Blue curaçao equals BLUE DRINKS, or at least various shades of aquamarine. There are numerous other orange-flavoured liqueurs but blue curaçao stands out as the only vivid blue ingredient to be found in bars across the world. And like many things from the 1970s, blue drinks are "retro" and so back in vogue. Here's our best blue curaçao cocktails.

Adios Motherfucker
With: Vodka, gin, Bacardi Carta Blanca, blanco tequila, blue curaçao, lemon juice, lime juice, sugar syrup and lemon-lime soda
We say: A blued Long Island Iced Tea by both colour and language.

Bikini Martini
With: Gin, blue curaçao, peach schnapps and lemon juice.
We say: Dick Bradsell created this 90s' "Martini" for an Agent Provocateur swimwear launch.

Black Widow's Bite
With: Vodka, blue curaçao, orange juice, and orange bitters.
We say: Named after the character played by Scarlett Johansson in eight Marvel movies, including two which also starred Jeremy Renner.

Blue Eyed Martini
With: Vodka, gin, dry vermouth and blue curaçao.
We say: A blue-rinsed Vodka Martini with a hint of piney gin.

Blue Hawaii
With: Light white rum, vodka, blue curaçao, pineapple juice, lime juice, lemon juice and sugar syrup.
We say: Aloha! A 1957 Tiki classic from Henry Kaiser's Hawaiian Village Hotel in Waikiki, Hawaii.

Blue Lagoon
With: Vodka, blue curaçao, lime juice and lemon-lime soda.
We say: This cocktail is also known as The Swimming Pool and lounging beside one, or at least imagining you are, is what this cocktail is about.

Blue Negroni
With: Old tom gin, bitter bianco, bianco vermouth, dry vermouth, blue curaçao, and saline solution.
We say: As the name suggests, this is a blue-rinsed, orange-forward riff on a classic Negroni.

China Blue
With: Lychee liqueur, blue curaçao, and pink grapefruit juice.
We say: Emerged in Japan in the late 1990s and still popular along the Pacific Rim.

China Blue Cocktail
With: Blue curaçao, lychee liqueur, pink grapefruit juice and lemon juice.
We say: This simple turquoise cocktail tastes more adult and interesting than its colour might suggest.

Corpse Reviver No. Blue
With: Gin, Lillet Blanc, blue curaçao, lemon juice and absinthe.
We say: A revered classic cocktail, blue-rinsed by Jacob Briars.

Crystal Ship
With: Mezcal, rhum agricole, blue curaçao, orgeat syrup, pineapple juice, and lime juice.
We say: Sail through aquamarine waters to a happier place. In the original serve, there's even a monkey perched on the rim along for the ride.

Darlington
With: Gin, calvados, blue curaçao, dry vermouth, lemon juice and sugar syrup.
We say: This aquamarine blue, delicately fruity gin-based cocktail comes from W. J. Tarling's 1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book.

Electric Lemonade
With: Vodka, lemon juice, sugar syrup, lemon-lime soda, and blue curaçao.
We say: A vodka-charged lemonade with blue curaçao providing both the "electric" blue colour and orange notes.

Gun Metal Blue
With: Mezcal, blue curaçao, lime juice, crème de pêche and cinnamon syrup.
We say: Orange, peach and cinnamon delicately flavour this mezcal-based Margarita riff.

Heisenberg Cocktail
With: Añejo tequila, mezcal, maraschino, lime juice, lavender syrup, blue curaçao and sugar syrup.
We say: A Breaking Bad blue crystal meth inspired Margarita-like mix of seven ingredients.

Palm Royale Grasshopper
With: Vodka, white crème de cacao, green crème de menthe, blue curaçao, Brancamenta, and cream.
We say: A Flying Grasshopper made more befitting of Palm Royale's tasteful extravagance by the addition of minty amaro and blue curaçao.

Rollergirl
With: Fino sherry, gentian liqueur, blue curaçao, sugar syrup, pineapple juice, lemon juice.
We say: Bittersweet notes of gentian and fruity pineapple combine harmoniously while fino sherry adds complex dryness. Blue curaçao bolsters the fruitiness while also turning this cocktail turquoise blue.

Sharman-Cox Daiquiri
With: Light rum, blue curaçao, lime juice, lemon juice, sugar syrup and egg white.
We say: A foam-topped blue riff on two classic cocktails which honours two men named Cox, in addition to the headline Hannah Sharman-Cox.

Sidecar No. Blue
With: Cognac, blue curaçao, lemon juice, sugar syrup and egg white.
We say: Blue curaçao replaces the more usual triple sec in this Sidecar to give it a blue hue.

Vacation Martini
With: Vanilla vodka, coconut liqueur, lime juice, pineapple juice, egg white and blue curaçao.
We say: A great-looking holiday cocktail that's broaching on Tiki in style.

See 50 more blue curaçao cocktails

Blue Curaçao cocktail history

Looking back through vintage cocktail books to establish when blue curaçao first started to appear in cocktail recipes reveals the use of blue food colouring before a blue-coloured liqueur. For example, in Patrick Gavin Duffy's 1934 Official Mixer's Manual, the Blue Bird, Blue Moon and Blue Monday cocktails all call for "1 Dash Blue Vegetable Extract". Indeed, "blue extract" also features in the Blue Bird in the first book I've found calling for blue curaçao, the 1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book.

This vintage book literally has pages of blue curaçao recipes, a whopping 22 different cocktails with an additional one with blue food colouring. The Café Royal Cocktail Book was written by William J. "Billy" Tarling and the only cocktail to use food colouring rather than the obviously then newly fashionable blue liqueur was created by his older brother Arthur Tarling, head bartender at London's Café Royal.

I've read claims that in 1912, Bols launched a blue curaçao called Crème de Ciel (literally 'cream of sky') after the success of the 1907 Miss Hook of Holland musical, the plot of which revolves around a secret recipe for a "Cream of the Sky" liqueur. Tellingly, the recipe for the Blue Skies cocktail in the Café Royal book features both "Blue Curaçao (Garnier)" and "Crème of the Sky (Bols)" leading me to question if Crème de Ciel was indeed a blue curaçao. After all, why use two blue curaçaos in the same recipe?

Another 1937 book, the third edition of The Victoria Wine Company's Here is Something That Will Interest You includes two blue curaçao cocktails and it could be that the earlier editions (which I don't have access to) contain the first use of blue curaçao in a cocktail recipe. (Hopefully, someone will answer this and the question over Crème de Ciel in the comments box below.)

The Darlington cocktail above come from the Café Royal Cocktail Book, one of two blue curaçao cocktails the book, the other being the Blue Lady.