May 2008
Good Spirits in a Bottle
CLOISTER LIQUEURS
Spirituality and inebriation have been intertwined ever since humankind inaugurated religious rites. Alcohol as a “sacred drug” is institutionalized in the Christian church through the use of altar wine, an essential part of celebrating mass. Every year during
Starkbierzeit, MUNICH FOUND features the brewing legacy of Bavarian monks, who, in the 18th century, concocted a strong beer to sustain them while fasting during Lent. The tipsiness induced by the so-called “liquid bread” was a welcome side effect, but of course not its intended purpose. The same is true for another alcoholic beverage which was also created behind cloister walls and has enjoyed wide popularity ever since. In this case, the herbal gardens of monasteries and cloisters, together with clerics’ pharmaceutical knowledge, led to the invention of spirituous liqueurs.
In search for a curative elixir, Carthusian monks in the French Alps, for example, distilled a complicated recipe of 130 herbs, roots, leaves and barks. To this day, only three monastery residents know the exact composition of Chartreuse, which is sweetened with honey and colored with chlorophyll or saffron. When Chartreuse was introduced to the public in 1760, it was promoted as a tonic against heart trouble and a cure for all kinds of gastrointestinal diseases. In addition, the French liqueur soon belonged to the basic gear of many 19th-century explorers as a cholera remedy. Its commercial breakthrough, however, was launched by the French officers who discovered Chartreuse as an “
élixir de table,” a luxurious recreational beverage.
Today, the monks offer four varie-ties of their liqueur. The
Élixir Végétal de la Grande Chartreuse is based on the original recipe from 1737, and is bottled only after eight years of storage. The instruction leaflet that comes along with the liqueur recommends it as a
digestif and relief for general feelings of indisposition. It is meant to be consumed on a cube of sugar or drizzled in a cup of tea. The best-known version is
Chartreuse Verte, matured for three years and 55% alcohol by volume. The two-year
Chartreuse Jaune (40 Vol.-%) comes closest to the common taste of liqueur. The top-shelf variety is named
Chartreuse V.E.P. and is available in green (54 Vol.-%) or yellow (42 Vol.-%). V.E.P. stands for
Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolongé—a sobriquet justified by an impressive 12 years of maturing.
The commercial success of Chartreuse has encouraged other distilleries to attempt versions of the French potion. Among the imitators was the Riemerschmid firm, once located on Munich’s Praterinsel. In 1910, Robert Riemerschmid cooked up
Escorial Grün, which became a bestseller during Germany’s economic miracle years. Today, it is humbly promoted as the perfect liqueur to flambé. Escorial tastes slightly sweet and exudes an aroma reminiscent of woodruff. Even though the liqueur stems from secular production, the name is most likely derived from the Spanish city El Escorial and its cloister.
Closer to home, several Bavarian cloisters augment their incomes by selling their fluid herb concoctions. At the
Weltenburg Cloister near Kehlheim, for example, not only can you view the cloister’s spectacular building complex, but you also can purchase a homemade liqueur at the
Klosterschenke. The golden beverage mainly consists of saffron, centaury, bitter orange peels, cardamom, nutmeg and several medicinal herbs, which contribute to the liqueur’s spicy aroma.
The Waldsassen Abbey in the
Oberpfalz houses a 16th-century library with world-famous stucco reliefs, wooden carvings and wall paintings. A beautiful
Klosterladen (cloister shop) is located in the library’s vestibule. It is run by Cistercian nuns, who also produce
Waldsassener Abtei-Tropfen, an amber-colored liqueur made up of 15 herbs, all grown in the abbey’s garden. The nuns recently refined their recipe with the help of herbal expert Frater Vitalis Maria of the Ettal Cloister. His creations include a liqueur distilled out of blueberries, and one made from hops. The
Ammergauer Heulikör (hay liqueur) consists of rare plants and herbs picked at the Ammer mountains, where the fields are mowed only once a year by hand. Though the Ettal Cloister is certainly worth the day-trip, its industrious monks have also established an online shop at
www.ettaler.de, where the products of the cloister can be ordered for spiritual elevation experiences at home. <<<
