Curaçao (liqueur)

Curaçao

A bottle of Blue Curaçao
Type	Liqueur
Manufacturer	(various)
Country of origin	Curaçao
Introduced	19th century
Alcohol by volume	15–40%
Color	Colorless, but often artificially colored with the most popular being blue and orange
Flavor	laraha (bitter and sweet orange)

Curaçao (/ˈkjʊərəsaʊ/) is a liqueur flavored with the dried peel of the Laraha citrus fruit, grown on the island of Curaçao.

History

An official Curaçao liqueur has to be made with the dried peels of the "Laraha". Laraha is a bitter orange native of Curaçao with the Latin name: "Citrus Aurantium Currasuviensis", meaning "Golden Orange of Curaçao".^[1] This sweet Valencia orange was brought by Spanish explorers in 1527.^[2] The nutrient-poor soil and arid climate of Curaçao proved unsuitable to Valencia cultivation, resulting in small, bitter fruit of the trees. Although the bitter flesh of the Laraha is hardly edible, the peels are aromatic and flavorful, maintaining much of the essence of the Valencia orange.^[3]

There are no definite facts that points out who and when the first Curaçao Liqueur was developed. The Lucas Bols distillery, founded in 1575 in Amsterdam, maintains that Lucas Bols (1652–1719) already developed a Laraha-based liqueur. The Dutch West Indies Company had taken possession of Curaçao in 1634 and Bols had shares in both the West and East India Companies to guarantee the cheap supply of spices for their distilled drinks. After the discovery that an aromatic oil could be extracted from the unripe peel of the otherwise useless bitter oranges, Bols had this oil exported back to Amsterdam to develop a liqueur similar to current day Curaçao. Bols tended to add an "element of alchemical mystery" to his products, explaining the unlikely addition of a blue coloring. In the past, the liqueur also had the name Crème de Ciel ("cream of heaven"), presumably for its blue color.^[4][5]

Alternatively, the Senior & Co, a company that originates from Curaçao, are to this day the only company that always produced their liqueur with the peels of the Laraha. The Jewish family, Senior and Chumacairo, started selling their liqueur in 1896 in their pharmacy at small quantities. In 1947 they bought the Landhuis (Dutch for "country manor") Chobolobo in Willemstad, where the distillery has since been housed. As this company is the only one who uses laraha fruit from Curaçao, it has been permitted to put the word "genuine" on its labels.^[4][6]

Preparation

To create the liqueur the Laraha peel is dried, bringing out the sweetly fragranced oils. After soaking in a still with alcohol and water for several days, the peel is removed and other spices are added. The company Senior & Co uses a 120-year-old copper kettle for the distilling process. They put the peels in a gunny bag, spices are added and then hung in a heated copper still with 96% pure and kosher alcohol (derived from sugar cane) for 3 days. After 1 day cooling, water is added and distillation takes place for another 3 days.^[7] The liqueur has an orange-like flavor with varying degrees of bitterness. It is naturally colorless but is often given artificial coloring, most commonly blue or orange, which confers an exotic appearance to cocktails and other mixed drinks.^[8] The blue color is achieved by adding a food colorant, most often E133 Brilliant Blue.^[9]

Some other liqueurs are also sold as Curaçaos with different flavors added, such as coffee, chocolate, and rum and raisin.

• 
  A glass of Blue Curaçao liqueur
• 
  Landhuis Chobolobo: Curaçao Liqueur Distillery

See also

• List of liqueurs
• Triple sec

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blue Curacao.

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