanicals BUT the actual recipe for Chartreuse to this day is a mystery to anyone who sits in a barstool, as well as the people that distribute it. The recipe is only known by three monks, and its production and sale are what allows their order to survive.

“The order partners with a company of laypeople who assist with distillation and handle production and marketing. Bottles of premium green and gold Chartreuse sell for $50 and up, the aged iterations for well north of $100. The spirit and its story are cherished by bartenders around the world. Some have even tattooed tributes to the alcohol on their bodies.” - M. Carrie Allan. The Washington Post. Nov, 2019

Our friend Patrick Capellini’s Tattoo @rebelioussophistication

Before the lockdown, when you went into a craft cocktail bar and watched the bartender build a drink, chances were that once in a while you were mystified by the selection of unlabeled bottles and jars of what seemed to be endless garnishes. We hope when things start to return to normal, and you take up your spot at the bar once more, that you ask to try Chartreuse. Because it is a part of our culture, and because it is damn delicious.