HOW CHARTREUSE IS MADE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 14, 6 April 1899, Page 6

HOW CHARTREUSE IS MADE

It is well known that the Carthusians manufacture the worldfamous green or yellow chaitreuse. and surprise is often expressed by Protestants (says a correspondent ot the .Vi ie Era) that monks should manutaotuie alcoholic stimulant^. There are two sides to every question, however, and Viconite d A vend has championed the Gaithusians in the Hivih <h- D/u.i Monde, and has, so to say, put thin^'' in their right places. The Vicomte brushes away once and for all the legend of monastic cupidity. '1 he monks profit very little by this liqueur. They tend out two million bottles of it annually, and receive for the«o sums which leave a net balance in their favour of Cl2'),()t)0. Thi.-, money is 'altogether spent in charity,' writes M. d'Avenel. Ie is given to poor families in Dauphine and throughout France. It is spent in restoring and reconstructing poor churches, and the reverend abbot has no small trouble in trying to meet the applications for aid, which come to him iroin all side*. Here are some curious notes from M. d'Avenel's article : The manufactory or distillery of the liquor is in a village of the plain, the monastery being on a hill above. The technical and commercial contLol ot the manufactory or distillery is in the hands oi one priot. aided by twehe Liy Brothers. The Father director id one ul Uio three Carthusians who know the secret of preparations handed down from Don Gjrniur. whoso name is still on the bottl<s, iii.d who. after the great Revolution, resumed the prepaiation oi ' WluU 1 ' Charireu-e irom the recipe givin him by one oi' his bivtliu'n, \» ho had died. Besides the religious, there is a Urge culeny ot wuikiuen who live in the village, and fresh samples or Ik 1 b-. irom the mount an-tide are brougnt to the dis- . tillery by p< i.-unt-., \\ no are paid for them. These herbs form tin basin ot the liqu.»r, and must be fiesh and not dried. Over forty^ different mjUs are u-ul, the prmcip-.l being garden palm. Then there aie liys-op, mint, anjehcu roots, thyme, arnica flowers, blossoms oi rhe balm poplar, eoreander, sweut Livender, pine aloes, and many Alpins aromatic plants. With these is employed the purest of caii-dr-nt , which, combined with the fresh simples, produces the celebrated liqueur, which takes its name from the famous monastery founded by St. Bruno in 1082.