Giffard Blue Curacao Liqueur

Blue Curaçao gets a bad rap because most of it is cheap dye and sugar — Giffard's is the bottle that made bartenders reconsider the category. Giffard & Cie has been making liqueurs in the Loire Valley since 1885, when pharmacist Émile Giffard created Menthe-Pastille to cool the Angers heat, and the house is still fourth-generation family-run in Avrillé. Their Blue Curaçao follows the tradition the name comes from: on the Caribbean island of Curaçao, Spanish-planted Valencia oranges adapted to the arid climate and became the laraha, a small, green, fibrous, intensely bitter orange useless for eating but remarkable for its aromatic peel. Giffard uses distillates of both bitter and sweet oranges, unaged, at 25% ABV — the blue is dye for visual impact, as it is in every blue curaçao, and adds no flavor. Expect a velvety, candied-orange nose with a floral, blossom-like lift, opening into a round, smooth palate where sweet orange leads over zesty bitter peel, underlying lemon, and a hint of vanilla, with a syrupy texture that stays balanced rather than cloying. Difford's finds zesty blood orange with a peppermint-cool edge; Let's Drink It found it mellow and very smooth inside a Blue Lagoon. Skurnik calls it the new gold standard of the category. Essential for a Blue Hawaiian, a Blue Lagoon, a blue margarita, or any tiki drink that needs both real orange flavor and that electric Caribbean color.

Buy Giffard Blue Curacao Liqueur online with fast shipping right to your door.