Chartreuse Elixer Vegetal 100ML

Before there was Chartreuse the liqueur, there was this. The Elixir Végétal de la Grande-Chartreuse descends directly from the manuscript for an elixir of long life given to the Carthusians by the Maréchal d'Estrées in 1605, a formula so complex it took the monastery's apothecary, Frère Jérôme Maubec, until 1737 to render it practical; the recipe has not changed since 1764. All 130 plants, flowers, spices, barks, roots, and berries are here at full concentration, 69 percent alcohol in a 10-centiliter bottle sheathed in its traditional wooden case to keep out the light. This is a tonic, not a pour: a few drops on a sugar cube, in a tisane or hot grog, or in water when you are flagging, the way the monks dosed the region through the cholera outbreak of 1832. The most concentrated expression of the Chartreuse mystery you can buy.