Troy Sidle, Bartender, Pouring Ribbons, Alchemy Consulting, Chartreuse, Expert, Bartender’s Recs, What To Drink, Where to Drink, How To Make Drinks, New York, NY, Bars, Manhattan, Coffee, Drinks, Food, Restaurants, Atera, Momofuku Noodle Bar, Mayahuel, Death & Co., Death and Company, Evelyn Drinkery, Ninth Street Espresso
A Chartreuse Education
Why Chartreuse?
What’s amazing about Chartreuse is the complexity of its history in conjunction with the complexity of its flavor.
Yellow vs. Green Chartreuse
There’s no access to the actual guys who produced the recipe. Everything I understand about Chartreuse is from the distributors, from tasting it and from research using marketing materials that have existed since the 1800s.
The basic difference between green and yellow Chartreuse is proof and sweetness. They both have the same 130 herbs and spices, but the green is bottled at 110 proof and it apparently gets its color from spinach. Whereas the yellow is bottled at 86 proof, has a distinct honey sweetness and my best guess is that its color comes from saffron.
Every once in a while you’ll see someone talking about one particular ingredient, but the actual list of 130 no one other than the president of the company has seen it.
Flavor
I love how complex it is. It has 130 herbs and spices in it and not knowing what’s in it, makes it just a constant discovery. Maybe it has chamomile in it. Maybe it has a strong note of ginger. Maybe there is hazel and thyme, orange peel and Neroli and obscure things like gentian and cinchona. As I discover more about herbs and spices that have been used throughout history in tinctures and medicines, I realized that they are in that flavor profile of Chartreuse.
VEP Chartreuse
The VEP is an acronym. In French it means Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolongé and translates to exceptionally prolonged aging. Basically it means the Chartreuse is aged for a very long time. The normal green and yellow Chartreuse are aged for about 4 years and the VEP starts the same, but are aged for about 15 years.
Tarragona
This was an interesting time in the monk’s version of Chartreuse. Basically they got kicked out of France and the French government took over the rights to Chartreuse. They tried to sell something as Chartreuse, the public protested it outright because it didn’t taste like Chartreuse at all. The monks though, continued to produce that same liquid while they were in Spain under the name Tarragona.
When they went back to France, they continued to produce Chartreuse but in the nickname of Tarragona. A lot of times you'll see a Tarragona bottle, but it’s not necessarily from the era when they were in Spain.
How To Drink & Use Chartreuse
I love them both in different contexts, but my favorite thing to drink is a blend of both the green and the yellow. I like it chilled, really cold in fact. I keep the bottle chilled and refrigerated and then just pull that out.
It’s so high proof that just a dash adds a whole lot of complexity to a cocktail. It goes with just about anything. With so many herbs and spices in it, it seems like it would be a hot mess of flavor. It has a cohesive gestalt of flavors that when you pair it with tequila it does one thing, with brandy it does something else, and then gin brings out a lot herbaceous of whatever botanical is in that gin.
Chartreuse is also wonderful to cook with. I've made puddings with it and it’s delicious on top of ice cream. You can use it as a way to add a lot of depth to a stock that you're braising something in.
Use it as if you are seasoning with Chartreuse, holding back just enough, but letting the base spirit shine.
How Old Is That Bottle?
For Chartreuse bottles since 1991, the distributor has put a pin code, a bottling date on the bottle. The date can be found on the bottle capsule, where there are two gold bands. The bottom band is a little bit thicker and there is a printed code that starts with the letter L and then usually has six digits after that. If you add the first three digits (currently 928) to the year 1084, the year the Chartreuse order of monks was founded, you get the year the bottle was produced. Right now, the most recent bottling I've seen is from 2012.
Frederick Wildman started doing that when they picked up distribution. Before then it's a matter of using different clues. In the United States labels on spirits went from being required to have either proof or percentage alcohol on the label. If the bottle does not say the percentage of alcohol by volume, then the bottle is from before 1985.
If the bottle does not have a UPC code, then it’s even older, from before 1977. It will also usually have a pink tax stamp running over the cap.
You have to be like a little detective and it’s fun. Sometimes I don’t truly know that it’s from a particular year, but I can generally narrow it down to at least a decade.
Where To Find Old Bottles
Every once in a while there are auctions where people are selling old bottles from their grandparents' collection or something. Sometimes overseas there is a different amount of supply, but you are not allowed to carry those to our bar. We can’t get illegal non-US sanctioned spirits, so we've develop a personal collection. We are at the point now where people are calling us.
The Price Of Chartreuse
Our most expensive one is 125 dollars an ounce and we sell it by the half ounce. We think it’s from the 1940s. If you really want to taste something 70 years old, it will cost you 62 dollars.
The Flavor Of Aged Chartreuse
We have several different years of Chartreuse at Pouring Ribbons, so I’ve tasted it all the way back to the 1940s. The older ones are phenomenal and they still maintain their very distinct collection of flavors that is Chartreuse. There are a lot more of the herbs and spices present because of the maceration that it goes through, whereas the distilled flavors tend to be turned down. You don’t get quite as fresh of a mint flavor or a hazel or rosemary. You taste more of the brown spices like cinnamon and clove and nutmeg.
Who Is Doing Interesting Things With Chartreuse
Bryan Yurko, the pastry chef at Saxon + Parole has been playing with Chartreuse and celery. He makes a kind of ants on a log bread with celery, peanut butter, raisin.
Craig Schoettler when he was at Aviary he was building a nice vintage Chartreuse collection and I believe they still have it.
Every once in a while you'll see it pop up in dessert or someone will do a Chartreuse flavored ice cream.
One of the four master mixers behind Alchemy Consulting along with Toby Maloney, Joaquín Simó and Jason Cott. In addition to his craft cocktail prowess, he's known for curating the Chartreuse collection at Pouring Ribbons.
We asked Troy to give us a lesson in Chartreuse and pass along his favorite eating and drinking spots in New York.
Bartender Troy Sidle | Pouring Ribbons
April 3, 2013
New York, NY
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Photo Credit: Troy House
Bartender’s 6 Things... New York City
Evelyn Drinkery
Photograph courtesy of Evelyn Drinkery | Photo Credit: Paloma Pargac
Drink | Cocktails
Death & Company
They have some of the most creative cocktails, but they're maintaining a classic cocktail style with a really good vibe.
433 East 6th Street, New York, NY 10009
T: 212.388.0882
They have a grasp on the classic cocktails, but they have a full expression of a single type of spirit, that being agave spirits. Whether it’s tequila or mezcal, they have a lock down on that entire spectrum of the one type of distillate. I just love the feel and vibe here.
304 East 6th Street, New York, NY 10003
T: 212.253.5888
Evelyn Drinkery
I love it. It’s a great neighborhood vibe that happens to have a serious cocktail program. They make great drinks, play a lot and do spirit phosphate drinks. You can go here and order a beer and feel perfectly at home. It’s not an uber-serious cocktail church kind of place. It's just great.
171 Avenue C, New York, NY 10009
Coffee at Ninth Street Espresso
Photo Credit: Patrick Kolts
Drink | Coffee
Ninth Street Espresso
It’s my local spot that I hit up just about every day. I love the no-fuss minimalism. If I want a latte, I can order it by the ounce size. They don’t really make a distinction between lattes and cappuccinos. You pick the milk, 21 grams full espresso and it's how much of that milk you want. Whether it’s a 3 ounce, 6 ounce, 9 ounce, 12 ounce they’re on it. The coffee is brewed continuously throughout the day, so it’s always fresh. They carry different great blends, single origin coffees that are roasted by Dallis Brothers.
700 E 9th Street, New York, NY 10009
T: 212.358.9225
341 East 10th Street, New York, NY 10009
T: 212.777.3508
Ivan Ramen at Momofuku Noodle Bar
Photo Credit: michaelvito [flickr]
Eat | Restaurants
Atera
Incredible, to put it mildly. Last time I went, I lost track of how many courses there were at about 20. It is just ridiculous and off the charts. I really like their lamb tartare. I went with a vegetarian and she had the tomato tartare as a substitute and I think her dish might have been better than mine. You can start in the lounge downstairs and the bartender is doing a lot of really creative things with the cocktail program. I really wanted to start my meal with a martini rather than getting into something with a lot of flavor and he nailed it, just nailed it.
77 Worth Street, New York, NY 10013
T: 212.226.1444
Momofuku Noodle Bar
I eat at Momofuku Noodle Bar frequently. Their customer service is spot on, the culture, the creative dishes that they are putting out almost daily are just cool.
171 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10003
T: 212.777.7773
www.momofuku.com/new-york/noodle-bar
F.E.D. Recs on the Go
Download the F.E.D. iPhone app and get Troy Sidle’s New York recommendations as well as more recs from other bartenders, chefs, sommeliers and food artisans.
Photo Credit: Jakob Layman
Bar
Pouring ribbons
East Village
Cocktails
225 Avenue B
New York, NY 10009
T: 917.656.6788
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- Bartender David Kaplan of Death & Co.
