CHARTREUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14934, 6 March 1912, Page 10

CHARTREUSE.

ITS MAKING STILL A SECRET. No one lias yet discovered 0110 'of the oldest trade secrets of the world, and one of the most profitable commercially. This .is tho making of chartreuse, the famous liqueur. The secret is held by the White Friars, the monks of the chief Carthusian monastery of the world, La Grande Chartreuse, situated in an Alpine valley near 'Grenoble. France. The White Friars date back to 1134, and from time immemorial they have made this cordial. The French Government- issued an edict against them in 1903, confiscated their property, and drove them from their monastery. But they did not get tho secret of tho doughty" monks. Tho White Friars are making their famous chartreuse yet, and not an imitator of them has come anywhere near succeeding, though thousands of precious French gold coins have gone into repeated trials. Chemists have long since found out what, chartreuse is made of. Thev can hand cut an accurate formula of tlie 35 odd ingredients of it. But they cannot put them together and concoct the real, true chartreuse. Some> t,ay that the secret lies in the very old brandy the White Friars have sequestered, and use as the base. According to this story each year these monk* lay down a new supply of this brandy, and .use in their chartreuse ' makbefore prepared exactly 50 years But nobody exactly knows. The one certain thing is that no one else can turn out genuine chartreuse.