Monastic Cuisine and Products
The connection between monasteries and food production is older than any living tradition. The Rule of St Benedict, written in the sixth century, expected communities to be largely self-sufficient, which meant growing grain, pressing wine, keeping bees, and managing livestock as normal parts of monastic life. What began as practical necessity became, over centuries, a body of craft knowledge concentrated in communities that had both the stability to refine techniques across generations and the discipline to maintain exacting standards. Many of those products are still made today, in some cases by the same communities that developed them.
Trappist Beer
The Trappist designation is the most closely protected mark in brewing. The International Trappist Association certifies only those beers brewed within a monastery under monastic supervision, with profits directed primarily to the monastery and its charitable works. As of 2024, ten breweries hold the Authentic Trappist Product certification.
The Belgian houses dominate the category. Westmalle, in Antwerp province, developed the dubbel and tripel styles that define Trappist ale; its brewery has operated continuously since 1836. Westvleteren, produced by the Abbey of Saint Sixtus in West Flanders, is frequently cited as one of the finest beers in the world — the community brews only enough to sustain itself and limits sales to direct purchase from the abbey gate, which requires a phone reservation made weeks in advance. Chimay, produced at the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Scourmont, is the most commercially available Trappist beer worldwide and has been exported since the 1950s. Orval, made at the abbey of the same name in the Belgian Ardennes, is distinctive for its dry-hopped, brett-influenced character — unlike most Trappist ales, it continues to evolve significantly in the bottle. Rochefort, at the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy, produces three numbered beers; Rochefort 10 is among the highest-rated Belgian ales.
Outside Belgium, La Trappe (Koningshoeven) in the Netherlands was an early adopter of bottom-fermented styles alongside its traditional ales. Engelszell in Austria, Tre Fontane in Rome, Spencer in Massachusetts (the first certified Trappist brewery outside Europe), and Zundert in North Brabant complete the ten.
Trappist Cheese
Trappist monasteries have been making cheese since at least the twelfth century, and several distinct styles remain closely associated with specific communities. Mont des Cats, made at the Abbaye Notre-Dame du Mont des Cats in northern France, produces a mild washed-rind wheel sold under the name Père Joseph — a semi-soft cheese with a washed orange rind and a gentle, buttery paste. Westmalle produces a firm yellow cheese alongside its famous beer. Maredsous, in Namur province, makes a washed-rind square cheese that has been in continuous production since the 1950s.
Cistercian communities more broadly — not only the strict Trappist branch — have long produced goat cheese in France. The Loire Valley's Cîteaux abbey produces a washed-rind cow's milk cheese, Fromage de Cîteaux, that is released seasonally and is difficult to find outside the region, making a visit to the motherhouse of the Cistercian order one of the few ways to obtain it reliably.
Chartreuse and Bénédictine
The two most celebrated monastic liqueurs both carry names that outlasted the specific communities that created them.
Chartreuse is produced by the Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, the mother house of the Carthusian order in the mountains above Grenoble. The formula dates to a manuscript given to the monastery in 1605, though commercial production only began in the eighteenth century. The green version (55% ABV) contains approximately 130 herbs, plants, and flowers macerated in neutral spirit; the yellow version (40%) is milder and sweeter. The complete formula is known only to two monks at any given time. Production moved temporarily to Tarragona in Spain after the monks were expelled from France in 1903, and the Spanish-produced bottles from that era are now collector's items.
Bénédictine was developed at the Abbaye de Fécamp in Normandy in the sixteenth century, though it was reformulated and commercialised in the nineteenth century by a wine merchant named Alexandre Le Grand, who may have drawn on earlier monastic documents. The current liqueur is no longer produced by monks, but the D.O.M. on the label (Deo Optimo Maximo — "To God, most good, most great") preserves the monastic origin in its branding.
Honey and Bread
Carthusian communities maintain beekeeping as part of their eremitic economy, and Carthusian honey — particularly from French and Spanish houses — is sold through monastery shops in small quantities. The bees tend mountain meadows and forest edges near the charterhouses, and the honey reflects a floral complexity typical of high-altitude pollinators.
Russian monastic bakeries produce a dense, slightly sweet bread that varies by community but typically uses a sourdough starter maintained across decades. The Trinity Lavra of St Sergius near Moscow maintains a bakery supplying both the monastic community and the large number of pilgrims who visit the complex daily. Monastic bread in the Russian tradition is often baked around feast days and sold blessed, which gives it a significance beyond its culinary qualities.
Mount Athos Wine and Tsipouro
The monasteries of Mount Athos have cultivated vineyards since the Byzantine period, and several communities still produce wine for liturgical use and communal consumption. The wine is rarely exported, but visitors who hold the necessary Diamonitirion permit (the access document for the Holy Mountain) sometimes encounter it at mealtimes. The dominant grape on the peninsula is a local variety called Limnio, producing a structured, tannic red.
Tsipouro — the Greek pomace spirit distilled from the pressed grape skins after winemaking — is also produced on the Mountain and is the beverage most likely to appear with the evening meal in a monastic guesthouse. The Athonite version is typically unaged and assertive.
Tibetan Butter Tea
At the opposite end of the world's monastic traditions, Tibetan Buddhist monasteries prepare butter tea (po cha) daily for monks and visitors. The drink is made by churning strong black tea with yak butter and salt — a caloric, warming preparation suited to high-altitude cold. In the large monastic kitchens of Drepung and Sera monasteries near Lhasa, vast quantities are prepared in the early morning hours before the first prayer session. Visitors to Tibetan monasteries are often offered a cup, and refusing without reason is considered impolite. The flavour is savoury rather than sweet, and acclimatisation to altitude generally makes it more palatable than it sounds.
Finding Monastic Products
Most monastic products are sold through the monastery shop at the producing community. A smaller number — Chimay, La Trappe, Westmalle, and Chartreuse foremost among them — are available through specialist retailers in major cities. Online ordering directly from monastic websites is increasingly common, particularly for French and Belgian houses.
The map identifies monastery locations across the world; for communities known to produce and sell goods, a direct visit remains the most reliable way to find the full range — and in many cases the only way to find the rarer products that communities do not export.