Vintage Chartreuse

I spent a day poking around at estate sales in Long Island with a good friend a few weeks ago and had the good fortune to raid someone's liquor cabinet before anyone else got to it.  I bought four bottles of booze, two whiskeys - one a blended Scotch called Black and White and another nearly empty bottle of moonshine labeled "pot still whiskey".  The third was chosen only for the bottle and label.  I doubt I will ever open that ancient bottle of Freezomint but I'll enjoy it's artificially colored glow on my liquor shelf.

The true find was a 3/4 full bottle of Chartreuse.  I've been doing a lot of research the past few years on herbal liqueurs and amaros and have read abbreviated versions of many of the old recipes.  Of all of the old formulas Chartreuse is the only one still made by Carthusian monks.  They have been making it continuously since 1605.  Other liqueurs have claimed to be made by monks but in reality are made by large companies.  Benedictine, for instance, is an invention of Alexandre Le Grand who made up the story of the liqueur being a medicinal recipe of the Benedictine Monks in Normandy.

Chartruese is a secret recipe of more than 130 herbs and "secret ingredients".  The formula is based on a recipe for an elixir of long life from an alchemical manuscript given to the monks.  The monks intended their liqueur to be used as medicine but the beverage became so popular that in 1764 the recipe was adapted to what is now Green Chartreuse.  In 1838 they developed Yellow Chartreuse, a sweeter version colored with saffron.  Only two monks have the recipe at any one time and they are the only ones who prepare the herbal mixture.

I took the vintage bottle to my local watering hole, the magical Barbes in Park Slope, one Saturday afternoon and presented it to the bartender who expertly removed the rotting cork without getting any in the bottle.  We poured a glass of the vintage and a fresh glass from the bar.  To my amazement there was a woman sitting at the bar who had just written a paper on Chartreuse for her French class.  I sat with her comparing the two liqueurs and taking notes on anything that jumped out at me.  Each sip revealed something new.  One sip would coat my mouth in angelica, the next in mace, then mint, then vanilla as I swallow.  I know that Chartreuse is sweetened with honey which is much more apparent in the vintage bottle.

I've been macerating herbs for the past couple of months to make herbal liqueurs.  One of them, a creation of my own which reflects the herb garden at 6/15 Green Community Garden, has a strong similarity to Chartreuse.  Angelica is the predominant note in chartreuse and the garden happens to have a healthy specimen.  I used the fresh green leaf and stalk, dried root that I dug up last fall and the seed I had collected.  I used nearly every other herb growing in the herb patch including chamomile, lemon balm, hyssop, mint, rosemary, basil and sage and fresh spices from the Park Slope Food Coop like cloves, mace and saffron as well as some dried herbs from my collection.  This is my second year in a row creating a liqueur from the garden and I'm hoping this year's will be better for the few tweaks I made in the recipe.  It's strained now and aging while I ponder which honey to use.  I'm hoping to get some local Brooklyn honey at the farmer's market to keep it as local as possible.  I'll be serving my elixir come holiday time.

Cologne Experiments

I'm having way too much fun riding out the heatwave researching old forumlary on the internet in search of cologne and toilet water recipes.  After years of collecting fragrant herbs, dried flowers, roots, powdered gums, tree resins, barks, citrus rinds and spices I wanted to see if macerating in vodka would produce results.  All of the old recipes I found used essential oils, absolutes and tinctures but I wanted to see what I could come up with with just the raw ingredients.

I've started two traditional cologne recipes, a violet water, something akin to 4711 and a Florida Water, as well as one true experiment.  It's been about ten days and I can already tell which ones have promise and staying power.  My plan is to let them sit for 30 days and then strain them off, filter them and let them settle.  Then I'll pour off the clear liquor and blend it with hydrosol.

When deciding on what to use for each experiment I'm still thinking like a perfumer and making sure I have top, middle and bottom notes.  I've been aging some orris root powder for a number of years now and it's developing a subtle sweetness that I hope the tincuring will release.  I also have powdered benzoin, cedar bark, vanilla pods and vetiver roots to play with.  Dried roses and lavender make up the bulk of the heart note but I'm also using a generous supply of jasmine sambac flowers that I've dried over the past year.  The linden blossoms that I collected last year have found their way into one as well.  For top notes I have citrus rinds that I dried over last winter including mineola tangerine and meyer lemon.  From my herb garden I've added sweet woodruff, lemon verbena, lavender, basil, sweet annie and rosemary.

So far I'm loving the process and the romance of it all.  When I was a child my grandmother bought me some cologne that I used as a kind of splash.  I have such fond memories of warm summer nights splashing on her cologne after a bath and going to sleep smelling sweetly.

I'm also enjoying using the fruits of my labor over the years, and feeling like a real apothecary.  I looked around during the process and thought that it looked like a film set of an apothecary at work, yet it wasn't contrived at all.  I find I'm repeating to myself, "oh, true apothecary".

Cocktail Lab, Summer 2012

Lychee vodka being filtered

When Lucy Raubertas, the writer behind Indieperfumes and the inspiration for the Clarimonde Project, asked me if I'd be interested in conjuring up some cocktails for a book release party for a perfume writer I had to say yes.  The connection between fragrance and cocktail crafting has become somewhat seamless lately.  My liquor cabinet is overflowing with fragrant tinctured vodkas, some of which have wound up in a few of my cologne experiments this summer.

After some seriously delicious cocktails at NoMad with Lucy, the author Alyssa Harad, and Maria McElroy of Aroma M Perfumes it was decided that Maria and I would come up with two cocktails based on two of her perfumes.  She decided on Geisha Blanche and Geisha Green, Blanche being a fresh, summery fragrance of white flowers and lychee, while Green is a creative take on absinthe, although mellowed with black currant, mandarin and violet.

Lychees macerating in vodka for First Blush

After our first meeting we had a general idea of how the two drinks would be and had a list of possible ingredients to have on hand for Cocktail Lab.  I brought in veteran Lab assistant Lori Firpo to sit in with Maria, Lucy and I.

For Geisha Blanche we settled on lychee vodka to start.  After struggling to find a good mixer that would still fit the fragrance profile we settled on champagne with a little lychee juice.  We decided on tuberose and jasmine to mimic the white flowers in the perfume which are added to the drink as well as misted over the top before serving.  We call it First Blush

Black currant vodka was the basis for our rendition of Geisha Green.  Boylan's Creme Soda was the perfect compliment and picked up the tonka note in the perfume beautifully.  Wormwood and the natural isolate alpha ionone (with the characteristic scent of violet) were added to tone down the sweetness of the drink and pick up the absinthe notes of the perfume.  Meet Jaded!

First Blush

one jigger lychee vodka

one generous jigger lychee juice (Ceres brand)

one jigger champagne

two drops jasmine dilution, 5%

two drops tuberose dilution, 5%

spray of tuberose and jasmine

Combine the vodka, juice and dilutions in a shaker, mix well and add champagne.  Pour into a martini glass and spray with tuberose and jasmine.

Jaded

one jigger black currant vodka

two ounces Boyland Creme Soda

one drop alpha ionone dilution, 10%

one drop wormwood dilution, 5%

Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, shake well and serve strained in a martini glass. 

Black currant vodka is made by finely chopping 1/3 cup dried black currants and pouring one cup of vodka over them in a jar with a tight fitting lid.  Shake daily and macerate for up to one month.  Strain and store in an airtight bottle.

Lychee vodka is made by peeling and chopping 1/3 cup fresh lychees (including any juice) and placing them in a jar with a tight fitting lid.  Pour one cup vodka over and shake daily for up to two weeks.  Strain and store.

A Little Love from CBS!

A perfumer's scent organ

I'm so proud to be listed as one of the four best places to make your own perfume in New York in the CBS blog by features editor Corey Whelan.  I'm not sure I'm as ethereal as the write up suggests, but I'm pleased to be included.

A consultation consists of a little getting to know you, an explanation of how perfumes are built using top, middle and bottom notes and then in a step by step process learn how to blend a selection of scents into your own personal perfume.  Choose from over one hundred essential oils and absolutes, some rare and exotic, to create a fragrance that is uniquely yours.

Consultations usually take about an hour and a half and are $125/hr and include a quarter ounce bottle of perfume.  By appointment only, (718)788-6480, info@herbalalchemy.net

Summer Workshops Announced

Three new Natural Perfume Workshops have just been booked for 3rd Ward in Brooklyn.  Classes fill up fast so sign up early!  Classes are scheduled for

Saturday, June 9, 1:30 to 4:30
Sunday, July 22, 1:30 to 4:30
Saturday, August 11, 1:30 to 4:30

The sense of smell is so neglected, take an opportunity to develop yours and broaden your scent horizons!

Verbena Water

The newest hydrosol I've added to my collection is Verbena, Aloysia triphylla, also known as Vervain.  For those of you that don't know, a hydrosol is the water that's left over from the distillation process that creates essential oils.  They have microparticles of the original plant material and are scented, flavorful and have many therapeutic properties.

Verbena herb is known for it's effects in dispelling depression and countering nervous exhaustion and anxiety.  Great for headaches and migraines and is said to be one of the best palliatives for the onset of colds and flu.  It is reputed to be a good daily mouthwash as it's strong anti-inflammatory ability has a strong affinity for the mucus membranes of the mouth and nose.

Internally it will settle a nervous stomach and indigestion, as well as being very pleasant to drink.  A tablespoon of hydrosol in a liter of seltzer is wonderfully refreshing.  It could also be added to a pot of tea.  It's flavor is distinctly lemon but not citrusy, and much less potent.  Imagine it in desserts, or with seafood.

Verbena's pH is very close to that of the acid mantle of the skin making it a good clarifier.  It refines skin texture and may reduce pore size.  It seems to suit men as an aftershave since the scent is neither floral nor fruity.

Verbena Water by Herbal Alchemy can be bought here.

Sweet Woodruff

Sweet Woodruff growing in the 6/15 Green Herb Garden

About ten years ago I bought a sweet woodruff plant from the Greenmarket at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn.  I put it in the postage stamp garden in the front of my brownstone where it lived for a few years before I transplanted it to the newly renovated herb garden at 6/15 Green Community Garden.  The first spring that it came back in it's new spot I decided to try to make May Wine.  If memory serves I picked several blooming branches and twisted or wrung them out to bruise them and stuffed them into a bottle of German Rhine wine.  Then I recorked the bottle and let it sit for about a week before I filtered and drank it.  I remember loving it, the woodruff had added a green and sort of balsamic note to the sweet wine.

The wine was meant to be drunk on May Day and I never got the timing right again and so never made it again.  It's a shame that I denied myself all those years simply because I couldn't drink it on the actual day.  This year, with spring coming early, I had a chance to catch it in time, not to make May Wine, but to make liqueur.

Sweet Woodruff (Asperula odorata) was used as a medicine in the Middle Ages, mostly as either a poltice for cuts and wounds or a strong decoction for stomach troubles.  It is known mostly for its sweet scent due to its high coumarin content, the chemical known for giving new mown hay its distinctive odor.  Bundles and garlands of woodruff were hung around the house in the heat of summer to "attemper the air, cool and make fresh the place, to the delight and comfort of such as are therein" and is reported to "make a man merry" according to Gerard.  The dried herb may also be kept among linens to sweeten them and protect them from insects.  It was also once used to stuff beds.

Sweet Woodruff drying on parchment

I've read that the coumarins in the plant don't come out until the plant dries.  I picked a small amount and left it to dry overnight on a parchment lined rack.  Right around the 24 hour mark I noticed that the leaves had taken on the distinct smell of fresh mown hay.  It was delicate but it was there.  I thought I'd leave it another day and see if it deepened.  The following morning the leaves had lost their scent almost entirely.  I picked another bunch and kept an eye on it around the 24 hour mark and began my maceration then.  I wrung it out much like I did with the wine and poured a cup of vodka over it.  The liquid began to take on a lovely pale green which deepened to the color of good fruity olive oil.  After two days I decanted it.  It tastes and smells of grass with a honeyed hay note.  I've made three successive batches.  I'd like to try sweetening some to make liqueur, and save some to add to the herb liqueur I'd like to make from the 6/15 Herb Garden this summer.  And of course some of it will be experimented with in Cocktail Lab.  I'll run out eventually but it will be just another thing to look forward to next spring.

Three batches of Sweet Woodruff Vodka