French liqueur
To Saint Benedict in the Benedictine abbey in Fécamp, Normandy.
Around 1510, the Benedictine superior Dom Bernardo Vincelli is said to have 'designed' the drink as a tonic for tired monks. The main ingredient is eau de vie with the addition of twenty-seven herbs, plants, roots, peels and skins.
During the French Revolution, the abbey was destroyed. The composition of the liqueur remained a secret until a certain Alexandre le Grand found the recipe in a library in 1863 and started distilling the elixir in a distillery on the site of the former abbey.
The first year 28,000 bottles were sold, ten years later 150,000 pieces. Today it is millions of litres.
Benedictine labels always say DOM, the abbreviation of Deo optimo maximo: for God, the best and the greatest. Benedictine is related to chartreuse, a liqueur distilled by the Carthusian monks.
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