Only two monks alive know the 130-herb recipe for Chartreuse — and the color was named after the liqueur, not the other way around.
A yellow-green color. Also a French herbal liqueur made by Carthusian monks, originally produced in 1737 at the Grande Chartreuse monastery near Grenoble.
From French Chartreuse, the name of the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps, founded by Saint Bruno in 1084. The monastery name comes from the surrounding mountains, Massif de la Chartreuse, possibly from a pre-Latin Alpine place name Key roots: Chartreuse (French (place name): "mountain monastery of the Carthusians").
The recipe for Chartreuse liqueur — containing 130 herbs, plants, and flowers — is known to only two Carthusian monks at any given time. It has been in continuous production since 1737 (with interruptions during the French Revolution and forced exiles of the monks). The monks were expelled from France in 1903 and