🥃 Curaçao

Curaçao is an orange liqueur. The name is tied to the Caribbean island of Curaçao, where the laraha (Citrus aurantium currassuviensis) grows, a bitter orange whose dried peel is used for flavouring. Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2019/787 has no separate category for curaçao, so it is treated as a liqueur: at least 15% ABV and at least 100 g/l of sweetening products.

Laraha. According to the producer Senior & Co, the Spaniards conquered the island in 1499 and brought sweet oranges, with the first seeds arriving from Hispaniola in 1527. The sun and the arid climate turned the fruit bitter and almost inedible, but planters found that the sun-dried peels have a pleasant fragrance because of their oils.

Senior & Co. The company says it was founded in 1896 by Edgar Senior and Haim Mendes Chumaceiro in a drugstore called Botika Excelsior. Its process, as described by the producer: laraha peels are dried in the sun for five days, put in a bag with spices and hung in a copper still, then water is added and the mixture is distilled; the distillate is sweetened with sugar and filtered, and the orange and blue versions receive certified colouring. Distilling and bottling are done by hand and take about 17 days. The producer lists Blue Curaçao at 31% ABV and a Curaçao Triple Sec at 31% and 40% ABV.

Why this matters to you. Curaçao is a liqueur, so it contains both alcohol and sugar. WHO: there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.