1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

OldWaldorf Bar Days

their product was never so good as the original brand. Some thirty years or so before their expulsion, the Carthusian monks had suffered a big loss in the destruction of their brandy warehouses, wherein was stored what was said to be the largest stock of old Napoleon brandy in existence. Even before prohibition came, as much as twenty dollars a bottle was paid in New York for Chartreuse dated 1869 or before. While the monks have kept their formula a secret, analysts have named among the ingredients of Chartreuse: balm leaves, orange peel, dried hyssop tops, peppermint, wormwood, angelica seed and root, cinnamon, mace, cloves, Tonka beans, calamus aromaticus and cardamom. Some of the flavor, if not virtues of the product, however, was as– cribed to certain herbs which were said to grow only in the neighborhood of the Grande Chartreuse. There were three varieties of Chartreuse-yellow, green, and white. Voltage, 43· CREME DE CACAO-An extract of cocoa, made in France. . Used as a cordial or liqueur. CREME .DE CASSIS-A liqueur made in France of black currants, whose voltage still causes headaches to some who recall its potency. CREME DE MENTHE-A distillation ofmint, or of brandy flavored with mint. Usually gre.en in color, though there was also a wnite variety. By those who could not pronounce its name correctly, it was often called "green mint," or "white mint," menthe being the French word for " mint." It was usually maµe in France. Voltage, 48. CR:E.ME YVETTE-An extract of violets, used for flavoring purposes; also drunk as a cordial or liqueur. Its perfume often gave it preference over the common or garden refuge of the drinking dissembler-a clove or peppermint lozenge - before the commercial discovery of halitosis. Made in New York. [ 236]