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Blue curacao is scary stuff, perhaps because the only other time one encounters that color is in the jars that hold combs being sanitized in old-timey barbershops. And yet we are supposed to enjoy drinking tropical cocktails made with the stuff, right? Unless you live on a tropical island or work in a bar with “ville” in its name serving up Blue Hawaiis all day, chances are one bottle of blue curacao is going to last you a lifetime.
But what if there was an upscale blue curacao that drew you in? Craft blue goo? Is it possible?
That’s the idea anyway behind Bols Blue 1575, a super-premium blue curacao from Lucas Bols “created to celebrate 450 years of cocktail innovation. This vibrant new release reimagines a timeless classic with a contemporary edge, designed to elevate modern mixology and honor the brand’s unparalleled legacy.”
If you’re like me, you’re wondering what’s in the bottle that makes it different. Well, let’s dig in and find out.
Traditional Bols Blue Curacao launched in 1920 under the name Creme de Ciel (cream of the sky) and today is inexplicably the #1 selling liqueur in the Bols portfolio. The flavor comes from Laraha oranges from the island of Curacao, the blue color from, well, certified color. The base liquor is unstated but likely just grain neutral spirits.
Bols Blue 1575 is a different animal, built around a historic recipe that blends those distilled Laraha orange peels with some amount of spiced rum infused with cardamom, vanilla, and grains of paradise. It’s higher in abv and packaged in a much more attractive bottle… at a much higher price.
So that’s the story. How do they taste? I put them side by side and channeled my tiki spirit animal to put them to the test.
Bols Blue Curacao Review
Dark blue, almost unnaturally so. Straightforward with a mix of orange peel and juice notes — “tangy,” indeed, just as the label says. The liqueur leans more toward tangerine as it develops on the palate, offering ample sweetness that approximates light brown sugar, later cotton candy. Hints of green banana and a little cinnamon give the finish some nuance, but on the whole it’s as innocuous, straightforward an orange-centric experience as something this color is going to give you. It’s also very cheap. 48 proof. B+ / $15
Bols Blue 1575 Review
Immediately distinguishable from a simpler curacao — blue or otherwise — on a few fronts. First, the color in the glass is a little lighter (though it looks darker in the bottle for some reason), closer to sapphire blue, which makes it a touch more elegant. (That’s it on the left in the picture above.) The addition of rum to the base is clearly noticeable, giving it a vanilla-heavy quality and just a hint of rustic hogo on the nose. That said, there’s also vanilla in the botanical bill, so that also plays into things as well, particularly on the palate, where the impact is a little more saccharine than I expected.
The heavy influence of cardamom is impossible to ignore on the tongue, plumping up the caramelized orange core with a cinnamon-plus experience that comes across with an exotic Eastern spice bazaar quality. The finish is sweet and spicy and feels like a component in a dessert you’d get at a Thai restaurant. The net impact of all this is that there’s a lot going on in this liqueur that goes well beyond the orange flavors that would inform a classic curacao. Whether or not you actually want all that extra stuff in your drink is a different discussion, as it does get busy and will take your cocktail in a very different direction than you might expect. 59 proof. B+ / $35 (700ml)
A veteran journalist, the author of four books, a published poet, and an award-winning winemaker, Christopher Null has more than 25 years of experience writing about wine and spirits. He founded Drinkhacker in 2007. He also writes regularly about the science of booze for WIRED and is an occasional contributor to ADI's Distiller magazine. He has been a judge for both the American Distilling Institute Judging of Craft Spirits and Whiskies of the World spirits competitions and often works as a consultant, developing formal tasting notes for spirits brands around the world.
