Green Chartreuse: The Centuries Old Liqueur with a Mythic Past

Green Chartreuse is most known as the key ingredient of the Last Word cocktail. Find the recipe here.

Our story begins with the Elixir of all elixirs, the legendary elixir of life. Fittingly, this one happens to be green. Such a verdant shade of green, in fact, that the drink’s name became synonymous with the shade.

In the Chartreuse mountain range of the French Alps, deep into the woods near modern day Grenoble, the Carthusian monks have worked in silent contemplation since 1084. This was the earliest origin of Le Grand Chartreuse, a monastery that officially gained designation from the King of France in 1257. The Carthusian Order of Monks, so they were known, practiced for 600 years before receiving the secret document that would set the wheels in motion. 

In 1605, according to the modern Chartreuse brand, a French diplomat named François-Annibal d´Estrées, gifted the Carthusian monks of Paris a mysterious document, containing a list of plants and loose instructions for developing an “Elixir de Santé”, an elixir of long life. The monks established an apothecary in Vauvert of Paris, where they tinkered with the recipe for over a century before eventually bringing the document to the Grand Chartreuse, the monastery up in the mountains.

In 1764, after another three brothers of the order tried their hand at the recipe, a fresh manuscript was created. Brother Jerome Maubec, who is credited with the method that eventually led to the current process, said before his death that the recipe “must not ever leave home”. This 1764 manuscript is considered the founding moment of the modern day Chartreuse brand, although the recipe has since seen tweaks, special editions, and a very popular variation called Yellow Chartreuse. 

Of course, the recipe did not stay at home for long. In 1792, the Carthusian monks were cast out of France as part of the dechristianization movement of the French Revolution. The recipe itself had to be passed to former Chartreuse pharmacist Pierre Liotard for safekeeping. Although the monks returned to France in 1816, they didn’t recover the official recipe manuscript until 1835, when Pierre Liotard’s widow sold it back to the monastery for 3,000 Francs. Within the 5 years following that purchase, chartreuse sales became the main source of income for the monastery, and have remained ever since. 

Anti-religious sentiments once again drove monasteries away from France in 1901, but by then the Carthusian monks had the funds to establish operations in Spain. The drink became popular in the US during prohibition, when the famous Last Word cocktail was born. 

Chartreuse has since been featured in classic American media like the Great Gatsby and Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes”. By the 1950s, America was one of the largest importers of the brand. To this day, Chartreuse has a disciple of its own right, with collectors paying thousands of dollars at auction for archival bottles and antique paraphernalia.