- Feb 5, 2002
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The world-renowned “elixir of life” has been around for centuries, but its secret recipe — which has nearly disappeared several times — has never been revealed by the monks who made it famous.
Chartreuse liqueur, produced by the Carthusian monks for more than three centuries in both its green and yellow forms, has always been surrounded by a veil of mystery.
Traditionally, in each generation, only two friars of the Monastery of the Grande Chartreuse (the head monastery for the Carthusian religious order, located at the heart of the Chartreuse mountains in southeastern France) are entrusted with the recipes, which are inscribed on a 17th-century manuscript. The manuscript is kept in a secret safe, to which only the superior of the Carthusians has the key.
The very origin of this “elixir of life,” which is made up of 130 medicinal plants, remains a mystery. The Carthusian Monks received the precious recipe for this tonic in 1605 from the Duke and Marshal of King Henry IV, François-Annibal d’Estrées, who never revealed where the parchment came from.
The original formula, which incorporated almost all the medicinal plants available at that time, was gradually adjusted by the monks because of its excessive complexity. It was not until 1737 that the definitive recipe for their emblematic “herbal elixir” — identical to the one we know today — was finalized thanks to the tireless efforts of Brother Jérôme Maubec, the monastery’s apothecary.
Continued below.
The Story Behind Chartreuse, the Legendary Liqueur of the Carthusians
Chartreuse liqueur, produced by the Carthusian monks for more than three centuries in both its green and yellow forms, has always been surrounded by a veil of mystery.
Traditionally, in each generation, only two friars of the Monastery of the Grande Chartreuse (the head monastery for the Carthusian religious order, located at the heart of the Chartreuse mountains in southeastern France) are entrusted with the recipes, which are inscribed on a 17th-century manuscript. The manuscript is kept in a secret safe, to which only the superior of the Carthusians has the key.
The very origin of this “elixir of life,” which is made up of 130 medicinal plants, remains a mystery. The Carthusian Monks received the precious recipe for this tonic in 1605 from the Duke and Marshal of King Henry IV, François-Annibal d’Estrées, who never revealed where the parchment came from.
The original formula, which incorporated almost all the medicinal plants available at that time, was gradually adjusted by the monks because of its excessive complexity. It was not until 1737 that the definitive recipe for their emblematic “herbal elixir” — identical to the one we know today — was finalized thanks to the tireless efforts of Brother Jérôme Maubec, the monastery’s apothecary.
Continued below.
The Story Behind Chartreuse, the Legendary Liqueur of the Carthusians
