Green Zone

A peculiar spirit behind your local cocktail bar is having its moment.

by Tim Hyland

VERY VERDE: Terry Berch McNally (left) and Cristina Tessaro behind the bar at London Grill, one of several Philly cocktailing destinations using Green Chartreuse. The Last Word, which features the spirit plus maraschino liqueur, gin and lime juice, is the perhaps best-known Chartreuse drink. Jessica Kourkounis

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NyQuil. The old-school green NyQuil.

That's what a newbie will taste — or, at least, what they'll think they'll taste — upon their first sip of Green Chartreuse, the mysterious herbal liqueur that France's Carthusian monks have been distilling, through wars and exile and natural disasters, for close to 300 years.

Make no mistake: From that initial shock to the down-the-gullet burn (it's 110 proof — 55 percent alcohol), Green Chartreuse presents a challenging drinking experience. Which is probably why so few Chartreuse newbies become Chartreuse regulars.

But among those who are regulars — drink historians, cutting-edge bartenders, cocktail nerds — the Chartreuse name carries the kind of cache reserved for only the most legendary, and respected spirits. "If you see Green Chartreuse, then you know you're in a serious cocktail bar," says Terry Berch McNally, co-owner of Fairmount's London Grill. "It's not something that most customers would notice. But people who take cocktails seriously — they notice."

Chartreuse aficionados wear their love for the stuff as a badge of honor. It's just that, for decades, their numbers were rather minuscule, so those distinctive bottles sat behind bars, dusty and unopened. Recently, though, that's started to change.

Thanks to the rediscovery of some classic cocktail recipes and the development of a few new ones, Green Chartreuse is enjoying something of a revival — if not yet among mainstream drinkers, then at least among those who serve them. It's a hit in New York and Seattle, and it's starting to take hold in Los Angeles. And now it's popping up here in Philly, where backers say it offers new dimensions to the cocktail movement.

Beyond that, they say, the drink just has a good story. "I don't think there are many products out there that are so special, that are so old, and have such history," says McNally.

The Green Chartreuse story starts in the early 1700s, when Carthusian monks — a more than 900-year-old order founded by Saint Bruno — first produced the "Elixir of Long Life," a purported life extender developed from an ancient, long-unintelligible recipe. Within three decades, the elixir had evolved into its current form, a forest-green liqueur distilled from a combination of 130 distinct herbs and plants. Of course, exactly which 130 herbs and plants remains a closely guarded secret; even today, only two monks know the recipe. Those same two monks are also the only living beings with the ability to properly blend the ingredients and distill them into what the order describes as "the only liqueur in the world with a completely natural green colour."

But if the color is unique, the flavor may be even more so. A whiff of the stuff reveals a stunning array of herbs and spices — basil, anise, rosemary, black pepper, mint. It smells like a whole lot of earth mixed with a whole lot of alcohol. Wine drinkers often speak of "bouquet"; Chartreuse offers a flower stand.

And the taste?

"I would say that Chartreuse tastes like Chartreuse," says Andy DeGiulio, a bartender at Oyster House in Center City. "I really don't think you can compare it to anything. But that's half the allure to us. You've got this ridiculously guarded secret recipe. It's sweet. It's herbal. It's earthy. It tastes like magic potion."

The monks have faithfully produced that potion, as we know it, since 1764. In 1903, the French government booted the monks from France and seized control of the Chartreuse name. The order took refuge in Tarragona, Spain, brought the recipe with it and was soon producing a Chartreuse named after its new hometown. Devotees quickly identified the drink as the true Chartreuse. In 1921, the monks returned to France, but in 1935, their new distillery in Fourvoirie was destroyed by a landslide. With the assistance of the French army, the monks gathered what they had left and moved to their current location, in Voiron, where they also produce the less potent (and less popular) Yellow Chartreuse. Today, the facility welcomes 150,000 visitors annually.

In years to come, they might be welcoming more. Last spring, The New York Times reported that sales of Chartreuse in the New York metropolitan area had increased 42 percent over the previous year. (Nationwide, the Times said, sales were up 7 percent.) In Los Angeles, top mixologists gathered last summer for the "Sweet 16 Chartreuse Competition." And in Seattle, bartender Murray Stenson created a bit of buzz by championing the Last Word, a Prohibition-era drink originally invented in Detroit that is now the most "well-known" Chartreuse cocktail.

That drink — sharp, flavorful and beautifully colored — combines equal parts Chartreuse, Luxardo maraschino cherry liqueur, extra dry gin and lime juice. Take a sip and the first thing you'll notice is the lime. Then the Luxardo. Then the Chartreuse (mellowed out significantly by the lime) and then the gin. The Last Word is now being served at London Grill, where bartenders also pour The Widow's Kiss, which combines Yellow Chartreuse with Laird's AppleJack, Benedictine (another spirit making a comeback), Angostura bitters and a cherry garnish. The flavor might best be described as an extra-floral Manhattan.

Paul Dellavigne of Southwark notes that customers have come to his bar requesting both of those drinks by name. The Franklin Mortgage & Investment Company is another cocktail lounge where bartenders have taken to using the spirit as a mixer in cocktails like "Destructive Urges": Bermuda and Demerara rums, Green Chartreuse, sugar cane syrup, lime juice and Angostura bitters, served up.

Over at Oyster House, DeGiulio and his fellow bartenders have created The Truth About Us, a Manhattan recipe that swaps out the vermouth and replaces it with Campari and Chartreuse. It will be part of the restaurant's new cocktail program. DeGiulio says he's also had some customers order the Champs d'Élysées, a cognac-and-Chartreuse based cocktail originally invented in New Orleans.

"What's cool about Chartreuse is that it's a great thing to use to replace the 'sweet' element of a drink," says DeGiulio. "It's a lot more complex than something like simple syrup. When you use Chartreuse, you're still adding sweetness, but you're also adding a lot more complexity."

Thanks to these cocktails — much more approachable than straight Chartreuse — the stuff is enjoying its highest profile in some time. But will Green Chartreuse ever fully move away from its lonely position at the far end of the bar? Not likely, says DeGiulio. Something this complex, this potent and this expensive (a bottle will run you anywhere from $50 to $60) just isn't for everyone. Which is fine for cocktail nerds like him.

"I think it's going to be what it's always been," says DeGiulio. "It's kind of like Campari, in that it's got its place here. It's not that popular, but the people who like it really like it. ... I don't think it's going to explode like vodka did 20 years ago or like mojitos did eight years ago, but that's kind of what makes it cool to me. It's not supposed to be for everybody. There's a little bit of exclusivity in knowing about Chartreuse."

(editorial@citypaper.net)