IT'S the new black, darlings.
Q: Let fashionistas drink to that! A: It's not the liqueur made by the monks of La Grande-Chartreuse monastery near Grenoble in France that's setting trends.
Q: What, then? A: The colour chartreuse. It's one of the two colours of the season (the other is grey). Chartreuse is a pale, apple green.
Q: Just like? A: The liquour, which was first made in 1737. The recipe for an elixir of long life had been in the hands of Carthusian monks for more than 100 years before Chartreuse was created. It took the skills of the monastery's apothecary, Brother Jerome Maubec, to make sense of it. It was intended to be a medicinal.
Q: But? A: It was so tasty people drank it for pleasure. This could be risky as the original elixir was 71-per cent alcohol by volume. A milder version, known as Green Chartreuse, appeared in 1764.
Q: A colour was born? A: One that would turn heads on the catwalk more than 240 years later. But green isn't the only colour of Chartreuse. In 1838, a sweeter and milder version was developed. The colour wasn't standard green, so it was known as Yellow Chartreuse. It's 40-per cent alcohol by volume.
Q: Famous tipplers? A: The late Queen Mother liked a gargle. Others who've enjoyed the liquor include Charles de Gaulle, Hunter S Thompson and Nicolas II, the last czar of Russia who put a drop of Yellow Chartreuse in his champagne.
Q: Ingredients? A: The recipe is secret but is known to involve soaking some 130 herbs, plants, roots leaves and other vegetation in alcohol. The mixture is distilled. Honey and sugar-syrup are added. Then maturation begins in the longest liqueur cellar in the world.
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