Tags: Caribbean Caribbean Vacation Curacao Curacao Liqueur

One of the places we visited was the Curacao Distillery, the distillery is located in Landhuis Chobolobo.  The company that makes the Curacao is called Senior & Company. Now I do not have a vast knowledge of liqueur and I recall only seeing the Blue Curacao back home.  But low and behold they make many flavors from Tamarind to Chocolate.  We drove to Landhuis from downtown Willemstad it took about 10 minutes and there was a lot of traffic when we neared the distillery so be careful when entering.  When we pulled up into the parking lot it was pretty empty, Yay, no fighting crowds.  What we found out was that a cruise ship was coming in the following day and they were expecting it to be pretty crowded then, in the meantime we had the place to ourselves (mostly),  the tour is self-guided and FREEEEEE!!!! 

 

 

Curacao Liqueur comes from the peel of a fruit that is found on the island.  The fruit is called the Laraha Orange this orange was originally grown from the Valencia Orange.  When the Valencia Orange was planted here it didn’t take well to the climate and it ended up becoming the Laraha Orange.  So the Laraha is a Valencia gone bad.  The Laraha Orange is too bitter to eat but once the peels are dried out it can be made into this liqueur.   They were originally peeled with a wooden knife and dried in the sun for five days.  Now they are peeled with a stainless steel knife.  Spices are added to the peels and they are put in a bag and hung in a copper still.  

 

The entire process takes about 17 days, this includes adding alcohol and water and filtering the liqueur.  What comes out is the clear liquid.  In order to get the colored liqueur “certified coloring” is added.  The liqueur is then bottled and labeled right here in this facility.  The bottle is made of recycled glass and there is a real cork in it.  It is designed to look like the peel of an orange.  There are many flavors of Curacao Liqueur.  They provide a lot of information so you don’t need a tour guide.  There is history on the family and how the liqueur is made.  

As we exited the building they had four samples of liqueur outside waiting for us to taste. The flavors were Tamarind, Coffee, Chocolate and the original Blue Curacao.  My favorite was the Tamarind but they don’t sell it in the states.  Sorry I didn’t get a photo of the Blue Curacao Bottle.

After the tour, we went outside of the distillery and there was a bar outside and a store.  We each had a drink at the bar and walked through the store. Look at the different flavors they had.  

 

I do recommend visiting this place one there is a lot of info in a small amount of time and it’s free and two the liqueur is pretty good.  If we weren’t flying standby I would have definitely taken a bottle of the Tamarind home with me.  We don’t typically check bags which is why we didn’t purchase one.  Let me know if you have visited this distillery.  

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