Everything You Need to Know about Chartreuse
Photo via Watchman's, Atlanta
Chartreuse is a distinctly radioactive-looking yellow-green elixir from France. You might not open the Chartreuse all that often; perhaps you even find it a bit intimidating. And that’s okay, because unlike a lot of liqueurs, it has a tendency to develop and improve in the bottle.
This herbaceous monk-brewed spirit comes in several varieties, based on a formidably ancient recipe including well over 100 herbs. Green Chartreuse is 110 proof (and by the way comes by its rather dazzling color naturally, from leaves-I’m pretty sure it’s the only spirit with a color named after it). Yellow and white versions are milder. Like many spirits that come from ancient European abbeys, the recipe is jealously guarded (as I understand it, the full formula is known by exactly two monks at any given time; this might or might not be apocryphal), but among other things it contains cinnamon, cardamom, lemon balm, mint, mace, arnica and angelica. It’s sweet, but packs a serious vegetal punch, with a pungent, decidedly feisty flavor that really isn’t like anything else, though if you had to compare it to something, Galliano or Strega might come closest.
Chartreuse is drunk neat and very chilled, or added to cocktails. If you want to play around with it in recipes, some of its potential partners include gin, maraschino and other fruit-forward spirits, spicy stuff including chili peppers, and citrus, perhaps especially tangelo and grapefruit. Or, read on for a few example cocktails that harness its punchy herbaceous nature.
Man on the Moon
Grey Ghost, Detroit
Ingredients
1.5 oz. Jack Daniels Rye
0.375 oz. Yellow Chartreuse
1.0 oz. Pineapple juice
0.75 oz. Toasted sesame syrup
0.75 oz. Lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Directions: Shake. Serve on the rocks. Garnished with a dehydrated lemon slice.
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