Yellow Chartreuse. This is the younger sibling of the magnificent and holy Green Chartreuse. The popular Green Chartreuse came to life in 1764 as an adapted version of an “elixir of long life” (see this post) created by French Carthusian monks. The recipe was based on a complex apothecary manuscript that took over a century to decipher and operationalize! About 80 years after the Green, the Yellow version emerged as a slightly sweeter and milder variant.

Flavor-wise, it is super herbaceous, fragrant, and all types of wonderful. A tiny bit goes a long way, and there truly isn’t anything that compares outside of the Chartreuse family of liqueurs. Directly compared to the Green version, it indeed is sweeter with strong honey aromas, and is less pungent/abrasive than how the Green can come off (also 15% lower in ABV). It’s less aggressive in cocktails (if you’ve worked with Green Chartreuse, you know even a single barspoon can dominate a drink). Overall, if you own one Chartreuse, let it be the Green, but the Yellow is truly wonderful, unique, and worth owning alongside the Green. You can find half bottles (like this!), which will be more than enough to last you through many happy spirited experiments!