Guaro (drink)
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This page is about the drink, for other uses, go to Guaro
Guaro is the name of a kind of liquor in many places in Central America. It is a clear liquor made from sugar cane, and therefore has a slightly sweeter taste than comparable liquors. Guaro is a popular alcoholic drink in Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, although in many places guaro can refer to almost any liquor. Guaro is made by a distillation process of sugarcane juices, resulting in an alcohol that is clear in color and has a slightly sweet flavor.
Sometimes guaro is referred to as a "soft vodka" because it has a lower alcohol content than vodka. In Costa Rica, the government nationalized the manufacturing of Guaro in an effort to quell the clandestine production of liquor. The "Fabrica Nacional de Licores" (National Liquor Factory) was founded for this reason, and currently produces the only legal brand of Guaro, the Guaro Cacique.
[edit] Clandestine Production
Some clandestine liquor production still occurs, but it is seen more as a tradition than a business because as it would be difficult to compete with the nationally produced guaro. The illegal version of the product is often called "Guaro de contrabando" (Smuggle-Guaro) and is produced by various methods, all through distillation, but with different base ingredients. Base ingredients are typically fruits or sweets from other sources, molasses from sugarcane or simply sugar. Some of these clandestine products can be dangerous if produced by someone that is not familiar with the production of alcohol for human consumption, and could result in a drink with a dangerously high content of methanol.
