Chartreuse - wonderful alcoholic beverage

With his scrubby beard and dressed in a white robe, brother Jean-Jacques is focusing all his attention to the big metal distillery devices in Voiron. The Chartreux monk usually takes care of the fabrication of his liquor from his computer in the serenity of his monastery in the mountains near Grenoble. Once a week, however, he has to go down the hills to check on the quality of his products.

Granted, secular helpers have taken over the production of this alcohol-rich beverage, however, the recipe is kept as a secret by everyone at the monastery. In fact, there is only two monks that know the exact combination of the 130 herbal ingredients, which is why the director Antoine Munoz says jokingly: "We do not allow these two to ride in the same car".

This secret is in fact as valuable as gold: 1.55 million bottles of this beverage are sold annually worldwide and exports recently increased by 10 percent. Within a year, US sales even increased by 40 percent until the end of October. "This definitely exceeded our expectations. We had to work after hours in order to get all the bottling done in time and we are still working on increasing our production numbers considerably", says Munoz.

One reason for this beverage's success in the United States is said to be the movie "Death Proof" from 2007. In this action thriller, Quentin Tarantino plays a bar tender. He praises the Chartreuse as the "only liquor that is so good that the color was named after it". Meant by this is the unique color of the alcohol-rich beverage with a mix of yellow and green. Director and sales manager Munoz thinks: "Tarantiono's movie has brought a lot of attention to our product".

French liqueur Chartreuse experiencing boom in the U.S. (Photo: chartreuse.fr)

Monastery keeps under wraps recipe for centuries (Photo: chartreuse.fr)

This "free" advertising came exactly at the right time, namely when the monastery tried to bring this product popularity again in the US, after it had been very successful in the 70s. Tom Waits sang about this product and called it "a strange beverage" and today no bar at the east coast in the US could even imagine not serving this liquor. "This is a new generation of bartenders, who are not only interested in the product but also in its history", says Munoz. Rumor has it that some bar tenders from New York and Boston - with tattoos and piercings - even made the trip to the south-east district of France to have a picnic at the monastery!

Bar tenders love using the Chartreuse to refine their cocktails with. "This is a wonderful beverage and a great ingredient", says Joaquim, the bar chef at Death & Company in New York, where the yellow and green Chartreuse are presented in a 30-year-vintage  atmosphere. With a smirk on his face he admits: "it's a little like cheating when you mix 130 herbs to make a good cocktail with this drink". (red.yoopress)