Limoncello - Black Heron vs. Danny DeVito

Limoncello (or lemon liqueur) is the alcoholic version of the nectar of the gods. Typically made of only 4 ingredients - lemons, a base alcohol, sugar and water - it is Italian sunshine captured in a bottle. A bit melodramatic you say? Afraid to keep reading in case I start reciting bad poetry about the raptures of limoncello? I'll skip the poetry, but it truly is a marvelous liqueur, meant to be sipped cold (from the freezer) on the deck on a warm summer day.

Despite only having so few ingredients, limoncellos vary widely in how they taste and their quality. My gold standard is Danny DeVito's Limoncello. Produced in Sorrento, Italy, it has the perfect balance of sweetness versus tartness, the right percentage of alcohol, and it's all natural with no artificial ingredients or colors. It was unfortunately only available in Washington for a few years, so you'll have to special order it to get it.

Now there's a limoncello made in Washington by Black Heron Spirits located in West Richland. They call it Lemoncello Lemon Liquer [sic], which made me wonder if they were worried that consumers wouldn't know that limoncello is made from lemons and if they forgot to do a spell check. I was still intrigued enough to buy a bottle.

The first thing I noticed is that this lemon liqueur is artificially colored, which is too bad since limoncello should be a naturally pale golden color from the lemons rather than the color of a fluorescent yellow highlighter from FD&C yellow #5. The next problem is that this lemon liqueur, at 74 proof, has the highest alcohol percentage of any limoncello I've seen. This makes it less of a sipper than traditional limoncellos.

But the real issue is that Black Heron's Lemoncello doesn't really taste much of lemons. It tastes a bit like a flavored, slightly sweetened vodka, with some vague herbal notes which are hard to place. If you concentrate, you may be able to find some citrus notes in the finish and nose.

So I'll continue to sip from my rapidly diminishing stock of Danny DeVito's Limoncello and try Black Heron's in some limoncello cocktails to see if works better that way.

If you find yourself with a limoncello that isn't a great sipper, here's a good cocktail recipe from Food & Wine Cocktails 2005.

Pink Panther
1 oz limoncello
1 oz lemon vodka

1/2 oz fresh red grapefruit juice

1/2 oz cranberry juice.

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a lemon twist if desired.

And for you really adventurous types, you can make limoncello yourself using the Fine Cooking magazine's recipe.  I've tried it a few times, and while it tends to be quite alcoholic, it's still very good.

The Black Heron Lemoncello is available in a number of western Washington stores, and Danny DeVito's Limoncello is available in Idaho and many other fine states.