Orange Curaçao is a citrus liqueur made from the dried peel of the laraha, a bitter orange grown on the island of Curaçao. Spanish settlers planted sweet orange trees there in the 1500s; the island's arid, rocky soil turned the fruit too bitter to eat, and it was only later that distillers found the dried peel still carried a strong, fragrant orange oil worth capturing in liqueur form. Made by infusing the peels with neutral grain spirit and sugar, it has a more concentrated, less sweet orange flavor than fresh-orange liqueurs, and ranges from pale gold to deep amber depending on the producer. It appears in classic cocktails such as the Margarita and Mai Tai, and in cooking it can flavor sauces, marinades, and glazes for poultry, pork, and seafood.