The mysteries of Chartreuse

"Real g-g-Green Chartreuse, made before the expulsion of the monks. There are five distinct tastes as it trickles over the tongue. It's like swallowing a sp-spectrum."

Green Chartreuse, a strong liqueur so green they named a colour after it, is a secret blend of over 130 herbs which has been made by monks since the 18th century but its origins are older. Or so the legend goes. In 1605, the Carthusian monks of Vauvert, near Paris, received an ancient manuscript from François Annibal d’Estrées, a marshal of King Henry I…