The Carthusians make an interesting story, but what I think is the bigger story is the collapse of the liquor market broadly. I think but can't cite sources that what's happened is post-pandemic shifts pushing bars out of business, and bars in turn significantly cutting back orders. Whatever it is, Eagle Rare was supermarket whiskey in 2010, was an back room allocation whiskey in 2021, and is back on the shelves again. Pretty much every whiskey is now gettable in a way it wasn't just a couple years ago.
In this case, I think another factor is that the monastery decided to not ship to countries outside of Europe at all any more, and to reduce volume altogether. That introduced some shortage to panic buying alone, but it also meant that all American suppliers now had to import from EU resellers, which is not a big deal, but takes some time.
We stock Chartreuse at our bar, not easy, and we occasionally have to modulate the cocktails on the menu to slow customers down a bit. The Bay Area itself gets an allocation each month, which is then further allocated to individual establishments.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2026-06-09/...
As a highly-intelligent anti-consumerist well aware of marketing materials and yellow journalism and also a very skilled reader of text who never makes decisions based on headlines, I scrambled to get a bottle of yellow chartreuse and one of green chartreuse. Never having had them as they are, I have to say they're quite enjoyable liqueurs on their own. Good fun.
After having bought the bottles and when the scramble was no longer necessary, I sat down to look at what the news actually said and found that all they said was that they aren't expanding production. Good show.
Now I want a Last Word, is quarter after two too early for a cocktail?
(Now I want someone to come on and argue that papayawhip and chocolate are actually derived from colors of liqueurs)
And bisque in a way.
The original "secret elixir of eternal youth" from the crusades era is still available though, it's meant to be consumed as a medicinal tonic with a spoon. It comes in a cool small wooden bottle, I just scored and got three of them at my local Total Wine [3].
Edit: I just realized most probably aren't familiar with the history here. It's a fascinating story that starts with the crusades, involves the monks feeling both France and Spain, smuggling the recipe through prison, etc... [1] [2]
[1] https://www.chartreuse.fr/en/story/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartreuse_(liqueur)
[3] https://www.totalwine.com/spirits/liqueurscordialsschnapps/h...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmelite_Water
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klosterfrau_Melissengeist
The existence of these tonics is a source of regret, because I have a lifetime vow to abstain from alcohol, but things like this sound absolutely delicious. I think alcohol is often mixed-in to discourage overindulgence, honestly.