Blue Curacao

Curacao is an aromatic liqueur made from grape spirit with the addition of dried peel of Laraha, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. Laraha is grown on the island of Curacao.

Laraha is a citrus plant that developed from Valencia sweet oranges transplanted by Spanish explorers in 1527. The nutrient-poor soil and arid climate of Curacao proved unsuitable for growing Valencia oranges - the fruits were small and bitter. Although the bitter flesh of Laraha is barely edible, the peel is fragrant and retains most of the essence of Valencia oranges.

There are at least two contradictory explanations for the origin of Blue Curaçao. Representatives of the Lucas Bols distillery, founded in 1575 in Amsterdam, claim that Lucas Bols (1652-1719) developed a liqueur based on Laraha. The Dutch West India Company took over Curacao in 1634, and Bols had shares in both the West and the East Indies to ensure a cheap supply of spices for his distilled drinks. After discovering that aromatic oil could be extracted from the immature peel of these useless bitter oranges, Bols began to transport this oil back to Amsterdam for the development of a liqueur similar to modern Curacao. The liqueur used to be called Crème de Ciel ('sky cream'), presumably because of its blue color. An alternative version states that the owners of the Senior company (the Jewish Senior family) stumbled upon the original drink recipe in 1896 and began to produce the drink. In 1947 they bought Landhuis Chobolobo in Willemstad, where the distillery has been since. Since this company is the only one that uses lahar fruits from Curacao, it was allowed to put the word "genuine" on its labels.

To create the liqueur, the peel of Laraha is dried, then soaked for several days in alcohol and water. Then the peel is removed and other spices are added. The liqueur has a similar taste to oranges with varying degrees of bitterness. It is a colorless drink, but often artificial coloring is added, most often blue or orange, which gives an exotic appearance to cocktails based on it. The blue color is achieved by adding food coloring.

There are many types of Curacao: white Curacao (White Curaçao), green Curacao (Green Curaçao), orange Curacao (Orange Curaçao), blue Curacao (Blue Curaçao).