You can't do Curacao without Curacao!

We started our day with breakfast, and I had the
traditional island treat- a pumpkin pancake- delish!
I had one last trick up my sleeve before we had to
 be to the airport by 4pm.

We toured Landhuis Chobolobo, where the original Curacao
Liqueur has been distilled since 1896.

Only the Genuine Curacao Liqueur is 25.41% alcohol- and SMOOTH.
The bottle itself is clever, it feels and resembles an orange peel.

Curacao is made from the dried peels of the fruit on a Laraha tree.

It once was a Valencia orange tree imported from Spain in the
early 1500's (after Christopher Columbus' discovery of the island).
The sweet, tasty, Valencia oranges could not survive the harsh
arid conditions of Curacao.  Over time, the trees were left to
become wild. They grew thorns, the peel remained green, and
the fruit inside became very bitter. Not recognizing it as any sort
of sweet orange tree, it was named the Laraha tree.

In the early 1600's, Mordechai Senior, whose family fled to
Amsterdam in the Spanish Inquisition, set up shop in Curacao,
building a Landhuis and establishing a sugar cane plantation.

Years later, it was one of Modechai's sons, Edgar, who quite
literally stumbled upon the idea of making a liqueur.  He had
been out walking and stepped on a fallen Laraha fruit. He
smelled the fragrant aroma in the oils of the peel.  It took
many, many years of toiling with sugar and various spices
to come up with a tasty liqueur.  There is a plantation of these
trees on Curacao to this day, and they are treated, literally, like
gold. Each orange is carefully hand cut from the tree, not picked,
so that does not become damaged and it continues to bear fruit.
The peels of the Laraha are cut by hand and dried in the sunshine 
 for many days. They are then brought to Chobolobo for processing.

The dried orange peels are carefully weighed.
They are mixed with cloves, cardamine, and
eight other spices which are kept secret- of course.
The recipe is mixed and divided in to four gunny
sacks which hang inside the original copper still.

17-19 days later, 800 lbs of sugar (you read that right!) is added,
and the alcohol, then it runs through the still once more.  Blue dye
is added, which I found to be a little disappointing. The alcohol
is bottled and personally labeled. This is the entire production line.
They fill just eight bottles at a time! 

Blue was chosen to represent the color of the
ocean, but Curacao is available in other colors as well.

After the tour, we were given two samples in little shot glasses.
I loved the Tamarind liqueur even more. I thought that was
it, and we were quite satisfied.  But wait! There's more!
We got to order TWO DRINKS each, and they were served
in pint size glasses!  After our cocktails, we were given vanilla
gelato topped with their coffee liqueur, too! Best $20 spent. Ever.

These adorable coeds hailed from all over the world- Curacao,
Brazil, Columbia, California, and Iran- but they all met and
became friends at Northeastern in Boston. The girl in the back
left was born and raised in Curacao, and she brought her new
friends home with her for spring break- nice break! They all
ordered something different, each round, so they could sample
the entire menu! Smart thinkin'; that's what college will do for ya' :)

Those cocktails were not weak by any means, and
I was feeling no pain as we left for the airport.  I
had been seeing this sign all week...and in my
Curacao-soaked state, I found it exceptionally funny!
(Actually, 'Bushalte' means bus stop, but it's fun to say)

There was no better way to end our trip to Curacao, than with Curacao!

G'nite, y'all!