Reply To: A historical detail of interest
Maureen, I found the Carthusian history fascinating, too, and had to look that up! That led me to wonder about other liqueurs produced by clerics, and I found several French orders producing them. The Cistercians are particularly active with this business (they apparently produce things such as Mandarin, Senacole, Eau de Vie [a brandy], and a form of Mead); Benedictine liqueur comes from the Benedictines (no surprise!) in Normandy, and the Carthusians not only produce the Green Chartreuse, but also Yellow Chartreuse and something called Gentian, which is apparently good over ice cream! And Trappist monks have a whole history and set of rules involving their production of Trappist beers. There is also a famous wine manufactured by the Montserrat Monastery monks in Spain; Buckfast Abbey in England makes a strange caffeinated wine called Buckfast Tonic Wine (that some have linked to increased crime in areas that consume it!), and I also stumbled across the information that the recipe for Aqua Vitae (Scotch whisky) originated with the monks of Lindores Abbey in Scotland. This is one of the things I love about LP’s books — it seems they always lead me down various rabbit holes of knowledge, and make me curious to learn more.
