Authentic trappist product

A label of quality and authenticity, Authentic Trappist Product is assigned to beers, cheeses and spirits produced strictly within the compounds of Trappist abbeys.

The accompanying logo guarantees respect for very strict norms. Manufacture of the products and commercial management must meet all quality and ethical standards.

The Association Internationale Trappiste (A.I.T) has established the rules for assigning the label. These rules are precise and rigorous. But above all else they represent the distinct and unique relationship that must exist between the product and the monastery.

Firstly, let us remember that the production unit must be “located within a monastery or in the immediate vicinity of one” and that “the work must be carried out by the monks themselves and/or by lay colleagues in the monastery”.

Revenues, outside of profit-making, can only be used for the sound management of the company, for the benefit of social work and for the needs of the monastic community.

A Trappist beer is a blend of tradition and know-how, of rigour and technical skills.

Criteria for awarding the label:

  • The products must be of a quality beyond reproach – quality will be continually checked.
  • The products must be sold under the designation or brand name of the monastery that owns them.
  • They must satisfy all the legal requirements concerning safety, health and information for the consumer.
  • All advertising or promotional campaigns must meet the requirements for truth, decency, and sobriety while respecting the religious scope of the Trappist denomination.

There are eleven beers that use this label. They are produced in Belgium by the abbeys of Achel, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle and Westvleteren, in the Netherlands, by the Tilburg and Zundert abbeys, in Austria by the Stift Engelszell abbey, in Italy by the Tre Fontane abbey, and finally in the US by the Spencer abbey.

 

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