September 3, 2024 • 37 mins
This brand of brightly colored liqueurs is made, to this day, by monks who live mainly in solitude and silence. Anney and Lauren dip into the rocky history of Chartruese.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reason,
I'm Lauren.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Vocal Baum, and today we have an episode for you
about shar Truce.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, as always, drink responsibly. Why did you have any
reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
La I don't believe. So. I think it's just another
thing that has sort of been on the list for
a while and its number was up. I was like, look,
shar Truce.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It's time, It's time. It sounds so threatening, you're gonna
get the Savor treatment. Now. I can't say I have
a lot of experience with shar Truce. The first thing
I think of, I think I've told this story before
because I'm still mad about it. My lowest grade in
(00:55):
high school was in art and she kind of like,
I know, this sounds like I'm just making it up
because I'm hurt, but she kind of outwardly didn't like me.
And I believe it's because my brother, my older brother,
was such a troublemaker. Yeah. Also I wasn't a great artist,
but also the brother. But one time I made we
(01:19):
were making mask out of foil, I think, and I
I was going for like a creepy vibe, so I
painted it shartruse, and she did the most comical over
the top oh oh shaw truth. No one like Shaw truth. Wow.
Every time I hear chartruseaid, is the first thing I
(01:40):
think of.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I discussed Victorian England begs to differ first of all.
But but yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I should get in touch, right have you heard I
asked for revising of this grade blue? Wow? She visibly
was disgusting.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I mean, I it's it's a little bit like if
you're unfamiliar with the color, it's like it's like a
kind of like like yellowy green and very saturated, and
it's not like it's a little bit too yellow for
my personal tastes of greens. I like a green or green,
but it's still, I mean, it's very striking, and I
like a striking color.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So I was going for striking. See, this is my thing.
If she was that impacted, it worked, maybe I did
do good job because I was trying to do something creepy.
So yeah, anyway, that's what I think of.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
And also, as we all know from color theory, green
and purple are like the villain colors, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Obviously yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Anyway, yeah, yeah, no, no real reason, but you can
see our prior alcohol episodes. I was trying to think
if there's anything like really applicable, maybe various amari absinthe ish.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, I don't know why removeth it's coming to my mind.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Sure remouth Yeah, similar region.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Mm hmmmm hmm. This one's a fun one. It goes
a lot of wild places. Oh it does, Yeah, it does,
which I guess brings us to our question. Yeah, chartrus.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Well?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Chartruse is a brand of liqueurs that is like sweetened
flavored liquors that focuses on these very herbal, bitter sweet products.
Their primary concoction is called simply Chartruse, and it is
naturally from the production process this bright lemon lime green color,
which is right where we get the name of the
(04:02):
color Chartruse. It's also fifty five percent alcohol by volume,
which is pretty strong for a liquore and tastes sort
of like woody, sappy, minty, citrusy peppery tea e e yeah,
something like that. They also make a sort of softer
tasting yellow version and then have a number of like
(04:26):
special edition products as well. And by they I mean
a bunch of monks in France who originated the product
a couple centuries ago and still make it to this day.
Lots more on that, Yeah, but it is quite strongly
flavored on its own. So although it certainly can be sipped,
maybe chilled or on the rocks by itself, it's perhaps
(04:49):
more likely to be incorporated into cocktails as a bittersweet agent,
like adding complex flavors that go well with lots of
bright and clean tasting ingredients like tart citrus or a
spicy gin, or even like a sort of a stringent
white wine like e. Remove It's it's like being punched
right in the mouth by a dark garden.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Ooh, I like that, Yeah, vaguely threatening. Yeah, I'm intrigued exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
That's how I feel about Chartreuse and the color.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
And the alcohol. Boat.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So the Grand Chartreuse Monastery, like the home monastery, where
these products are based, is in southeast France, sort of
near the borders with Switzerland and Italy. The nearest big
city is Lyon to the west. It's named for the
mountain range Chartreuse is named for the mountain range that
the monastery is in, the Chartreuse Mountains, which are part
(05:53):
of the pre Alps. The monks are in the Carthusian order,
which has the same etymology those those same mountains, and
there are about thirty of them that form their like
highly ascetic community. Apparently in this monastery there is a
plant room where the monks, like specialized monks with the knowledge,
(06:14):
grind the vegetation that they use in their products. These
secret herbs flowers, seeds, roots, barks, berries.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And spices.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
They then add distilled liquor the actual distillery is off site,
and macerate the vegetation using different processes to extract the
flavors and colors that they're looking for. It's a process
that takes about seven rounds over several weeks, and when
most people just say chartruse, they probably mean green chartruse.
(06:43):
It comes in a clear bottle to show off that color.
It is supposedly made with one hundred and thirty different
plants and then aged in oak casks. Only two monks
know the formula that they use, and they are under
vows of silence, which are common for their order. One
(07:03):
of their they do have like pr representatives who talked
to the public about these things, and apparently one of them,
upon being asked what's in it? Like, what's flavoring this?
They were like, A, I don't know, hamburger and goat
cheese like monks got jokes. I love that, and I
(07:25):
will say fans who have tried making similar tasting products
have incorporated things like mint, vetaver, fennel, angelica, root, gentchin, cammal, violet, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, citrus, peel,
and on and on. The yellow version is less alcoholic,
only forty three percent by volume, and tastes some sweeter
(07:49):
and more gentle, a little bit more like like floral
and spicy, like spiced, not hot spicy. It's bright golden
rod in color, possibly from turmeric or saffron, and supposedly
also contains one hundred and thirty plants. These are the
two that you see most often, and the recipes came together,
(08:09):
and the recipes for both of these came together in
the eighteen hundreds. They also do the original version that's
from the seventeen hundreds. It is sixty nine percent alcohol.
It's sort of a burnished golden color like a whiskey.
Also claims one hundred and thirty plants and is still
marketed as a health tonic. The prevailing theory about that
one hundred and thirty plants is that the same ones
(08:33):
go into all of these, just in like different amounts
and possibly with different maceration techniques for different effects.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
They further produce a few specially blended and aged versions
of both the yellow and green types, and some of
them you can only get by visiting their aging sellers
in voiron. Is that how you say that, sure, France? Yeah,
so if anyone has been yes, oh yeah, yes, goodness.
(09:03):
One of the classic cocktails you might have seen shar
truce in if you're a cocktail human is the last Word,
which is gin marchino liqueur, green shar truce and lime juice,
usually shaken on ice and then served up. There's also
the Baiju, which is gin sweet remooth and green shar truce,
(09:23):
and the brandy daisy, which I'm unfamiliar with but came
up in my searches a lot. That one's brandy, yellow
shar truce and lemon juice sounds delightful. I'm not usually
a brandy human, but that sounds like really fun.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah. The colors of these, the cores are very striking
and they do feel kind of potion. Yeah, yeah, which
we're going to talk about in the history section. But yeah,
they are striking Well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Drink responsibly, especially when stuff is like over fifty percent alcohol.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Ooh, well, we do have some numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
We do, we do, okay, So as of twenty twenty two,
Chartreuse was making about one point six million bottles a year,
about half of which the US imports. Apparently some twenty
four tons of plants went into that. That aforementioned aging
cellar in Voiron is apparently the longest liquor cellar in
(10:32):
the world.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I couldn't track down the numbers, though, I'm like, how
do you brag about this this often? And don't don't
have the numbers for me from all accounts that I read,
because you can go on tours down there. It's just
this loomingly gigantic room with you know, like the really
giant oak casks descending into darkness in the periphery of
(11:01):
your vision. And I'm like, yeah, so good. Total sales
of Charterers every year add up to some thirty million dollars.
The money goes to the Roman Catholic Church, and it
apparently funds some of the order's charterhouses around the world
and like the French Seminary in Rome, and has been
(11:21):
used for local charities in France, like hospital's disaster relief
that sort of thing. Since twenty twelve, Chartrus Day has
been celebrated on May sixteenth every year. That date is
an allusion to the year that the recipe was like
mysteriously received by these monks, which is sixteen oh five. Yeah,
(11:43):
bars and restaurants can register their participation and as of
twenty twenty four, there were two hundred and seventy two
registrants throughout the US, France, Belgium, Japan, and Singapore, and
their current distillery in Aguinor, France is the seventh that
they've operated out of over the past couple centuries due
(12:03):
to just a number of environmental and political disasters.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Really quite a number, a shocking number, even say, which
we are going to get into. Ellis the history section.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Which we are going to get into as soon as
we get back from a quick break. For a word
from our sponsors, and we're back, Thank you sponsor, Yes,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Okay. So, most researchers trace the history of chartreuse back
to the eighteenth century and Carthusian monks located in the
French Alps.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yes, so the Carthusian order goes back to the ten
hundred CE, when a small group founded this remote monastery
in these mountains with an emphasis on hermitage and silence
and self suffices. See. They expanded to other locations through
the next few centuries, and their Paris chapter learned about
alcohol distillation as it was developing around Europe around the
(13:09):
thirteen hundreds, and started using it to make health tonics.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Right. And even though I said most historians trace star
Truths back to the eighteenth century, there are so many
legends about it. Oh yeah, so many. And as you
alluded to earlier, Lauren. According to popular legend, the monks
based the recipe for Chartruths on one that was gifted
to them in sixteen oh five by King Henry the Force,
(13:36):
Marshal Duke Francois and Ebalde Estues. The recipe was titled
the Elixir of Long Life. It was composed of symbols
and codes that took over a century for the monks
at the Grand Chartruse Monastery to decipher. Again, according to legend,
but I love that, yeah, And that recipe was purportedly
(13:59):
the cocoction of an alchemist, consisting of one hundred and
thirty herbs, spices, and flowers. However, it was adapted by
those that deciphered it, and they made it more practically,
so it wasn't such a pain. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, And to be fair, alchemy was just what they
called chemistry before a certain point in time. But it
does sound fancier. These monks experimented with several different versions
up to the seventeen fifties, right.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
And in seventeen sixty four the monks came up with
a less alcoholic version, green Chartruse, And the recipe was
so prized that only three monks were allowed to know it,
and each of them could only know two thirds of it. Yeah.
After they arrived at the recipe, they still didn't produce
(14:51):
too many bottles, and it was up to one of
the monks to deliver small bottles of Chartruths to nearby
villagers via mule. It really gained popularity even outside of
their nearby vicinity over time, so things were looking up
into the French Revolution. The French Revolution banned religious orders
(15:18):
in seventeen eighty nine. The monks kept the recipe safe
for future generations. They were permitted to go back to
their monastery in eighteen sixteen. Though.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, during that gap in time, the recipe was almost
lost a bunch like it was being held at the
monastery by this one guy, but then had to be
transferred to someone else who escaped with it. But then
he got arrested and someone sold it to like a
local pharmacist because they didn't know They couldn't decipher it,
they didn't know how to make it, so they were like, here, buddy,
(15:51):
can you help, And that guy was like, no, I can't.
It like wasted away in his attic for a few years,
and then finally when he passed during his estates, they
got it back to the monks. Anyway, Uh, this might
all all be completely apocryphal, but it's wonderful anyway. Once
(16:11):
they were back at the monastery, they rebuilt their distillery
and began production again, sort of slowly, tweaking the recipe
further and developing new yellow blends. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yes, first I have to say I would watch this
movie one oh yeah, And second if I went to
an estate sale and in the attic that was discovered
an old manuscript that had codes and symbols. You know,
I would think I'm not gonna mess with this.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, yeah, that's the see. I wouldn't like read the
Latin aloud, but I would definitely buy that manuscript.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I love it, okay. By eighteen forty, this concoction was
being marketed as chartreuse, and then the monks trademarked it
officially in eighteen sixty nine. In history does indicate it
was in fact often used medicinally for a whole host
of things.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
It had been getting popular enough that there were counterfeit
liqueurs on the market, like trying to cash in on
the monk's good name. I guess they sued a bunch
of people about it. I think also during this time,
the actual distillery moved out of the monastery, and they
furthermore set up a separate warehouse and shipping site in
(17:34):
nearby Voiroan.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Then another shakeup in nineteen oh three, when the monks
were expelled from their monastery again and France's government nationalized
the production of chartreuse. The trademark was sold to a
group of distillers who formed the company Fromier de la
Grande Chartreuse, only for it to go bankrupt in nineteen
(17:58):
twenty nine, with the help of some friends, the monks
were able to take over production once again in the interiom,
though the monks bounced around. According to the New York
Times article from then, which, by the way, they wrote
a lot about this whole thing, The New York Times did. Yeah,
the monks bought and then sold an island. They took
(18:20):
refuge in Spain, where they made and sold chart use
under a new label.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, in Tarragona, specifically this port city a little bit
south of Barcelona. And yeah, there was drama like some
places apparently, like the United States banned the non monk
made chartruse in support of the monk's venture.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Wow. Wow. Also just a note, there are tales of
fires and landslides and avalanches that this monastery survived.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Or like the order and the Recipe survived.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
The buildings that they've.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Operated out of have had a really rough time over
the years. And yeah, in nineteen thirty five they relocated
the distillery part to voyants and built out this massive
cellar there for aging that I think was later expanded
upon even further in the sixties or seventies. Today there's
(19:18):
a museum, a cocktail bar, and tours available again let
us know, right, oh.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Please, oh please? Stepping back a bit, The New York
Times published an article titled the Chartruse Secret in eighteen
eighty nine, where they labeled the industry a quote monopoly
that millions cannot buy allegedly and I love this. Even
the Pope had attempted to purchase their recipe for sixteen
(19:45):
million dollars, the equivalent of today's money, but the monks refused.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah wow, right.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I mean again, maybe a mini series would be better,
but wow, this is great. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Meanwhile, the color became really trendy in fashion in like
the late eighteen eighties into the eighteen nineties.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
The nineteen twelve first class menu of the Titanic featured
a Chartruse based dessert.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Oh f Scott Fitzgerald mentioned it in The Great Gatsby
in nineteen twenty five. Hitchcock had it in The Lady
Vanishes in nineteen thirty eight. Meanwhile, the Spanish Civil War
and World War Two perhaps obviously made production difficult, but
production did bounce back during the economic boom of the
(20:42):
nineteen fifties and sixties, and the brand began advertising the
heck out of it. Around Europe and also creating some
aged blends at that time. Following up with all of
this in nineteen seventy, they established a private company to
handle the moral like worldly aspects of the brand, the
(21:02):
distribution in the marketing, which in the nineteen seventies led
to some branded branded liqueurs that were orange, blueberry, and
raspberry flavored.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Oh well. All of this was part of an effort
to bring Chartruse kind of back into the spotlight, because
they really faded into obscurity in much of the US
after World War Two, for example, and to fight that,
a US marketing team set about creating punches using Shartruse
(21:37):
in the nineteen seventies. This episode has so many facts
that are competing for my favorite fact, but this might
be it. Okay, So they were struggling, but they did
eventually arrive at what they called swamp water, which was
six ounces of pineapple juice a lime wedge super charged
(21:57):
with one hundred and ten proof Green Sharks Truth ads
encourage younger folks to have swamp water parties, as they
called them. Some of these ads depicted mason jars that
read legal in all fifty states, which they played up
on like kind of the mystery of no, maybe it
wouldn't be legal, like why wouldn't it be? But my
(22:21):
favorite is you could even pay to get a swamp
Water game mail to you, and it was sort of
like Twister. You can still look at for it. Okay. Wow. However,
with all of this, sales were still pretty stagnant.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, so certainly in the US. I think it was
doing better over in Europe. But this is this is
all fascinating to me, and I would really I feel
like it dovetails with the rise.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Of mountain Dew.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, and that kind of like weird moonshine connection, especially
with that green color. Also swamp Water like that is
the least sexy cocktail name just about ever.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
It's so there's so many aspects of this that I
just want to sit down with the people who came
up with it and just have a conversation. Yeah, I'm
just curious because I love this. I love that you're like,
let's send them a game like Twister.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
And and was the legal and all fifty states thing
like a like a parallel to just moonshine or also
to absinthe or yea. Anyway, the eighties were rough on
the brand everywhere. You know, it's We've talked about it
plenty of times before the eighties were just a dead
time for cocktail culture around the world. The Tarragona distillery
(23:52):
operated until nineteen eighty nine, and there is still a
bit of chartouse culture in that city, though apparently I
have not been, but maybe especially surrounding the Festival of
Santa Tecla, for which there's this like popular slushy cocktail
that's made with both yellow and green chartruse plus lemon juice,
(24:12):
which sounds delightful.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Again, listeners, let us know. But then chartreuse started to
come back out into the light, and Seattle mixologist Murray
Stenson gets a lot of credit for reintroducing the world
to it via the Last Word Cocktail in two thousand
(24:37):
and three, which does use green chartreuse, and therefore popularized
it and it started to get used in a bunch
of other things. According to him, the concoction was based
on a recipe he found in a nineteen fifty one book,
and yeah, several other cocktails were created riffing off of that.
(24:58):
According to The New York Times, this recipe was first
developed for the Last Word was first developed at the
Detroit Athletic Club and ran for thirty five cents in
nineteen sixteen, which was their most expensive cocktail, about eight
dollars in our time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know,
(25:18):
but fascinating.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
In two thousand and five, a German documentary filmmaker by
the name of Philip Gruening released a film about the
daily lives of the Grande Chartreuse Monks, and the making
of this film was wild. Like he had asked back
in nineteen eighty four if he might come film them,
(25:43):
and they said they needed to think about it, and
sixteen years later they were like, oh.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yeah, sure, yes, what a power move. I love it.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So he went and spent six months there, filming alone
using only natural light, edited it using only natural sound.
There is a section about the making of Chartruce, but
I think it's like bonus footage and not included in
the final cut of the film. I've not I've seen
clips of it, I haven't seen.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
The whole thing.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
It seems fascinating. Due to new government regulations around distilling,
the monks opened yet another new distillery they're they're current
one in Aguinoire in twenty seventeen, Yes.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
And then in twenty twenty three, the price of chartreuse
went up as the monks announced that they would be
spending less time on making it and more time on
things like prayer, solitude, and balance, and further that they
wanted to limit the environmental impact of the liqueur and
the demands on resources of making it. Kind of funnelly
(26:56):
in my opinion. Some pointed out that truth might be
environmentally friendly in terms of a rumor that farmers would
give it to cows to ease their their gas slash
methane emissions with contributes to climate change. Yeah, that's no.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I'm nearly positive that people are not giving cows expensive liqueurs.
I mean, the I mean, the cattle industry off gassing
effect is a very serious thing. But yeah, the the issue.
(27:42):
The issue is more that like climate change is making
it more difficult to grow and or find some of
the plants used in their blends, And basically the monks
are just saying like, like, look, we understand that there's
increased demand. Y'all can deal with that. That's not really
on us. They're also experimenting with producing herbal teas, which
(28:04):
are less ingredient intensive, and they're shifting their overseas shipping
methods to sail based boats.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Huh okay, Yeah, there was a huge flurry of articles
about this in twenty twenty three. Apparently there was a
little bit of a shortage, like, yes, there was a shortage,
and I think during the pandemic, as with a lot
of things, demand had gone up. Sure, so there were
people writing about wait what, and so I have a
(28:37):
couple quotes I wanted to read. Here's a quote from
Tim Master, who oversees the only import of sharpshoes to
the United States, which is also a fascinating side story
that could be in this mini series. Quote. The goal
of the Carthusians is to not plan for three to
five years, but plan for three hundred to five hundred
more years. The monks are not in this to drive
(28:59):
mers and live a lavish life. And here's another quote
from the Washington Post again about Tim Master. Master recalls
visiting Chartruse a few years ago with some American bartenders
in tow when they met the monks who make the liquor,
(29:20):
and the brother says, I have to ask, what are
you doing with chartrus that makes me so busy? And
they said, well, we make cocktails. And the brother said,
what's a cocktail? Wow? Wow, this I want this miniseries.
I just this is It's super fascinating. It is it
(29:45):
really really is. We've got religion, we've got political intrigue,
we've got environmental disasters. Oh, we got really closed off
like group of mo that is making Chartruse and doesn't
really seem to know what happens with it. But it's
very like wanting to be environmentally friendly and do it
(30:08):
in a nice way. This is amazing.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
And yeah, I mean, and we didn't even get into
the fact that you know, like like like Nazis are
part of why they couldn't really do production during World
War Two.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
So heck, there's a lot. There's a lot going on
when you buy that bottle of chartrus Yeah, spare thought
for all of this stuff. Wow, it was a fun
one to research. I was not expecting pretty much any
(30:40):
of these. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
And there's an interesting amount of detail out there about
the history, Like on the Chartruse website there is a
bunch of very poorly like machine translated into English detail
about like which brothers in fact did the keeping of
(31:04):
the recipes over time, and who was responsible for different
changes in the formula and it's great.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
It really is. It really is, so if you're even
remotely interested, I highly recommend it. There is a lot
more out there about this that It's just a fascinating,
twisty turney history about how we got chartrus Well again, listeners,
(31:38):
if you have any experience with this, if you have
toured the distillery, just please write in, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
If you have a favorite cocktail or memory, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
M But that is what we have to say about
Chartreuse for now. It is.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
We do have some listener mill for you, though, and
we are going to get into that as soon as
we get back from one more quick break for a
word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and
we're back with listenows. I got spell, Elizabeth wrote, recently
discovered your podcast, so I'm catching up. I know your
(32:31):
episode on carrot cake is four months old, but better
late than never. I wanted to throw out a theory
as to why carrot cake's popular in spring for Easter
and Mother's Day. I grow carrots in my garden, and
as long as you keep them in a cool, dark
place like a cellar, carrots will keep for months I'm
wondering if in the olden days, when spring came around,
(32:52):
if people had some extra carrots harvested from the previous summer,
they would need to use them before going bad. So
why not make leftover carrots into a dessert. This theory
makes sense to me, as humans have a history of
trying to store it and preserve food over winter, and
with a little luck, we'll have a surplus at the
beginning of next planting slash harvesting season in the next year.
(33:14):
Love carrot cake. Can't wait until next spring to make
it again. Thank you for making my workday more interesting
with your podcast. Oh thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Also, four months merely four months late is not late
at all. That's You're doing great timeline wise.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yes, yes, welcome, Welcome to the savor party. Hopefully it's
treating you well. It makes sense to me. And this
is really interesting because, as I used to brag about,
even though I probably shouldn't have, one of the things
that I learned the skills I picked up during the
pandemic was I was I learned when how long you
could keep things and how long you could store things. Yeah,
(33:56):
and I think because of my I have a add
to a fake tooth, and so I'm not supposed to
eat carrots. So well, I can in certain circumstances, but generally,
and so I think I never investigated into the carrot
and how long it would last. Hey, that okay, that's
pretty long. That's pretty that's up there with cabbage. Cabbage.
(34:17):
Cabbage is like number one. It can last forever. But carrots,
all right.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Apples are pretty good too, I'll say.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, another thing I can't eat because
of the too.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Well not raw. I mean you can cook these things,
you know.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
I could cook. Yeah, it's got so like downtrotten for
no reason at all. Well, yeah, that's that's that makes
a lot of sense to me. And so many of
those holiday things that we do are based on that
idea of getting through the winter or what have you,
and what can last with the winter that you can
(34:54):
then make into something nice in the spring.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Oh and you've just recam my craving for carrot cake too.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
And we are slowly moving into fall, which, as we discussed,
is when I typically think of carrot cake. So you
can have carrot cake whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Oh yeah, absolutely, Mule wrote, I just learned about something
fun tyromancy or divination by using cheese. I think I
could make for a fun episode, perhaps combining with other
sorts of food divination. If there isn't enough info about
tyromancy one thousand, I must know more about this.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Oh yeah, Oh, I think this could be a fun
one because we are coming up into spooky season, because
there are a lot of things around like using food
to predict certain events. It's usually in my experience, it's
usually like love or something like that. But we could
(35:57):
do if there isn't enough on tyromance. There's surely enough
about using food. Oh yeah, tea leaves alone. Yeah, sure,
tea leaves the apple peels, see which way they curl
like there's a There's a handful of things. Yeah, but geez,
I just want to know more.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
We will have to investigate. We must if we need
to do hands on research.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
I'm ready. Yes, we've been preparing for this our old lives. Well,
I cannot wait. That will be fun in the meantime though,
thanks to both of these listeners for writing in. If
you would like to write to as, you can or
email us hello at savorpod dot com. We're also in
social media.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
saver pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lets
more good things are coming your way
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reason,
I'm Lauren.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Vocal Baum, and today we have an episode for you
about shar Truce.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, as always, drink responsibly. Why did you have any
reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
La I don't believe. So. I think it's just another
thing that has sort of been on the list for
a while and its number was up. I was like, look,
shar Truce.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It's time, It's time. It sounds so threatening, you're gonna
get the Savor treatment. Now. I can't say I have
a lot of experience with shar Truce. The first thing
I think of, I think I've told this story before
because I'm still mad about it. My lowest grade in
(00:55):
high school was in art and she kind of like,
I know, this sounds like I'm just making it up
because I'm hurt, but she kind of outwardly didn't like me.
And I believe it's because my brother, my older brother,
was such a troublemaker. Yeah. Also I wasn't a great artist,
but also the brother. But one time I made we
(01:19):
were making mask out of foil, I think, and I
I was going for like a creepy vibe, so I
painted it shartruse, and she did the most comical over
the top oh oh shaw truth. No one like Shaw truth. Wow.
Every time I hear chartruseaid, is the first thing I
(01:40):
think of.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I discussed Victorian England begs to differ first of all.
But but yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I should get in touch, right have you heard I
asked for revising of this grade blue? Wow? She visibly
was disgusting.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I mean, I it's it's a little bit like if
you're unfamiliar with the color, it's like it's like a
kind of like like yellowy green and very saturated, and
it's not like it's a little bit too yellow for
my personal tastes of greens. I like a green or green,
but it's still, I mean, it's very striking, and I
like a striking color.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So I was going for striking. See, this is my thing.
If she was that impacted, it worked, maybe I did
do good job because I was trying to do something creepy.
So yeah, anyway, that's what I think of.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
And also, as we all know from color theory, green
and purple are like the villain colors, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Obviously yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Anyway, yeah, yeah, no, no real reason, but you can
see our prior alcohol episodes. I was trying to think
if there's anything like really applicable, maybe various amari absinthe ish.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, I don't know why removeth it's coming to my mind.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Sure remouth Yeah, similar region.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Mm hmmmm hmm. This one's a fun one. It goes
a lot of wild places. Oh it does, Yeah, it does,
which I guess brings us to our question. Yeah, chartrus.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Well?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Chartruse is a brand of liqueurs that is like sweetened
flavored liquors that focuses on these very herbal, bitter sweet products.
Their primary concoction is called simply Chartruse, and it is
naturally from the production process this bright lemon lime green color,
which is right where we get the name of the
(04:02):
color Chartruse. It's also fifty five percent alcohol by volume,
which is pretty strong for a liquore and tastes sort
of like woody, sappy, minty, citrusy peppery tea e e yeah,
something like that. They also make a sort of softer
tasting yellow version and then have a number of like
(04:26):
special edition products as well. And by they I mean
a bunch of monks in France who originated the product
a couple centuries ago and still make it to this day.
Lots more on that, Yeah, but it is quite strongly
flavored on its own. So although it certainly can be sipped,
maybe chilled or on the rocks by itself, it's perhaps
(04:49):
more likely to be incorporated into cocktails as a bittersweet agent,
like adding complex flavors that go well with lots of
bright and clean tasting ingredients like tart citrus or a
spicy gin, or even like a sort of a stringent
white wine like e. Remove It's it's like being punched
right in the mouth by a dark garden.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Ooh, I like that, Yeah, vaguely threatening. Yeah, I'm intrigued exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
That's how I feel about Chartreuse and the color.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
And the alcohol. Boat.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So the Grand Chartreuse Monastery, like the home monastery, where
these products are based, is in southeast France, sort of
near the borders with Switzerland and Italy. The nearest big
city is Lyon to the west. It's named for the
mountain range Chartreuse is named for the mountain range that
the monastery is in, the Chartreuse Mountains, which are part
(05:53):
of the pre Alps. The monks are in the Carthusian order,
which has the same etymology those those same mountains, and
there are about thirty of them that form their like
highly ascetic community. Apparently in this monastery there is a
plant room where the monks, like specialized monks with the knowledge,
(06:14):
grind the vegetation that they use in their products. These
secret herbs flowers, seeds, roots, barks, berries.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And spices.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
They then add distilled liquor the actual distillery is off site,
and macerate the vegetation using different processes to extract the
flavors and colors that they're looking for. It's a process
that takes about seven rounds over several weeks, and when
most people just say chartruse, they probably mean green chartruse.
(06:43):
It comes in a clear bottle to show off that color.
It is supposedly made with one hundred and thirty different
plants and then aged in oak casks. Only two monks
know the formula that they use, and they are under
vows of silence, which are common for their order. One
(07:03):
of their they do have like pr representatives who talked
to the public about these things, and apparently one of them,
upon being asked what's in it? Like, what's flavoring this?
They were like, A, I don't know, hamburger and goat
cheese like monks got jokes. I love that, and I
(07:25):
will say fans who have tried making similar tasting products
have incorporated things like mint, vetaver, fennel, angelica, root, gentchin, cammal, violet, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, citrus, peel,
and on and on. The yellow version is less alcoholic,
only forty three percent by volume, and tastes some sweeter
(07:49):
and more gentle, a little bit more like like floral
and spicy, like spiced, not hot spicy. It's bright golden
rod in color, possibly from turmeric or saffron, and supposedly
also contains one hundred and thirty plants. These are the
two that you see most often, and the recipes came together,
(08:09):
and the recipes for both of these came together in
the eighteen hundreds. They also do the original version that's
from the seventeen hundreds. It is sixty nine percent alcohol.
It's sort of a burnished golden color like a whiskey.
Also claims one hundred and thirty plants and is still
marketed as a health tonic. The prevailing theory about that
one hundred and thirty plants is that the same ones
(08:33):
go into all of these, just in like different amounts
and possibly with different maceration techniques for different effects.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
They further produce a few specially blended and aged versions
of both the yellow and green types, and some of
them you can only get by visiting their aging sellers
in voiron. Is that how you say that, sure, France? Yeah,
so if anyone has been yes, oh yeah, yes, goodness.
(09:03):
One of the classic cocktails you might have seen shar
truce in if you're a cocktail human is the last Word,
which is gin marchino liqueur, green shar truce and lime juice,
usually shaken on ice and then served up. There's also
the Baiju, which is gin sweet remooth and green shar truce,
(09:23):
and the brandy daisy, which I'm unfamiliar with but came
up in my searches a lot. That one's brandy, yellow
shar truce and lemon juice sounds delightful. I'm not usually
a brandy human, but that sounds like really fun.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah. The colors of these, the cores are very striking
and they do feel kind of potion. Yeah, yeah, which
we're going to talk about in the history section. But yeah,
they are striking Well what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Drink responsibly, especially when stuff is like over fifty percent alcohol.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Ooh, well, we do have some numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
We do, we do, okay, So as of twenty twenty two,
Chartreuse was making about one point six million bottles a year,
about half of which the US imports. Apparently some twenty
four tons of plants went into that. That aforementioned aging
cellar in Voiron is apparently the longest liquor cellar in
(10:32):
the world.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I couldn't track down the numbers, though, I'm like, how
do you brag about this this often? And don't don't
have the numbers for me from all accounts that I read,
because you can go on tours down there. It's just
this loomingly gigantic room with you know, like the really
giant oak casks descending into darkness in the periphery of
(11:01):
your vision. And I'm like, yeah, so good. Total sales
of Charterers every year add up to some thirty million dollars.
The money goes to the Roman Catholic Church, and it
apparently funds some of the order's charterhouses around the world
and like the French Seminary in Rome, and has been
(11:21):
used for local charities in France, like hospital's disaster relief
that sort of thing. Since twenty twelve, Chartrus Day has
been celebrated on May sixteenth every year. That date is
an allusion to the year that the recipe was like
mysteriously received by these monks, which is sixteen oh five. Yeah,
(11:43):
bars and restaurants can register their participation and as of
twenty twenty four, there were two hundred and seventy two
registrants throughout the US, France, Belgium, Japan, and Singapore, and
their current distillery in Aguinor, France is the seventh that
they've operated out of over the past couple centuries due
(12:03):
to just a number of environmental and political disasters.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Really quite a number, a shocking number, even say, which
we are going to get into. Ellis the history section.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Which we are going to get into as soon as
we get back from a quick break. For a word
from our sponsors, and we're back, Thank you sponsor, Yes,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Okay. So, most researchers trace the history of chartreuse back
to the eighteenth century and Carthusian monks located in the
French Alps.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yes, so the Carthusian order goes back to the ten
hundred CE, when a small group founded this remote monastery
in these mountains with an emphasis on hermitage and silence
and self suffices. See. They expanded to other locations through
the next few centuries, and their Paris chapter learned about
alcohol distillation as it was developing around Europe around the
(13:09):
thirteen hundreds, and started using it to make health tonics.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Right. And even though I said most historians trace star
Truths back to the eighteenth century, there are so many
legends about it. Oh yeah, so many. And as you
alluded to earlier, Lauren. According to popular legend, the monks
based the recipe for Chartruths on one that was gifted
to them in sixteen oh five by King Henry the Force,
(13:36):
Marshal Duke Francois and Ebalde Estues. The recipe was titled
the Elixir of Long Life. It was composed of symbols
and codes that took over a century for the monks
at the Grand Chartruse Monastery to decipher. Again, according to legend,
but I love that, yeah, And that recipe was purportedly
(13:59):
the cocoction of an alchemist, consisting of one hundred and
thirty herbs, spices, and flowers. However, it was adapted by
those that deciphered it, and they made it more practically,
so it wasn't such a pain. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, And to be fair, alchemy was just what they
called chemistry before a certain point in time. But it
does sound fancier. These monks experimented with several different versions
up to the seventeen fifties, right.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
And in seventeen sixty four the monks came up with
a less alcoholic version, green Chartruse, And the recipe was
so prized that only three monks were allowed to know it,
and each of them could only know two thirds of it. Yeah.
After they arrived at the recipe, they still didn't produce
(14:51):
too many bottles, and it was up to one of
the monks to deliver small bottles of Chartruths to nearby
villagers via mule. It really gained popularity even outside of
their nearby vicinity over time, so things were looking up
into the French Revolution. The French Revolution banned religious orders
(15:18):
in seventeen eighty nine. The monks kept the recipe safe
for future generations. They were permitted to go back to
their monastery in eighteen sixteen. Though.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, during that gap in time, the recipe was almost
lost a bunch like it was being held at the
monastery by this one guy, but then had to be
transferred to someone else who escaped with it. But then
he got arrested and someone sold it to like a
local pharmacist because they didn't know They couldn't decipher it,
they didn't know how to make it, so they were like, here, buddy,
(15:51):
can you help, And that guy was like, no, I can't.
It like wasted away in his attic for a few years,
and then finally when he passed during his estates, they
got it back to the monks. Anyway, Uh, this might
all all be completely apocryphal, but it's wonderful anyway. Once
(16:11):
they were back at the monastery, they rebuilt their distillery
and began production again, sort of slowly, tweaking the recipe
further and developing new yellow blends. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yes, first I have to say I would watch this
movie one oh yeah, And second if I went to
an estate sale and in the attic that was discovered
an old manuscript that had codes and symbols. You know,
I would think I'm not gonna mess with this.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, yeah, that's the see. I wouldn't like read the
Latin aloud, but I would definitely buy that manuscript.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I love it, okay. By eighteen forty, this concoction was
being marketed as chartreuse, and then the monks trademarked it
officially in eighteen sixty nine. In history does indicate it
was in fact often used medicinally for a whole host
of things.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
It had been getting popular enough that there were counterfeit
liqueurs on the market, like trying to cash in on
the monk's good name. I guess they sued a bunch
of people about it. I think also during this time,
the actual distillery moved out of the monastery, and they
furthermore set up a separate warehouse and shipping site in
(17:34):
nearby Voiroan.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Then another shakeup in nineteen oh three, when the monks
were expelled from their monastery again and France's government nationalized
the production of chartreuse. The trademark was sold to a
group of distillers who formed the company Fromier de la
Grande Chartreuse, only for it to go bankrupt in nineteen
(17:58):
twenty nine, with the help of some friends, the monks
were able to take over production once again in the interiom,
though the monks bounced around. According to the New York
Times article from then, which, by the way, they wrote
a lot about this whole thing, The New York Times did. Yeah,
the monks bought and then sold an island. They took
(18:20):
refuge in Spain, where they made and sold chart use
under a new label.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, in Tarragona, specifically this port city a little bit
south of Barcelona. And yeah, there was drama like some
places apparently, like the United States banned the non monk
made chartruse in support of the monk's venture.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Wow. Wow. Also just a note, there are tales of
fires and landslides and avalanches that this monastery survived.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Or like the order and the Recipe survived.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
The buildings that they've.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Operated out of have had a really rough time over
the years. And yeah, in nineteen thirty five they relocated
the distillery part to voyants and built out this massive
cellar there for aging that I think was later expanded
upon even further in the sixties or seventies. Today there's
(19:18):
a museum, a cocktail bar, and tours available again let
us know, right, oh.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Please, oh please? Stepping back a bit, The New York
Times published an article titled the Chartruse Secret in eighteen
eighty nine, where they labeled the industry a quote monopoly
that millions cannot buy allegedly and I love this. Even
the Pope had attempted to purchase their recipe for sixteen
(19:45):
million dollars, the equivalent of today's money, but the monks refused.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah wow, right.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I mean again, maybe a mini series would be better,
but wow, this is great. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Meanwhile, the color became really trendy in fashion in like
the late eighteen eighties into the eighteen nineties.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
The nineteen twelve first class menu of the Titanic featured
a Chartruse based dessert.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Oh f Scott Fitzgerald mentioned it in The Great Gatsby
in nineteen twenty five. Hitchcock had it in The Lady
Vanishes in nineteen thirty eight. Meanwhile, the Spanish Civil War
and World War Two perhaps obviously made production difficult, but
production did bounce back during the economic boom of the
(20:42):
nineteen fifties and sixties, and the brand began advertising the
heck out of it. Around Europe and also creating some
aged blends at that time. Following up with all of
this in nineteen seventy, they established a private company to
handle the moral like worldly aspects of the brand, the
(21:02):
distribution in the marketing, which in the nineteen seventies led
to some branded branded liqueurs that were orange, blueberry, and
raspberry flavored.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Oh well. All of this was part of an effort
to bring Chartruse kind of back into the spotlight, because
they really faded into obscurity in much of the US
after World War Two, for example, and to fight that,
a US marketing team set about creating punches using Shartruse
(21:37):
in the nineteen seventies. This episode has so many facts
that are competing for my favorite fact, but this might
be it. Okay, So they were struggling, but they did
eventually arrive at what they called swamp water, which was
six ounces of pineapple juice a lime wedge super charged
(21:57):
with one hundred and ten proof Green Sharks Truth ads
encourage younger folks to have swamp water parties, as they
called them. Some of these ads depicted mason jars that
read legal in all fifty states, which they played up
on like kind of the mystery of no, maybe it
wouldn't be legal, like why wouldn't it be? But my
(22:21):
favorite is you could even pay to get a swamp
Water game mail to you, and it was sort of
like Twister. You can still look at for it. Okay. Wow. However,
with all of this, sales were still pretty stagnant.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, so certainly in the US. I think it was
doing better over in Europe. But this is this is
all fascinating to me, and I would really I feel
like it dovetails with the rise.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Of mountain Dew.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, and that kind of like weird moonshine connection, especially
with that green color. Also swamp Water like that is
the least sexy cocktail name just about ever.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
It's so there's so many aspects of this that I
just want to sit down with the people who came
up with it and just have a conversation. Yeah, I'm
just curious because I love this. I love that you're like,
let's send them a game like Twister.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
And and was the legal and all fifty states thing
like a like a parallel to just moonshine or also
to absinthe or yea. Anyway, the eighties were rough on
the brand everywhere. You know, it's We've talked about it
plenty of times before the eighties were just a dead
time for cocktail culture around the world. The Tarragona distillery
(23:52):
operated until nineteen eighty nine, and there is still a
bit of chartouse culture in that city, though apparently I
have not been, but maybe especially surrounding the Festival of
Santa Tecla, for which there's this like popular slushy cocktail
that's made with both yellow and green chartruse plus lemon juice,
(24:12):
which sounds delightful.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Again, listeners, let us know. But then chartreuse started to
come back out into the light, and Seattle mixologist Murray
Stenson gets a lot of credit for reintroducing the world
to it via the Last Word Cocktail in two thousand
(24:37):
and three, which does use green chartreuse, and therefore popularized
it and it started to get used in a bunch
of other things. According to him, the concoction was based
on a recipe he found in a nineteen fifty one book,
and yeah, several other cocktails were created riffing off of that.
(24:58):
According to The New York Times, this recipe was first
developed for the Last Word was first developed at the
Detroit Athletic Club and ran for thirty five cents in
nineteen sixteen, which was their most expensive cocktail, about eight
dollars in our time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know,
(25:18):
but fascinating.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
In two thousand and five, a German documentary filmmaker by
the name of Philip Gruening released a film about the
daily lives of the Grande Chartreuse Monks, and the making
of this film was wild. Like he had asked back
in nineteen eighty four if he might come film them,
(25:43):
and they said they needed to think about it, and
sixteen years later they were like, oh.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yeah, sure, yes, what a power move. I love it.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So he went and spent six months there, filming alone
using only natural light, edited it using only natural sound.
There is a section about the making of Chartruce, but
I think it's like bonus footage and not included in
the final cut of the film. I've not I've seen
clips of it, I haven't seen.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
The whole thing.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
It seems fascinating. Due to new government regulations around distilling,
the monks opened yet another new distillery they're they're current
one in Aguinoire in twenty seventeen, Yes.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
And then in twenty twenty three, the price of chartreuse
went up as the monks announced that they would be
spending less time on making it and more time on
things like prayer, solitude, and balance, and further that they
wanted to limit the environmental impact of the liqueur and
the demands on resources of making it. Kind of funnelly
(26:56):
in my opinion. Some pointed out that truth might be
environmentally friendly in terms of a rumor that farmers would
give it to cows to ease their their gas slash
methane emissions with contributes to climate change. Yeah, that's no.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I'm nearly positive that people are not giving cows expensive liqueurs.
I mean, the I mean, the cattle industry off gassing
effect is a very serious thing. But yeah, the the issue.
(27:42):
The issue is more that like climate change is making
it more difficult to grow and or find some of
the plants used in their blends, And basically the monks
are just saying like, like, look, we understand that there's
increased demand. Y'all can deal with that. That's not really
on us. They're also experimenting with producing herbal teas, which
(28:04):
are less ingredient intensive, and they're shifting their overseas shipping
methods to sail based boats.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Huh okay, Yeah, there was a huge flurry of articles
about this in twenty twenty three. Apparently there was a
little bit of a shortage, like, yes, there was a shortage,
and I think during the pandemic, as with a lot
of things, demand had gone up. Sure, so there were
people writing about wait what, and so I have a
(28:37):
couple quotes I wanted to read. Here's a quote from
Tim Master, who oversees the only import of sharpshoes to
the United States, which is also a fascinating side story
that could be in this mini series. Quote. The goal
of the Carthusians is to not plan for three to
five years, but plan for three hundred to five hundred
more years. The monks are not in this to drive
(28:59):
mers and live a lavish life. And here's another quote
from the Washington Post again about Tim Master. Master recalls
visiting Chartruse a few years ago with some American bartenders
in tow when they met the monks who make the liquor,
(29:20):
and the brother says, I have to ask, what are
you doing with chartrus that makes me so busy? And
they said, well, we make cocktails. And the brother said,
what's a cocktail? Wow? Wow, this I want this miniseries.
I just this is It's super fascinating. It is it
(29:45):
really really is. We've got religion, we've got political intrigue,
we've got environmental disasters. Oh, we got really closed off
like group of mo that is making Chartruse and doesn't
really seem to know what happens with it. But it's
very like wanting to be environmentally friendly and do it
(30:08):
in a nice way. This is amazing.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
And yeah, I mean, and we didn't even get into
the fact that you know, like like like Nazis are
part of why they couldn't really do production during World
War Two.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
So heck, there's a lot. There's a lot going on
when you buy that bottle of chartrus Yeah, spare thought
for all of this stuff. Wow, it was a fun
one to research. I was not expecting pretty much any
(30:40):
of these. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
And there's an interesting amount of detail out there about
the history, Like on the Chartruse website there is a
bunch of very poorly like machine translated into English detail
about like which brothers in fact did the keeping of
(31:04):
the recipes over time, and who was responsible for different
changes in the formula and it's great.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
It really is. It really is, so if you're even
remotely interested, I highly recommend it. There is a lot
more out there about this that It's just a fascinating,
twisty turney history about how we got chartrus Well again, listeners,
(31:38):
if you have any experience with this, if you have
toured the distillery, just please write in, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
If you have a favorite cocktail or memory, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
M But that is what we have to say about
Chartreuse for now. It is.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
We do have some listener mill for you, though, and
we are going to get into that as soon as
we get back from one more quick break for a
word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and
we're back with listenows. I got spell, Elizabeth wrote, recently
discovered your podcast, so I'm catching up. I know your
(32:31):
episode on carrot cake is four months old, but better
late than never. I wanted to throw out a theory
as to why carrot cake's popular in spring for Easter
and Mother's Day. I grow carrots in my garden, and
as long as you keep them in a cool, dark
place like a cellar, carrots will keep for months I'm
wondering if in the olden days, when spring came around,
(32:52):
if people had some extra carrots harvested from the previous summer,
they would need to use them before going bad. So
why not make leftover carrots into a dessert. This theory
makes sense to me, as humans have a history of
trying to store it and preserve food over winter, and
with a little luck, we'll have a surplus at the
beginning of next planting slash harvesting season in the next year.
(33:14):
Love carrot cake. Can't wait until next spring to make
it again. Thank you for making my workday more interesting
with your podcast. Oh thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Also, four months merely four months late is not late
at all. That's You're doing great timeline wise.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yes, yes, welcome, Welcome to the savor party. Hopefully it's
treating you well. It makes sense to me. And this
is really interesting because, as I used to brag about,
even though I probably shouldn't have, one of the things
that I learned the skills I picked up during the
pandemic was I was I learned when how long you
could keep things and how long you could store things. Yeah,
(33:56):
and I think because of my I have a add
to a fake tooth, and so I'm not supposed to
eat carrots. So well, I can in certain circumstances, but generally,
and so I think I never investigated into the carrot
and how long it would last. Hey, that okay, that's
pretty long. That's pretty that's up there with cabbage. Cabbage.
(34:17):
Cabbage is like number one. It can last forever. But carrots,
all right.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Apples are pretty good too, I'll say.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, another thing I can't eat because
of the too.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Well not raw. I mean you can cook these things,
you know.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
I could cook. Yeah, it's got so like downtrotten for
no reason at all. Well, yeah, that's that's that makes
a lot of sense to me. And so many of
those holiday things that we do are based on that
idea of getting through the winter or what have you,
and what can last with the winter that you can
(34:54):
then make into something nice in the spring.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Oh and you've just recam my craving for carrot cake too.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
And we are slowly moving into fall, which, as we discussed,
is when I typically think of carrot cake. So you
can have carrot cake whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Oh yeah, absolutely, Mule wrote, I just learned about something
fun tyromancy or divination by using cheese. I think I
could make for a fun episode, perhaps combining with other
sorts of food divination. If there isn't enough info about
tyromancy one thousand, I must know more about this.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Oh yeah, Oh, I think this could be a fun
one because we are coming up into spooky season, because
there are a lot of things around like using food
to predict certain events. It's usually in my experience, it's
usually like love or something like that. But we could
(35:57):
do if there isn't enough on tyromance. There's surely enough
about using food. Oh yeah, tea leaves alone. Yeah, sure,
tea leaves the apple peels, see which way they curl
like there's a There's a handful of things. Yeah, but geez,
I just want to know more.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
We will have to investigate. We must if we need
to do hands on research.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
I'm ready. Yes, we've been preparing for this our old lives. Well,
I cannot wait. That will be fun in the meantime though,
thanks to both of these listeners for writing in. If
you would like to write to as, you can or
email us hello at savorpod dot com. We're also in
social media.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
saver pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lets
more good things are coming your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Dylan Fagan
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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