Blue Curacao in Curacao!
I was very fortunate to visit the beautiful island nation of Curacao recently. Curacao is part of the “ABC Islands” of the Dutch Lesser Antilles, very close to Venezuela. Some of you may have come across the famed Blue Curacao liqueur.
I was able to visit the only distillery that produces this, and wanted to share some findings with you all!
There is a “genuine” liqueur and competing “original” and “classic” ones. Look for the word “genuine” on the label, and embossing marks on the base of the glass bottle. Only the genuine one is made at the Senior & Co. Distillery, and the others appear in souvenir shops.
The liqueur is based on the Curacao green orange, or Laraha. A single source farmer on the island grows the fruit, hand picks it, and hand peels it. He sun-dries the peels, collects them, and sells them to the Senior & Co distillery. The fruit pulp and juice itself is not used.
The distillate is produced very slowly using an 100+ year old short path still with water cooling. The run actually starts with infusing the peels in sugar cane alcohol, then infusing cloves, cardamon, and “secret stuff” in a “gunny bag”.
The single-pass distillation grabs all of the essential oils, esters, and flavors, and the run is done over a few days. After cooling A LOT of sugar is added, food dye is added depending on the product, and proof adjusted.
I was able to watch a team of female workers unpacking their bottles, hand-filling them, hand-labeling them, and then repackaging them. Pretty much what I do!
As you would all know, the distillate is not blue. They openly admitted that the colorants are added for psychological effect, and it works! At the tasting, if the host is telling you there are orange notes and the liqueur is orange, your eyes convince you. The blue color is used to create famous cocktails like a Blue Lagoon. They use a lot of food colors here in their liqueurs, but their clear glass packaging is consistent. It makes for a really eye-catching presentation in the tasting room.
There is a single 80 proof clear liqueur produced (no dyes, less sugar), and I really enjoyed that as it was closer to the fruit.I did not observe any mashing or fermentation tanks.
I did see an IBC tote of ethanol and asked about it. Curacao is too hot and barren to farm sugar cane (it was tried in the past), therefore, they are buying their sugar cane ethanol from somewhere else. The distillery is therefore doing infusing and re-distillation.
I was very delighted to meet fellow chemist Shane from the Toxic Brew Company, Ohio on our distillery tour! Shane gave me a really nice flask with his company logo on it. Please check out his brewery and taproom, the first in Dayton, Ohio! Thank you again Shane!
The good news is that some of the Senior & Co. products are available in the USA now through Uptown Spirits: https://uptownspirits.com/product-tag/senior-co/
September is the absolute hottest month here! Come for the beaches and the Blue Curacao!
