Your intrepid liquor reporter decided to ring the New Year in with a bang this year, so I picked up one of those last-minute flight deals to a beach town in Costa Rica.
Luckily, New Year’s Eve in Costa Rica is similar to spring break in Fort Lauderdale, with bikini-clad beach bunnies frolicking in the sand as far as the eye can see.
Naturally, your humble narrator wasted no time in chatting up the closest beach bunny at the bar, who was more than ready for her 5th Guaro Daquiri.
This was your globetrotting liquor reporter’s first introduction to Guaro, also known as the indigenous liquor of Central America.
A clear spirit made from sugar cane, Guaro is in the same family as Rum. However, Guaro is a neutral spirit made from pure sugar cane without added flavourings, while Rum is made from sugar cane byproducts like molasses, and is aged in oak for added flavour.
So, while Guaro and Rum do share some heritage, the taste of Guaro is closer to that of a sweet Vodka. Luckily, Guaro tends to be bottled at 30% ABV, while most other spirits pack a heftier 40% alcohol content. This means you can drink more of them without regretting the next morning!
The history of Guaro is a long and sordid one, in some ways similar to the corn-based hillbilly moonshine made in the Appalachians.
Guaro started out as the drink of the poor folk, often made at home with pickings from the sugar cane harvest.
As you might imagine, the early days of Guaro earned the same reputation for rotgut as the days of bathtub gin from the American Prohibition. The amateur home distillers often lacked sensitive thermometers, so were unable to boil off and separate the toxic methanol from the fun-loving ethanol during the distillation process, so methanol poisonings from clandestine Guaro production was common.
The Costa Rican government cracked down on illicit production way back in 1851 by creating the Fabrica Nacional de Licores (that’s the National Liquor Factory for you Anglos).
The government now maintains a monopoloy on all Guaro production in the country, which has resulted in a safe a widely available booze supply for all. Guaro is available in every supermarket, corner store, and even gas station across the country.
While the hardcore party crowd will drink Guaro similar to the way fratboys do Tequila shooters, most imbibers prefer their Guaro served as a hiball or cocktail.
For the cute little beach bunny I was chatting up at the bar, I was ordering her preferred tipple, the Guaroberry Daquiri.
After watching the bartender a few times, the recipe seemed to be equal parts Guaro, Strawberry Margarita Mix, and soda water, all shaken over ice, and a delightful little umbrella speared through a watermelon slice in the glass.
While I try to avoid fruity umbrella drinks on general principles, the cute little beach bunny who I later found out had flown in from neighboring Panama, wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I ended up sampling her goodies. By goodies, of course, I mean the Guaro.
Being a manly sort of man, believing that my drinks should not come from a blender, I ordered my Guaro hiballs in the same style as a Mojito, with 1 part Guaro to 3 parts soda water over crushed mint leaves.
Luckily, Guaro is a versatile liquor, and can be mixed into a cocktail pretty much as a straight substitute for Vodka or Gin, so the recipes available are endless.
The Guaro Sour was particularly popular, and I even made one for the aforementioned cute little beach bunny when we bade farewell over breakfast the next morning, by adding two shots of Guaro into a glass packed with a handful of crushed lime wedges, then topped up with water.
Sadly, although Guaro is quite popular in California cocktail scene, it is not yet readily available in Canada, so your humble narrator made sure to carefully pack a few bottles into his suitcase on the way home to Alberta.
On a brighter note, the manufacturer is more than happy to ship directly to USA and Canadian addresses, so I might just be doing a little online shopping when these bottles run out!
