Curacao Bucket List - July 2025 - Spirits of Curacao: From Blue Liqueur to Island Rum

Since its very first shipment on March 28, 1896, Curaçao’s signature Blue Curaçao liqueur has carried the island’s flavors around the globe. Made exclusively from the sun-dried peels of the bitter laraha orange (uniquely adapted to Curaçao’s porous limestone soil), this cobalt-bright spirit remains faithful to its century-old recipe. Today, that heritage pours in five hues (blue, green, red, orange, and clear), each born of the same copper-distilled laraha essence. 

Parallel to the laraha legacy, Curaçao’s rum heritage reaches back to the 1600s. Then, the Penha building’s upper floor was a favorite haunt for sailors and traders watching ships glide into St. Anna Bay. Between bites and sea breezes, they crafted their own molasses-based blends. One standout recipe even vanished into the building’s hidden vaults. Rediscovered only recently, that long-lost formula inspired AnnaBay Club Rum. In a sleek, waterfront tasting room, AnnaBay’s master distillers revive those old-world techniques, fermenting local molasses and infusing it with island botanicals to create a small-batch rum that bridges Curaçao’s seafaring past with today’s craft-spirits movement.

These two iconic pours, Blue Curaçao’s centuries-old laraha distillate and AnnaBay’s resurrected rum formula, chart Curaçao’s journey from its colonial trading roots and agricultural inventiveness to the vibrant craft-spirits scene of today. Guests can step into both narratives at Landhuis Chobolobo’s storied distillery and in the vaulted tasting room of AnnaBay Rumlocker, where every taste is a journey through the island’s rich heritage.

Landhuis Chobolobo is just a short drive from central Willemstad. A 75-minute guided tour (US $18 standard, US $28 deluxe) begins on the cool, tiled veranda of an 1860s plantation manor. Guests step inside to see the copper stills, inhale the citrus-sweet aroma and learn how those sun-dried peels become Curaçao’s most famous liqueur. The tasting flight, classic blue, amber and a rotating special, reveals notes of sweet, bitter, and herb. Deluxe participants even mix their own Blue Curaçao mule cocktail. Closer to the water in Pietermaai, AnnaBay Rumlocker offers a 50-minute, US $15 tour of Curaçao’s craft-rum revival. In an industrial-chic loft overlooking St. Anna Bay, visitors observe fermentation vats and oak barrels, then descend into the “rum locker” to inspect vintage casks. A flight of three rums arrives at the bar alongside island-spiced bites. Conversations with the master distiller illuminate how local molasses and native botanicals combine in small batches to bridge centuries of seafaring tradition with today’s artisanal spirit movement.

Together, the tours and experiences form a single narrative of Curaçao’s liquid heritage; one rooted in 19th-century citrus distillation, the other resurrected from 17th-century molasses lore. In under two hours and for less than US $35 per person, guests can taste the island’s past, understand its agricultural ingenuity, and raise a glass to its ongoing craft-spirits renaissance. And yes, you get to finally see where that iconic blue bottle you’ve seen in the store your whole life is born!