Pineapples, Liqueur, and Pineapple Liqueur

The Azores are a very self-reliant region.  The biggest industry here that supports its economy is dairy farming.  Tourism is only a more recent industry that is having an impact on the islands.  Two other industries I would not have immediately thought of when talking about the Azores are pineapples and liqueur.

After visiting Fire Lake, we stopped in the town of Ribeira Grande and visited the Mulher de Capote liqueur factory.  This company manufactures a very sweet liqueur in a variety of flavors.  As our guide Sandy explained, the Portuguese love their sweets.  They grow a lot of sugar beets on the island and use the sugar to make their liqueurs.  Sandy was very proud to talk about the numerous gold medals these liqueurs have won in competition.  The most well known liqueur of the Azores is the passion fruit liqueur -- this is the only place that makes it.

Liqueur is aged in oak barrels much like wine

There are about 20 varieties made here including such flavors as milk and caramel.  You can either drink the liqueur straight or add it to brandy or schnapps.  The best part of the tour was of course the tasting room where you could sample the various flavors for free.

Our last stop of the day was actually not a part of the tour, but Sandy was able to take us to a pineapple plantation.  Pineapples were brought to the island in the early 19th century as more of a decorative plant.  The first large-scale plantations were started around 1860.  The Azores are not tropical, like Hawaii or other places that grow pineapples, so you wouldn't expect to grow pineapples here.  In fact, you really can't -- unless it's in a greenhouse.  The island of Sao Miguel is the only place in the world where pineapples are grown in greenhouses which distinguishes an Azorean pineapple from all the rest.

The greenhouses are covered with an opaque paint which helps the pineapple plant to not "burn" with too much sun.  The most fascinating aspect of how they grow pineapples here is that they fill the entire greenhouse with smoke which forces all of the pineapple plants to flower at the same time.  This smoking operation, called "fumo," lasts about eight days, alternating between filling the greenhouses with smoke and then ventilating -- repeating this process several times.

The Azorean pineapple is exported around the world and apparently is like no other.  They do love their pineapple here -- we've had it fresh every morning at breakfast.  And if you're not eating it fresh, you can simply drink some pineapple liqueur -- made of course from Azorean pineapple.