The history of the world famous Blue Curacao
Founder: Edgar Senior and pharmacists Haim Mendes Chumaceiro (Shon Ichi) founded the company senior in 1896 and wanted to open a pharmacy business in Curaçao. But there was yet different. Luckily!
The original Blue Curaçao is unique to the Caribbean. After a 115-year-old recipe, the high-proof concoction created in a single ancient copper kettle. The demand on the origin island is enormous, also because the main ingredient grows only here.
Shortly before Senior invented the famous liqueur of the Caribbean, he sat on the terrace of his plantation, staring morosely at the freshly harvested fruit in his hand. Its trees should large, juicy Valencia oranges produce. Instead, there was golfball Schrumpelpomeranzen that tasted bitter.
And that was fortunate for Curaçao and for us, says John Bradshaw, production manager at Senior & Co. Had its oranges grown according to plan, would never Senior invented our world famous liqueur. Senior, so legend has it on, grabbed the depressing harvest experience after a few dried peel of the fruit. Brown and hard they were in his hand, completely odorless. Furious, he broke one of them, once was an intense bittersweet smell in the air.
Senior should have started then to experiment with the production of alcohol from the trays.Because for lemonade or juice was the fruit that is in the local Creole language Laraha, too bitter. Not even the wild goats showed interest.
That was 115 years ago. The emergency was a virtue, a trademark. The liqueur is a real Yiu di Kòrsou (a child Curaçao). Because Larahas only grow in the Balearic inutiles, the useless islands, as once the eroberungswütigen Spaniards Curaçao and neighboring Aruba had baptized. Lack of rain, sun and the hard, hardly suitable for agriculture soil they had inspired this name.
Liqueur recipe from 1896
Senior began to cook the dried Pelle the oranges and came after a while on a very delicious recipe.
A recipe that is still used today: “The way we produce our liqueurs in 2011 is exactly the same as in 1896. In tiny ten square meters, the company produces Senior & Co annually estimated 40,000 to 60,000 liters of Curacao liqueur. The tools: a 115-year-old copper kettle, a blue barrel, a silver tank and a filling.
Work is only from Monday to Friday. No stress. At the beginning of each production eleven oversized tea bags made of jute are laced reminiscent of Turnbeutel of primary school children.Therein were plentiful dried shells of wrinkled Laraha Orange. There are also four very secret, imported spices and herbs.
Then hike the eleven bags in the copper pot, which is filled with 96 percent alcohol. The idea is that we make a kind of tea. The flavors of Larahas and spices are to be transferred into the alcohol. For three days the cooks of bitter orange tea, then he pulls another day without heat through well. The tea bags are removed, filled the tank with water and the concoction is reheated properly.
A deadly mixture
When the aromatic alcohol evaporates, it starts on cool pipes. The distillate thus obtained drip for three days in said blue barrel, have come together to exactly 208 liters. Who of them drank some, dies like a cockroach. The alcohol is too concentrated. John holds a thimble of clear liquid in front of him. It smells strongly of bitter orange and alcohol vapor.
Now the silver tank comes into play: The distillate is mixed sugar with 400 kilograms and then filled with water and a renewed shot of alcohol to 1800 liters. Now just filter three days, one day filling, then the process can begin anew.
An increase in the production fails due to the size of the factory. Four employees and only a copper kettle. John tried to get a second. Around the world, John has searched but found nothing. One may not imagine what probably will become of the Blue Curaçao when the boiler one day gives up the ghost.
Blue color was random
According to the March the swill came though at first distillate Seniors blue from the boiler. A chemical reaction between the copper and the alcohol is suspected. Thereafter, however, always was just a clear fire. Food coloring makes since for penetrating staining, there to marvel at today not only in blue, but also in green, red, yellow and orange. It does not interfere with the taste, that is what matters. And the idea to call it Blue was good. With the name Curaçao but they have made a very serious mistake.
For places and landscapes are not patentable as a brand name. As the competition was clear that money can be earned with the liqueur, was mimicking what the distilleries hergaben. You can stir together in your backyard any alcohol and call him Curaçao, we can not do anything.
The most famous imitation is the product of the Dutch home Bols. Also a local competitor, the company produces a blue Leañez alcohol with bitter orange taste. But we are the only ones who may be described as “Genuine Curacao of Curacao Liqueur”.
What would drive other producers of branded goods in the madness that is sweeping the board room of the house for senior any trouble. On the contrary. The other producers are making good marketing job for us. They increase awareness of Blue Curacao. Sooner or later, all want to have the original and come to us. John is now in the middle of the small foyer, pointing to a newly arrived bus, storm out of the tourists at the tasting tables. Every year, tens of thousands ago. The liqueur has made the island famous. Without him, I’m sure we would not as much tourism. And all buy a bottle of genuine Curaçao.
In Europe to buy anywhere!
Outside the Caribbean island, it is hardly possible to obtain a bottle of Blue Curacao. A tiny part of the production is exported only through a distributor in the United States. The rest?Each tourist is our distributor. In Europe, there is no shop where you can buy a bottle of us.
With her lonely old copper kettle, the company can not produce enough anyway to offer their product worldwide. The number of Laraha-bitter oranges is limited. A single man named Costa now operates a plantation in the east of Curacao. His 42 trees can be twice a year to harvest and deliver 900 kilograms of dried orange peel. The farmer harvest the fruits, dried and cuts the dish with a wooden knife into four equal parts. A metal knife would ruin the taste.
Then Costa supplies the cups for 25 florins, the equivalent of about 10 euros, from when Chobolobo factory. Hardly something that you can live. It’s a hobby, because Mister Costa actually makes Curaçao as a policeman for law and order. He is still the only supplier and which also makes it difficult for competitors to obtain the original ingredient for its own production. Moreover, we also buy anyone who brings us his dried Laraha shells, the harvest from.
-Laraha (Citrus aurantium currassuviensis) – Golden Orange Curacao
But few islanders plant the tree in the home garden. Many locals prefer anyway rum or whiskey. Fortunately for the ten-square-distillery. Otherwise maybe nothing would remain for our visitors from Alaska to Australia left and we could not call more Ambassador Curaçao us.
The bad news is that the original can be purchased in Europe nowhere. And the good news! Now they have to visit one more reason, Curacao and the “Genuine Curacao of Curacao Liqueur ” to usurp and experiencing all the highlights in Curaçao! It’s worth a trip to the Blue Curacao liqueur factory to make.
This is the new one”Limited Edition” Tamarind