What is Benedictine?

Bénédictine is a branded herbal liqueur created by Alexandre Le Grand in Fécamp, Normandy, in 1863. The label bears DOM (Deo Optimo Maximo). The recipe is proprietary; the house cites two dozen or more botanicals. It is bottled at 40% ABV. It is rounder and more honeyed than Chartreuse and lacks absinthe’s anise dominance.

B&B is a later commercial blend of Bénédictine and brandy, drier and longer than Bénédictine alone. Neither is a substitute for green Chartreuse. In mixed drinks Bénédictine is a concentrated herbal-honey modifier, usually in quarter- to half-ounce amounts.

Honey, baking spice, saffron, and herbal sweetness. Rounder than Chartreuse, less anise-driven than absinthe or pastis, and more confectionary than green Chartreuse’s alpine heat.

A half-ounce in a stirred whiskey drink is a complete aromatic statement. It reads as spice and honey, not as mint or chlorophyll.

Le Grand marketed the liqueur as a reconstruction of a medicinal elixir associated with the Benedictine abbey of Fécamp, a sixteenth-century manuscript in the brand’s account. Whatever the archival status of that story, the industrial product is nineteenth-century and Norman.

American cocktail use is concentrated in New Orleans and in hotel-bar classics: the Vieux Carré (Walter Bergeron, Hotel Monteleone, 1930s: rye, cognac, sweet vermouth, Bénédictine, bitters) and the Singapore Sling, attributed to Ngiam Tong Boon at Raffles Hotel around 1915, which uses Bénédictine among other modifiers.

In stirred drinks, a quarter- to half-ounce is the usual range. The Vieux Carré uses a small measure relative to the whiskeys. B&B can replace Bénédictine when you want less sweetness and more brandy, at the cost of the liqueur’s concentration.

Chartreuse will not stand in without turning the drink alpine and hotter. Store as a 40% liqueur, capped and away from light. It is stable.