Staibano Limoncello / 70cl

Product Information

On your own or with a group, you can visit some of the lemon groves where the ovale di Sorrento and the sfusato amalfitano are cultivated. Larger, more industrial-scale producers of limoncello are scattered across the region. These producers employ many people and use specialized machinery to peel the lemons, concoct the recipe, and bottle, cork, and label their products. The assembly-line production process is fun to observe. In the Own Label heat, a Gold was awarded to Aldi’s “complex” Gingerbread Gin Liqueur, which was “not too sweet, a bit zesty”. A Silver was also given to Aldi’s Bellucci Amaretto Liqueur. Both types of lemons are regulated by a local limoncello consortium. Officials inspect the cultivation, harvesting, production, and labeling of both types of lemons, seeking to protect and promote these local products and their makers. This is a privately owned citrus grove near the train station where you can sample the products and buy. The park-like grounds are peaceful and inviting, shaded with lemon-studded arbors and linked together with meandering paths. In addition to limoncello, you can sample a variety of lemon products as well as liqueurs made with fennel, oranges, mandarins, basil, and other creative combinations. In 1988, a businessman from Capri named Massimo Canale registered the first trademark with the word “limoncello,” using a recipe handed down from his great-great-grandmother and commercializing the drink outside of the region. It was an idea—and a product—that would prove wildly successful, as limoncello has transcended not only the region but all of Italy to be considered an international and world-class tradition. Different Lemons, Different Attributes

A liqueur is a hard thing to get right. It can be too sweet and cloying and there’s a risk its flavour is under or overwhelming. But this year our annual competition showed that brands are focusing on balance and complexity. This had body to it,” said Manchester. “It had an extra layer of flavour, some depth to it, which gives a really nice balance.” Chairing the second panel was Ben Lindsay, director of Garnish Communications, who was joined by Dmitry Mishin, general manager at Honest Burgers, and Josh Powell, head bartender, consultant and drinks writer.Beyond the convent walls, making lemon liqueur became a family affair. Residents of the Amalfi Coast probably have been sharing bottles of lemon liqueur among family and friends for centuries. Recipes began appearing in regional cookbooks around 1900. What we do know for positive is that, wherever the spirit got here from, it’s to this present day inextricably linked to all these three areas of Italy. Nevertheless, Amalfi is the present torchbearer, on account of its superior lemons. Sfusato lemons, also referred to as Sfusato Amalfitano, had been dropped at the Amalfi coast from the Center East some centuries in the past and they’re good for making limoncello.

Taste and quality can vary tremendously from producer to producer and from bottle to bottle. Bad limoncello tastes like window cleaner; good limoncello tastes pure and invigorating, like imbibing a ray of sunshine.We at Campania Wines are looking forward to a few weeks on the Amalfi Coast later this year, sipping an after dinner limoncello, and taking in the breath taking views of Positano and Ravello. For five generations, the Aceto family has been cultivating lemons in the hillsides near the old paper mills of Amalfi. Today the family runs a cooperative based on the cultivation of the sfusato amalfitano lemon and produces a wonderful artisanal limoncello marketed under the brand La Valle dei Mulini.

For a super-refreshing long drink, dilute it with acqua frizzante and you could add more lemon juice for extra zing. Next, the peels are soaked in pure, high-quality alcohol that remains unaltered in the freezer. Different producers use different neutral spirits derived from grain, grapes, sugar beets or sugar cane—even wine or vodka. These spirits have as high as ninety-five percent alcohol content and are ideal as a solvent to extract the oils—and therefore the flavor—from the lemon rinds. For at least forty days, the lemon rinds marinate in the alcohol in a dark place. The longer they steep, the richer the color and the more intensely lemony the taste.This liquorificio situated in the picturesque village of Ravello produces homemade limoncello using the sfusato amalfitano lemons. They also make a variety of digestivi made with fennel, coffee, melons, strawberries, and other novel ingredients. As an after-dinner digestivo, Staibano Limoncello is traditionally served chilled, in an ice-cold shot glass. The famous tart-sweet liqueur known as limoncello requires only four ingredients: lemon peels, grain alcohol, sugar, and water. However, like many of Italy’s most important culinary traditions, the simplicity of the recipe can be deceiving. The final flight of the day was sampled by Lindsay’s team – Irish Cream. Two Silvers concluded the day’s tastings: one for Aldi’s Ballycastle Irish Country Cream, with its “great viscosity” and “ice cream cone notes”; and the second for Aldi’s Specially Selected Irish Cream Liqueur, with tastes of “chocolate and hazelnut”.