Ever wondered what blue curacao is or what it tastes like? Or maybe how to use it in cocktails? Then you’ve come to the right place – read on.
Or you could just drive straight in and try out some of the best blue curacao drinks around.
Blue curaçao liqueur is made from a very specific orange peel. The Spanish brought valencia oranges to the island of Curaçao in the early 1500s. But they didn’t grow well in the hot sun, so they were abandoned and left to grow wild.
Over some decades, they developed into the laraha, with a wonderful taste in an oil from the orange peel. And that’s how this curacao liqueur came to be.
The Secret to a Blue Margarita
Blue curacao is a super fun orange-flavored liqueur that is bright blue in color. It has a lot of pigment, which makes it perfect for turning a cocktail recipe blue or green. On this page, you’ll find some exciting blue curacao recipes and tips on how to use it to mix your own drinks!
While there are plenty of orange liqueurs out there to choose from, a couple of things make blue curacao special. First, blue curacao is flavored with the dried peel of the laraha citrus fruit, which is native to the island of Curacao. This gives it a unique flavor that you won’t find in other orange liqueurs.
Second, blue curacao starts out clear. The blue color is added artificially, usually with food coloring. This makes it perfect for cocktails where you want a splash of color without affecting the flavor.
You can get plain orange curacao, which is a clear liqueur that tastes just like the blue version. The Bols company added the blue coloring to make it interesting.
And the color is the second special trait. Depending on the other ingredients in your drink, blue curacao can turn the drink blue, add a lovely blue hue, or turn it green by mixing with orange juice or other yellow or orange ingredients.
Just don’t add it to brown drinks unless you want something that looks like the bottom of a pond. Check out our list of the best blue curacao recipes below.
The ABV of blue curacao varies from brand to brand, but it’s around 25%. It’s much lighter than straight liquors, most of which are around 40%, but it’s still stronger than some lightweight liqueurs.
Like the glass? It’s a Reidel Nick and Nora cocktail glass.
Where to Buy Blue Curaçao
You can save yourself a trip to the store and buy Blue Curacao online and have it shipped or delivered. Some states don’t allow liquor to be shipped to homes, but you may be able to use a delivery service and get it within hours.
- Check with Minibar. They partner with local stores to delivery liquor to your doorstep within hours, if they’re in your delivery area. If not, check. Drizly and Saucey, which do the same thing, all with slightly different delivery areas.
- Buy Blue Curacao at Liquorama and have it shipped to your door. Check your region to see if they deliver to you.
What flavor does Blue Curacao give to a cocktail?
So how exactly does Blue Curacao taste, compared to other orange liqueurs? It’s a nice sweet orange flavor, but it has a slightly more bitter finish than a liqueur like triple sec. That means it tastes a little less like candy and a little more like a real orange. And the alcohol flavor isn’t particularly strong.
Orange liqueurs work in so many cocktails, but the blue coloring is what makes this one next level. You can take almost any margarita recipe and replace the orange liqueur in it with triple sec to get a beautiful blue drink. And the same holds true for most recipes featuring orange liqueur.
You can also add a splash of it to any orange flavored cocktail that you want to turn blue. A little goes a long way for color.
Just take a look at the colors of other ingredients in your cocktail recipes first. Blue curacao with orange juice makes green. With a red juice like cranberry, it makes a deep purple.
Triple Sec v. Curacao
So is the blue the only reason to pick blue curacao for your orange liqueur? Well, maybe. Definitely, when you’re comparing it to clear orange curacao which is identical except for the pigment.
But comparing curacao in general to the other most well-known orange liqueur – triple sec – you may notice a difference in the taste. Then again, it might depend more on specific brands than type. Some brands of curacao are sweeter than others.
Triple sec tends to have a less sweet taste than curacao, which tends to be quite sweet. When orange liqueur is the only sweet ingredient in a cocktail, curacao makes a great choice. When it’s not, it depends on how sweet you want the drink to be.