For anyone who has ever ordered a bright blue cocktail and wondered what it was that made it blue, I finally have the answer. If you are semi-familiar behind the bar you would know that most blue bev's are made with Curacao which is a slightly bitter orange-flavoured liqueur. For a list of drinks containing blue curacao click here. I wish I could say what got me pondering the origins of this beautiful mixer was when I was sitting along the beach drinking a Funky Cold Medina (vodka, soco, blue curacao and cran) on my day off . That is incorrect however. It just so happens "Curacao" is the name of a LQ Viatera Quartz countertop sample that I was labeling (thrilling!) here at work this afternoon. I used a little deductive reasoning to figure out that Curacao (in addition to being a mixer) was also an Island (based on the fact that the other colors in the group I was labeling were: Cabo, Cairo, Morocco, Palermo, Santiago, etc). This is when I recalled someone (who knows who) at some point (who knows when), I think, had told me that Curacao was named after the bright blue water surrounding the island of Curacao. It was finally all coming together for me!
Until I looked it up. Which is when I found out that Curacao is flavoured with the dried peel of the laraha citrus fruit, grown on the island of Curaçao which is similar in taste to an orange. According to my good friend, Wikipedia, to create the liqueur the laraha peel is dried, bringing out the sweetly fragranced oils. After soaking in a still with alcohol and water for several days, the peel is removed and other spices are added.
So Curacao (the liqueur) is NOT named after the bright blue waters that surround the island of Curacao. It is simply a drink that is made from the fruit that grows on the island and dyed blue for effect. Solid marketing, but not as glamorous of a reason as I had hoped for. And to be honest, it really does look like the water in the Caribbean!
- Lizzie
Additional Random Factoid: The city of Novi was named from its designation as Stagecoach Stop # 6 or No.VI. (I warned you it was random!)