The Curacao liqueur, famous for its blue color and the main ingredient in cocktails such as the Blue Lagoon or the Blue Hawaii, It’s not actually blue… it’s a marketing gimmick.
The drink, a triple sec based on orange peel, It is made on the Dutch island of Curacaowith 185,000 inhabitants, the smallest country to qualify for the Soccer World Cup.
A coloring is added to evoke the blue water of this Caribbean countryfamous for its dream beaches.
«Most people know it as blue Curacao, but the original Curacao liquor was never blue. It was transparent. That’s why, strictly speaking, it was never called Blue Curaçao. But we do have a blue version that inspires the rest of the world,» explains Genesis Riley, 39, a guide at the Senior distillery, maker of the island’s Curaçao.
«Blue is the most famous because it is the color that represents the Caribbean Sea that surrounds us. It became super popular throughout the Caribbean, it reached Europe and there they began to produce all the other versions,» he says.
A very special orange
He emphasizes that, since the drink is named after a country, It has not been possible to patent it. Hence the existence of multiple Curacaos made in other places by numerous brands in the world with the same blue color.
The drink became popular especially in the 1970s with the film «Blue Hawaii» (1961), starring singer Elvis Presley.
Founded in 1896, the Senior company markets the drink with the same flavor in four other colors (transparent, red, green, yellow)but without the same success.
Curaçao made on the island is made from Laraha orange peelswhich only exists on the island.
Laraha is the fruit of the mutation, over centuries, of oranges brought from Valencia, Spain, by the colonizers. Due to the scarcity of water and salt, it was transformed until it became inedible. It is only grown for drinking.
AFP Agency.
GML
