Saturday, March 14, 2015

Orange Curacao: A Riddle


What's the difference between Orange Curacao and Blue Curacao?
Answer: the color

Curacao liqueur is made from the peel of a fruit similar to the orange that's found on the island of Curacao, located in the southern Caribbean Sea. Fun fact: A synagogue on the island dates from the 1600s and is the oldest surviving synagogue in the Americas. 

You can buy different colors of Curacao liqueur thanks to the miracle of food coloring, but they all taste the same. Blue and orange are the most widely available. I'm not sure whether any recipes are printed on the label, because it's in Dutch.

We tried three different cocktails.

Six Bells
Mix in a cocktail shaker with ice: 1 oz dark rum, 1/2 oz Orange Curacao, 1/2 oz fresh lime juice, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, 1 teaspoon sugar.
Strain into a cocktail glass. 

Oops, we used a martini glass. I liked this a lot, and it was my daughter's favorite. It was sweet and tart at the same time. My husband didn't like it. I realize I keep writing this. My friend Brian says it's a trope, which is a literary convention (he's a writer) in which a phrase is repeated for effect. But I'm just faithfully reporting what has actually transpired. Life is like that sometimes.

Sweet Memories
Mix in a cocktail shaker with ice: 1/2 oz rum, 1/2 oz dry vermouth, 1/2 oz Orange Curacao. Strain into a cocktail glass.

I liked this even better, and my husband liked it too. It had a richness Six Bells didn't have. Also, the name is fantastic. You can say, "Let's make Sweet Memories tonight" or "Remember last night when we made Sweet Memories?"

Sing Sing
Half fill a mixing glass with ice and add 2 oz Scotch, 1 oz Orange Curacao, and 1 oz sweet vermouth. 
Stir and strain into a champagne glass. Garnish with a twist of orange rind.

This sounded awful, but it was the only cocktail I could find that called for a whole ounce of Orange Curacao instead of just half an ounce, and I have my priorities. In fact, however, it wasn't bad. Even my husband said so, and we all know what he's like.



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