Curaçao

When the Spaniards came to Curacao they brought Valencia orange plants with them. Unfortunately, the soil and environment morphed the tree into something completely different. The peel is green and the fruit inside is inedible ... even by iguanas who love fruit! In the late 1800’s a pharmacist and a businessman experimented to try to make something useful from the fruit. They discovered that although the fruit was worthless, the peel held potential. Fast forward to the renown liqueur that they produced, and is still hand crafted and created in the same still that they developed. Peels are put in burlap sacks along with cloves, cardamom, sugar, and water, more or less. The recipe is still secret. The burlap bag acts like a giant teabag, which is brewed in the distiller then hand bottled, corked, and labeled. We had samples and it was a big surprise! I was expecting a bitter, potent alcohol flavor that would gag you on the way down. Wrong. It was silky smooth and sweet, but not sickening sweet. The first picture shows the buildings on the grounds and the second shows the ersatz Valencia tree, now known as Laraha.Read more