Chartreuse is among the world’s most venerable and venerated spirits. For this episode, we’re joined by veteran drinks journalist Jordan Mackay and sommelier and restaurateur Paul Einbund to talk about their new book on the spirit’s history and its role in cocktail culture, “The Little Green Book of Chartreuse,” from Ten Speed Press.
Chartreuse is one of the most storied spirits in the world, with a history stretching back centuries and an essential role in today’s cocktail culture. For this episode, we’re joined by veteran drinks journalist Jordan Mackay and sommelier and restaurateur Paul Einbund to talk about their new book, The Little Green Book of Chartreuse: Devotion, Libation, and the Holy Spirit, from Ten Speed Press.
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Paul Clarke
Hey everybody, welcome back to Radio Imbibe from Imbibe Magazine. I'm Paul Clarke, Imbibe's editor-in-chief. And when many people start exploring cocktails for the first time, it becomes quickly apparent that some flavors and some spirits are relatively identifiable and accessible, and a novice cocktail drinker can get used to them pretty easily. Think about things like a pina colada with its coconut and pineapple, or the tangy, sweet tart bite of a well-made margarita.
But then you start running into flavors and ingredients that aren't quite as commonplace outside of the world as spirits and cocktails, and that may require a little or a lot of getting used to. Remember your first Negroni? What about the first time you tried a smoky single malt scotch, or artisanal mezcal, or your first taste of absinthe. Chartreuse is pretty firmly in the latter category. But, like the other things I just mentioned, it's something that over the years has developed a die-hard legion of fans.
A French herbal liqueur that is famously made by monks, Chartreuse has a history that stretches back many hundreds of years from its initial inception in France. A key component in cocktails like the Champs Elysees, the Naked and Famous, and the Last Word, Chartreuse hit such a peak of popularity several years ago that the monks behind the production announced that they were placing a ceiling on the liqueur's growth. A relative shortage followed as people started hoarding bottles, but once everyone calmed down a little bit, availability leveled off, and now Chartreuse is easy enough find if you look around a little. I'll admit that I found Chartreuse a pretty challenging flavor the first few times I sipped it, but now I'm one of those people who has multiple expressions on hand at all times, and I can't imagine a spirit world or a cocktail world without it.
But as fans of Chartreuse go, I'm a relative amateur, especially as compared to super fans like Paul Einbund, a sommelier and restaurateur behind Sirene in Oakland and the Morris in San Francisco, and Jordan Mackay, a veteran drinks journalist and past Imbibe contributor now based in New York's Hudson Valley. Paul and Jordan share a deep enthusiasm for everything related to Chartreuse, and this month they're publishing their brand new work, The Little Green Book of Chartreuse, from 10 Speed Press.
So how does one go from Chartreuse newbie to Chartreuse expert? What are some of the many mysteries and stories behind Chartreuse and its history? And after years of sipping and exploration, why does Chartreuse still hold such interest for the two of them? Here's our conversation with Jordan Mackay and Paul Einbund to talk about many things they encountered while writing The Little Green Book of Chartreuse.
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Paul Clarke
Jordan, Paul, welcome to Radio Imbibe.
Paul Einbund
Yay!
Jordan Mackay
Great to see you, Paul Clarke.
Paul Clarke
Absolutely. And you know, so this is really cool. Thanks for joining me. You guys have a brand new book coming out, The Little Green Book of Chartreuse: Devotion, Libation, and the Holy Spirit, with recipes. First of all, congrats on that.
Paul Einbund
Thank you.
Jordan Mackay
Thanks.
Paul Clarke
And you know, Chartreuse is an odd kind of thing out there in the spirits world. It manages to hold a position that is in some ways both ubiquitous and obscure. It's everywhere or it was everywhere for a very long time. But if you ask somebody what it was on your first exposure, they typically just say, "Oh, it's made by monks" or "that is really powerful stuff" or something like that. So before we get into the book itself, I'd like to ask each of you, starting with you, Jordan, what is your personal first recollection with Chartreuse? And honestly, what was that experience like?
Jordan Mackay
Well, my first recollection was hardly a recollection because I ended up being so hungover the next day. But this was on an early trip to Paris in my 20s. And I ended up in a bar and someone was serving me Chartreuse after a great dinner. And I thought it was so delicious and so incredible that I obviously drank too much of it. Somehow I got back to a hotel room and woke up the next morning only with this vague memory that I had had something that really blew me away. And then fast forward about another eight years and I had moved to San Francisco and I was writing about the cocktail scene in San Francisco. And I met Marco Dionysos, the very famous bartender who comes up in the book, actually. And he was taking me around, introducing me to San Francisco bars and bartenders. And he told me about this crazy thing called Chartreuse. And I said, "Oh, wow, that's what it was. That's what I had. And I couldn't believe that it was made by monks, all of the whole story." So it's been a long time coming for me, but it's been on my consciousness for a long time. And, you know, I just adore it.
Paul Clarke
Paul, what about you? What was your first encounter with this?
Paul Einbund
My first encounter with Chartreuse is sort of the opposite of Jordan's story. I was training as a waiter at a restaurant that has changed. It's the same company, but it's a different restaurant now. It's called Ocean Avenue Seafood at the time. And the server was named Elle. I even want to call her out because it was this like sparkling clean seafood restaurant, oyster bar, and just everything was so clean and perfect. And she was showing me, she was giving me a tour of the bar and showing me where everything was. And then on the top shelf, there was one bottle that had cobwebs and dust on it, in this sparkling clean place. And I said, "What is that?" And her response was, "That, ooh, Chartreuse." So that was my introduction to Chartreuse. And then a handful of years later, I jumped into the deep water when the now-retired former head of Chartreuse Jean-Marc Roget was in town, probably on the same trip that he tasted with Marco Dionysos and with Murray Stenson, who, who later, uh, sort of revitalized the last word cocktail. Jean-Marc tasted me on the Chartreuse and that's the first time I remember tasting Chartreuse. And I sort of ignored the regular green and yellow, but when I tried the VEP, I was obsessed, made him tell me the whole sales pitch story again, went over and shared a glass of it with some friends. One of which was Michael McCarty from Michael's in Santa Monica. And he was like, "Oui, Chartreuse." And the other one was, uh, a mutual friend of Jordan's of mine, David Rosoff, a legendary sommelier. And he was like, "Wait, what was this?" And he got up with me and we went back to Jean-Marc Roget and made Jean-Marc talk about Chartreuse longer, which is an easy thing to do with that guy. He loves talking about Chartreuse.
Paul Clarke
And, you know, one of the things I encounter a lot and I know both of you probably do as well is if there's a new product coming out, a new whiskey expression or a new tequila or mezcal, that aspect of something new is what drives a good deal of the marketing and a lot of the attention, a lot of the conversation. Chartreuse, we should point out for listeners is not really all that new. So why, why today in 2026 are so many people so still absolutely gaga over Chartreuse?
Paul Einbund
Well, it has historically gone in waves. So Chartreuse will be super popular and then it'll be completely extinct. And then it'll be super popular again. And then it'll be kind of like a curio, like it was for, for many years until about 10 years ago when it really started blowing up again. And then during the pandemic, so six, five, six years ago when it just hit possibly an all time high of hyper attention. And I think that that is because of exactly what you say. All things old are new. So you forget about it. You don't know about it. People get bored and look for the next new great thing. And then it's up to collectors and fanatics to keep something alive for a while.
Jordan Mackay
And I also think, Paul, that it's a great question. And there is certainly some sort of cyclical nature of this But I think also at this moment where we are just suffused with too many products, too many advertisements, too much of the digital world that has no substance, that people are sort of hungry for substance and meaning. And there are very few products in the spirits world that carry those things like Chartreuse does.
Paul Clarke
And you note in the book that the two of you visited Chartreuse. And I know that's a bucket list item for a lot of people in the industry. What was that visit like? And how did it factor into your own understanding and attraction and ongoing passion for Chartreuse?
Paul Einbund
Well, I'm eager to hear Jordan's response to that. But I'll start by saying I have been to Chartreuse many times and am fairly obsessed with all things Chartreuse. And it all stems from the visits I mean, that's what solidified it. The flavor was the first thing that hooked me in. And then the story made it deeper. And then the fact that nobody knew anything about these bottles that I was collecting, these old bottles. But then when you go there, there is a weight and a power to the place. So when Jordan and I started talking about doing this book, it was number one, two, and three on the list was get Jordan to the place because there's nothing like it. And I'm curious to hear what Jordan has to say about this.
Jordan Mackay
I would agree with Paul that, in fact, the visit to the place was so powerful for me everything changed. To be honest, I had loved drinking Chartreuse. I'd loved cocktails with Chartreuse and was in love with the story. But when you go there and you ascend the hill, and I make a really concerted effort to describe this in the book that you just feel this incredible connection to the place itself and realize that the Carthusian monks, everything that they feel and believe in their entire way of life, actually emanates from the power that's contained in this place. And then you realize that is all there in the liqueur as well.
Paul Clarke
And you recount in the book the Chartreuse origin story and how it's really a part of religious history. But today, it's also very much a part of cocktail history as you explore. As we were working on this book, how did you see those two very different paths converge? And where do you still see them as very distinct and going in their own directions?
Paul Einbund
I think that's such a cool question, and it's actually something I've never considered before. But here's where my gut tells me to go with this. Well, a story about how recent it was that the monks tasted cocktails for the first time. So Chartreuse, uh, the civilian arm that was in charge, that is still in charge of sales because the monks don't talk. They don't want to deal with the business. So they farm that out very carefully to one company that handles it all, but they focused on cocktails. They focused on bartenders and not on sommeliers, not on collectors, not on collecting the spirit. That's a pretty new thing other than a very, very extremely niche market. So they had a trip with some legendary bartenders and they were actually sitting with one of the monks and they said something about a cocktail. And the monk was like, oh, what’s a cocktail? So they went outside and they foraged some stuff and they came back and they looked inside of their fridge and they created some sort of something like a swizzle probably. The monk was blown away that anybody would be doing that with Chartreuse. So the, the, there is definitely a separation in that sense, but I think that the reason that the spirit first became a component of cocktails is number one taste, but number two, origin, the story, or what it is, where it comes from, how special it is. Jordan writes so eloquently about all things, but in the book, he talks about how you pretty much can't separate the spirit from the monks and the spirit from the land. And that's what I think you're tasting, why it's so one of a kind and unique and why so many people have tried to imitate it over the years. And I think that that power hit the first bartenders, when they started making cocktails at the beginning and then it all disappeared. And Jordan has really amazing thoughts on why cocktail culture disappeared. And then it came back and Chartreuse was one of the first spirits that started exploding with the Renaissance of cocktails too. So it makes sense that they're intertwined, but not, uh, completely attached.
Paul Clarke
And, you know, exploring Chartreuse's history, there's this point where Chartreuse emerges from the clerical order and enters the world at large. At what point did it start becoming a commercial item and how was that process balanced for so many years? I mean, we, we talk about Chartreuse and cocktails a lot, but, but even prior to that, as it first started coming out and, and being a part of the culinary world, what did that process look like?
Paul Einbund
If you back it up to the beginning, 1084 was when St. Bruno founded the order, uh,
Paul Clarke
Going back just a little bit.
Paul Einbund
I remember it well, Paul. Um, uh, but they, they had a goal to support themselves, to be self-sustaining. So they did what they could to make money. So the monks were farmers, they were woodworkers, they were metal workers. They were, uh, herbalists. And that's why they ended up getting the recipe was because they ended up being some of the world's greatest herbologists, herbalists, and were some of the only people who could possibly have explained what was going on in this manuscript that was delivered to them. So I think that the answer to your question directly is as soon as they could make money from it, they did. The reality was that probably didn't really happen until 1840. So if the elixir vegetal, the very first Chartreuse came about around 1764 ish, give or take a couple days, the monks thought that they had created a medicine. And, actually to this day, many French people still treat it as a medicine, but they would take it to the farmer's market and they would sell it as such. And that had some success, but I don't think that that was ever gangbusters for them. I think it was really probably around 1840 with the release of green and probably yellow around the same time when, when that started taking off. And that's the first time that it became a real monetary thing. Moved the needle.
Jordan Mackay
I would just add, it's really interesting, but yes, it was a medicine. The elixir was a tonic and then, but people enjoy drinking it as well, adding it to things. And the monks discovered that green and then yellow also could just be a more drinkable version that has the same health benefits. So they were more commercial, but they still had the same integrity and the same goal from the beginning that they did. For the 80 years or so where they just had the elixir and also it was what really skyrocketed Chartreuse to fame and success back in the 19th century was the yellow, which more so than the green, that it was his local citizens and actually soldiers who fell in love so much with the yellow and spread its renown far and wide.
Paul Clarke
Also, as you note in the book, it's tempting to think of Chartreuse as this distinct, unchanging, perpetual kind of thing, a taste of history, but the world works in weird ways and the monks making Chartreuse have had to adapt and evolve in some ways in response to that. What are some of the significant spots or milestones in Chartreuse's history where you saw particular challenges or changes along the way?
Jordan Mackay
It's a great, great question and one of the coolest things about Chartreuse is how many times it's encountered various headwinds from political turmoil, revolutions, wars, religious persecution, and then even economic adversity. So Paul can name a few of the details but one of the most incredible things about Chartreuse is how it has navigated these turbulent seas.
Paul Einbund
Like literally boom and bust, starving, begging, you know, having real sustaining issues, and then having boom times. There have been periods of times when there were more than 200 Carthusian monasteries or Carthusian orders all around the world. And there are times when there are nine monks in the Grand Monastery that where Chartreuse comes from in the Chartreuse Mountains. So it's a real story of boom and bust and survival. It's pretty incredible. I have two dates that are like complete bust. In 1793 they were kicked out of the monastery and then they came back in 1816. And then again in 1903 they were kicked out of France. And then they came back in 1935 to 1940 somewhere around there is when they started coming back again. Also you've got landslides destroying the monastery. In 1935 Foivori was destroyed by landslide and they had to move production to Voiron. There are just so many times where it has gone hard to the left and then they had to figure things out. And that's again that's I feel like that's part of the spirit. That's part of what you're tasting is the history and that. I don't know it just tastes so real to me.
Paul Clarke
You both spent a lot of time working on this book and researching Chartreuse and working with Chartreuse. You got to the bottom of the story, right? What's in it? You got the recipe, right?
Paul Einbund
Oh, yeah. We know beyond it. It's funny. There's this incredible Chartreuse obsessed shop in Paris called Cave Bossetti and there's a guy there named Philippe who is as obsessed with Chartreuse as me. Maybe more. He actually is one of the few people that gets to bottle. They get to bottle their own Chartreuse. He's got a society called Folle Chartreuse who's crazy about Chartreuse and they get a bottling of Chartreuse every year. That is actually hard for me to get now because it's so popular, which is unfortunate. the reason I bring up Philippe is he once showed me this video and how they've analyzed it and they believe that they have. I don't even know what the number was. Some certain number of the herbs and plants. So there are 130 herbs and plants. There are only two monks that know the recipe and I've never once wanted to know what that recipe was. I would like to tell you, because there are certain things. I think that's one of the reasons why I love Chartreuse so much is I'm not a master of Chartreuse. I don't know every, I know so little about Chartreuse, but I know so much about Chartreuse. And every time I go to Europe, I learn every time to this day, I learn something new about Chartreuse. And that's what makes it fun and exciting for me is to just keep gathering information, to keep finding new bottles and tasting them and learning more and more and more.
Paul Clarke
You'd mentioned a few minutes ago about, you know, going to Chartreuse and how it's very much not only a product of the monks, but a product of a place. It really speaks to that place. Well, on that note of what goes into Chartreuse, and again, you know, we don't really know the recipe, but it is from this place. How, in your estimation, from visiting there and from tasting it so many times, how does Chartreuse speak to the very specific place where it comes from?
Jordan Mackay
Well, that's a really great question. And, you know, one of the most fascinating things about the original recipe, and I think the formulation as it was originally conceived, was that it is in some ways also a global And, you know, the original recipe most likely reflected things from the spice route, from the ancient spice trade. But, to me, it represents this place so much because of the color green. And one of the mysteries that we try to solve a little bit or just get to the bottom of is why the colour that has become so iconic that they named the colour Chartreuse after the liqueur, not the way around. That's one of those things, going back to an early question that you asked, that you don't feel until you arrive there in, know, spring, summer, or fall and you see that the place is just this incredible field of green and it's so awe-inspiring. So I feel like Chartreuse and as much as you get the flavour of green, whatever that is, of photosynthesis, of herbs and leaves, that you feel that. It's like this total, total distillation of greenness.
Paul Einbund
On top of that, if I can add a couple little things, Jordan was talking about that colour. So we know that there are around 130 herbs and plants. the original recipe had about 65 and the monks added the other 65. And they say that to this day, if they do something wrong, if they, if they aren't paying close enough attention, it turns red instead of green. And the original recipe was red, not green. And they worked hard to create the colour of the place. Another reason, though, specifically that the spirit tastes so much of where it comes from is we believe that 80 to 90 of the herbs and plants are local to the monastery and the rest are imported. So you really have a strong local presence there. And Jordan, I know Jordan agrees. When you're there, just the air smells like Chartreuse. It just feels so alpine in the bottle.
Jordan Mackay
Yeah, and also, you know, just in broad strokes, it's coming from a place that's not very far off. It was the heart of Absinthe. It's the heart of Genepy, you know, and so it makes a lot of sense what it has in common with those things being wormwood, anise and fennel, you know, that kind of stuff that still does come through in a strong way when you taste it.
Paul Clarke
And I'd like to get to cocktails in a moment, but first, you track Chartreuse's popularity and how it waxes and wanes in the 20th century. And then the 21st century comes along and boom, you have countless people just like us getting into it and pouring it into pretty much anything we can. This led, of course, to the announcement in 2021 that production was going to essentially hit its ceiling, kind of level off. Further growth would not be followed. The fallout was big. Chartreuse became hard to find because of hoarding in many quarters. What is that status like today? Has it stabilized? Do you see it as relatively easier to find? For folks listening to this podcast thinking, I'd love to get a bottle, but God, it was so hard to get it. I think it's gone. What's that status like today?
Paul Einbund
Easier than it was, for sure. And what really happened was that civilian arm that I was talking about earlier, they just did too good of a job and they opened up new markets and they went to the monks and they were like, great, guys, we're killing it. Double production. And the monks said, no, we're monks. We're going to keep production exactly where it is. And we're going to keep praying and meditating as we always have. Like our life's not going to change. And that made it harder to get for a while. So what they did was they refocused some of the export market. They wanted to make sure that they were taking care of the people who have always took care of Chartreuse, but purchased Chartreuse. So America gets a lot more Chartreuse now and they are there. It's definitely not easy to get everywhere. I'm not even going to say it's easy to get, period. But you can you can see it on shelves. Jordan finds it on his local shelf more than I find it on my local retail shelf. But you see it on occasion and you definitely see it more in the bars again. It's back.
Jordan Mackay
Oh, and I would just add, yes, like where I live in the Hudson Valley, if you want to find green and yellow Chartreuse, it's in a lot of good liquor stores. No problem. The VEP, though, is you almost never see that. Just the standard green and yellow are back in stores, but the other expressions, difficult.
Paul Clarke
It's, you know, in some ways it kind of, you know, draw in another spirits comparison. It somehow mirrors what we've seen in bourbon in recent years where a particular bottling, a particular expression will take off. And then, boom, you just can't find Blanton’s except in, you know, well-stocked bars. And then a couple of years later, it's back. It might be at very high prices, but really that's that individual retailer that's going after you. If you do a little bit of diligent searching, you can find a bottle for a reasonable price or what is reasonable for that market. OK, cocktails. Cocktails. In your research, going back to the Golden Age of Cocktails, you know, you mentioned how mid-19th century basically Chartreuse kind of starts coming into general circulation in a way. In terms of cocktails, where did it first start to creep in and where did it really start to take off? You know, what were those first things, you know, when you first saw things like the Bijou and the Brandy Daisy and the Widow's Kiss and so on, where did you see like the real traction with Chartreuse really start happening with cocktails?
Jordan Mackay
It's so interesting and, you know, you start to see it the records that I had. David Wondrich didn't get back to me to, uh, to be interviewed for our book. Unfortunately, I tried and, uh, and he's a friend. But I researched old cocktail books in, in, um, online scans, which most of them are available. You can find them and just search Chartreuse. and, and it really starts popping up in the 1880s, which makes you think that it was around at least, you know, up to a decade sooner before they, or maybe two before they started publishing these books, you know, which amazingly situates it in American bars only about 20 years, 20 to 30 years after it was originally created and released in France. And so, um, that's a remarkable uptake that I think, and it's worth noting, just even in the, not ancient, but the older world, how fast things could move. But just like a lot of other somewhat obscure ingredients that show up in those cocktails, like pummel and, and things like that, Chartreuse pops up in cocktails. and, I think that it was something in the toolbox. It was, had so much intense flavor, and the bartenders just found every way to use it that they could, I imagine. and so while it doesn't, you know, it's not in all of the books and not show up in all the recipes, but you find it mixed with, with brandy, with gin, you know, and tracking down its real And so, um, it's hard because there's not really a code, there's not a Chartreuse code, but it's, uh, but it was clearly in the toolbox.
Paul Clarke
And I think, you know, in some ways it's similar to absinthe or to benedictine, in that it's, it's something you can pour just a little dab in a cocktail and you will taste it. You will definitely know what's in there, and it's going to take that cocktail in very much its own kind of direction. And when you move into the 20th century, especially, you know, in the mid 20th century with things like the Daisy de Santiago from Charles Baker or the Diamondback or the Jimmy Roosevelt, the Pago Pago. Oh my God. how was Chartreuse still a part of the equation at this time, especially at a time, you know, thinking like once you get into post-prohibition, when many drinkers were looking for softer flavor experiences like Canadian whiskey or vodka. How did Chartreuse still manage to, to kind of hold its own in some quarters?
Paul Einbund
A quick response to that is in three quarter or one ounce.
Paul Clarke
We were no longer a little dab will do ya. It was, it was like really pouring the Chartreuse on.
Paul Einbund
I mean, this is, Jordan talks about the Martini era and the digestivo era. And, uh, I think that that ties in really well, Jordan.
Jordan Mackay
Well, one thing, Paul, to your, your question that I do think at some point during that era, you described Chartreuse was making, you know, one of its first forays to the back of the back bar. And to, being covered by layers of sticky dust and bars. And so, enterprising bartenders who were getting into creating new cocktails, whether they be Tiki or something else, you know, I can imagine them fishing back there, looking for flavor and, and their hand alighting on the bottle of Chartreuse. So I think it started to sort of just be one of those, you know, spice additions. It, because it's, it's, it's hardly ever the focus of a cocktail and which, which makes the last word such an anomaly and such an incredible story that it could be the pillar of something like that, you know?
Paul Clarke
Right. And you know, you mentioned the last word. And when we think about modern day Chartreuse and then 21st century uses of it, the last word moved a lot of things into play. I think it was you say, it was a very Chartreuse forward cocktail, just very potently flavored cocktail. They got a lot of people's attention. You know, I live with here in Seattle and I recall going to Zig Zag cafe when Murray would, you know, be making last words. And at the time it almost be like, I don't want to say a tourist stop where people go like, Oh, you got to try this thing. This guy's making. It's like, you will never tasted anything like this before. And then of course it takes off and it kind of moves around the world. But then also within the 21st century, you have things like the final ward, you have the green point, the naked and famous and the Chartreuse swizzle and the pina verde among others. How do these kind of reposition Chartreuse in bartenders and consumers minds where, you know, these are no holds barred Chartreuse cocktails?
Jordan Mackay
I think it's just so cool what happened because you're right and the last word is a beacon, it's kind of a lantern in its own way, lighting a path because one of the mysteries to me was how the last word works just mechanically as a cocktail because it is the collision of so many different ingredients that are so strongly flavored. And I marveled when I was working on my essay on the last word in there about, about how this was figured out. Then I went back to those old ancient cocktail books and found that putting Chartreuse with Maraschino what happened in a couple of other cocktails. Like it is, that was kind of a thing. And so I think that all those other great cocktails that you mentioned were bartenders who had seen that Chartreuse could function when colliding with other strongly flavored ingredients and realized that you'd be crazy to have tried it if you'd never seen it functionally demonstrated. But once you did, you saw that like, oh wow, the wavelengths of these seemingly opposed spirits can actually, uh, combine.
Paul Clarke
You know, it's easy and common to fall in love with different flavors and different spirits and their stories, but life is short and people are fickle. And many times we eventually move on to whatever the next thing is that catches our fancy. Chartreuse seems to be immune to that in some ways. People who love Chartreuse continue to love Chartreuse. It's not like there's a natural evolution or something else to move on to. we're coming to the end of our conversation here, uh, to close us out for each of you. What is it about Chartreuse that still intrigues you and engages you and makes you keep coming back to it year after year? Paul, can I ask you to start?
Paul Einbund
Yeah, absolutely. So I'm a sommelier, not a bartender. As you will notice, I was a little bit more quiet about the cocktails. Although I do drink my fair share of cocktails, especially with Chartreuse in them. I do a lot of wine dinners and I'm very, very fortunate to be able to drink some of the greatest wines on the planet on a regular basis. And I frequently end with Chartreuse. And pretty much every time when I get to the Chartreuse, I am surprised at how in love with this spirit I am. There is nothing like was a quote. I was looking for this. It's attributed to Edouard Cointreau in 1897. And he said, let's be honest. Is there a single one of us who could search their conscience and say they had not spent a great deal of time trying to pierce the mystery of the formula of Chartreuse? That's how I feel about Chartreuse is, I mean, I don't need to pierce the formula and figure it out. But it is such a mystery. It is such a one of a kind spirit that every time I go back to it, I'm reminded how I fell in love in the first place.
Paul Clarke
Jordan, what about you?
Jordan Mackay
When I think about it, and especially just the green, especially the VEP, also with a wine background, but a bartending background as well. I just can't believe the level of complexity that is carried in a single liquid. And it's kind of like going out and looking at the night sky in a city and then going all the way out into the countryside or the mountains and looking up and seeing all the stars and the galaxies and everything that you can. When I taste Chartreuse, I just can't believe how many flavors are impacting me at any moment. And it's truly, it's awe-inspiring. It makes you religious.
Paul Clarke
You know, I don't come from a wine background. I come from a cocktail background. And for me, I think it's partially, you know, saying regardless of what kind of application you're putting it into, like a little spoonful in a martini, put it into a tiki drink, make it into a swizzle, put it into something else. Chartreuse still manages to let you know exactly what it is, but it's going to take over in some ways flavor-wise, but it's also going to lift everything else up and really kind of make that drink sing. So, guys, Jordan, Paul, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. We need to share a few swamp waters together the next time we meet.
Paul Einbund
Can't wait. Would love to.
Jordan Mackay
I'd love that, Paul. I'll call you next time I'm out there in Seattle for sure.
[music]
Paul Clarke
The Little Green Book of Chartreuse by Jordan Mackay and Paul Einbund is published by Ten Speed Press, and it makes its grand debut on November 10th. Pre-orders are available now from online retailers, or better yet, head to your local independent bookstore to pick up a copy. You can find out more by heading online to penguinrandomhouse.com. We've got that link for you in this episode's notes.
And that's it for this episode. Subscribe to Radio Imbibe on your favorite podcast app to keep up with all our future episodes. We've got plenty of recipes for great Chartreuse cocktails online at our website, imbibemagazine.com. Keep up with us day-to-day on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Threads. And if you're not already a subscriber to the print and or digital issues of Imbibe, then let's turn that around right now. Just follow the link in this episode's notes, and we'll be happy to help you out. I'm Paul Clarke, this is Radio Imbibe, catch you next time.