Unique Island Spirits of the ABCs Island Gourmet

Unique Island Spirits

by Susan Campbell One of the joys of traveling is exploring the local flavors through food and drink.

And when it comes to spirited local libations, the Dutch Caribbean islands don’t disappoint. So let’s discover the lovely native liqueurs and liquors of the ABCs and St. Maarten.

Aruban elixirs

The island’s most famous cocktail the “Aruba Ariba” uses a unique local liqueur called coe­coei to sweeten it. It’s a thick red syrup, almost like grenadine but with a strong anise taste made from the sap of the agave plant kukwisa added to rum and cane sugar. The recipe stems from a centuries-old concoction believed to have originated in Venezuela and brought to Aruba by the island’s original inhabitants – the Caiquetio Indians. Another island liqueur is “Ponche Crema”, a thick, rich, rum-based eggnog mixture that is especially popular during Christmas holidays.

Palmera Rum is another local liquor, the Palmera company makes it in white, amber, dark, coconut flavored, and also a lemon blend called “Lamoenchi”. They also make a special blend to pay tribute to San Nicolas landmark Charlie’s Bar called “Rhum Charlie’s” and have put their own spin on the rich, red coecoei, and call it “Koekoei”. Palmera also offers their own versions of other popular liqueurs and pre-mixed cocktails.

Interesting artisanal local creations can often be found at cultural events like the Thursday night Carubbian Festival in San Nicolas where you can sample and purchase a liqueur made from cashews. Or go to the farmer’s market at Santa Rosa for homemade spirits like wilde roos, a liqueur made from the edible pulp of the flowers that grow on the local Madras thorn trees.

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Curaçao creations

Even those who have never heard of the Caribbean island, recognize the name Curaçao as the famous liqueur used to color cocktails a striking electric blue. The original product is actually clear, and you can still buy it that way, but it later became colored in green, red, and bright orange to appeal to North American cocktail makers. It also comes in coffee, chocolate, and rum-raisin flavors. It has often been imitated, but the distillery in Curaçao is the only place in the world that makes the authentic product. In fact, only a bottle marked “The Genuine Curaçao Liqueur” is the real deal because it’s made with laraha oranges – small green fruit E

unique to the island. They ended up growing there via the Spanish who thought they might grow their sweet Valencia oranges on their newly acquired Caribbean outpost. But the arid climate and poor soil had the trees yield fruit so bitter that even the goats wouldn’t eat it! However, it was later discovered that when the peels dried in the sun they produced very pleasing aromatic natural oils. Soon folks began trying to leverage these aromatic essences into something delicious to drink. Eventually the perfect blend of alcohol, sugar, spices, and peels resulted in the liqueur that the Senior family has now been producing since 1896. The distillery is presently housed in a century-old restored plantation house called Landhuis Chobolobo.

Another colorful local liquor can be found at Netto’s Bar, in Curaçao. Ròm Bèrdè is a bright green rum created by the late Ernesto (Netto) Koster who had been making it for his bar since 1954. But don’t expect the barkeep to reveal what makes it green. It’s a secret they intend to keep!

St. Maarten’s spirits

The most famous St. Maarten liqueur is made from guavaberry that grows wild on the island. The berry is red, small, and bittersweet, not at all like guava, and for some reason known only to Mother Nature, there are more guavaberry bushes on St. Maarten than anywhere else in the world! Visit the Sint Maarten Guavaberry Company in Philipsburg for samples and to

learn about its interesting history. Also try some island cocktails made with it like the sparkling “Guavaberry Fizz” at Divi Little Bay Resort.

The island also has a love affair with flavored rums. Ma Doudou is a cottage factory in Culde-Sac producing superb blended rums with flavors like banana, coconut, ginger, lime, and vanilla. Look for the cheery madras-capped bottles with hand-painted island scenes on them; they are available island-wide. Also making their own creative flavored rums are the owners of Topper’s Restaurant & Bar in Simpson Bay. They come in cool flavor combinations like whitechocolate-raspberry, banana-vanilla-cinnamon, and mocha mama, and they are also available island-wide.

Ma Doudou Rum from St. Martin

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Photos courtesy of Papiamento Restaurant

On a smaller scale, local social worker/ counselor Amy Arrindell has been moonlighting as a master distiller in her home. She has now perfected her own line of award-winning “Amy’s Island Liquors” using rum and locals fruits like kenip, gooseberry, and passionfruit. Look for them at cultural events or sample them at The Summit Resort Hotel’s restaurant, Tropical Heaven.

And like Amy, the owner of Jimbo’s Rock & Blues Café has been experimenting at home with some special spirits for his customers and regularly offers up what he calls “Dirty Tequila” distilled with tangerines or passionfruit depending on the season.

Bonaire’s best

also branched out to create liqueurs for all of the Dutch Caribbean islands – each with an ingredient indigenous to its respective culture. And Gietman also developed an orange liqueur dedicated to the House of Oranje, the royal family of Holland. They are available island-wide on Bonaire, and now they are also available on Aruba.

The Dutch Caribbean produces some delightful spirits that you won’t find anywhere else. Do indulge while on holiday; ask your bartender to sample some specialties made with unique island spirits or buy a bottle to take home! Cheers! K Eric Gietman from The Cadushy Distillery in Bonaire

It took Dutch marketing man Eric Gietman who fell in love with Bonaire and moved there with his family, to figure out that the arid island’s most abundant produce kadushi cactus might be turned into an interesting spirit. He enlisted the local refreshing libation awa di lamoenchi (lime water) and added it to distilled cacti peel and the result was Cadushy of Bonaire Liqueur, the world’s only cactus liqueur. His distillery has also developed a local cactus vodka, a spiced rum, and a whisky dedicated to Captain Don, Bonaire’s father of dive tourism. They

Photos courtesy of The Cadushy Distillery. Portrait of Eric Gietman by Stephanie Brauer

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