Limoncello: Finamoré vs. Danny DeVito

Though it's only been a short time since my last review of limoncello, the arrival of summer plus the fact that my previous limoncello post is one of my most visited reviews means that it's time to review another limoncello since people are probably trying to figure out which limoncello to buy. Summer means limoncello!

Finamoré is a relative newcomer to the liqueur world, arriving commercially in Seattle in 2008. It's a local liqueur made good since it was developed by Seattle University grads who obviously were studying more than English literature during their spare time. Seattle University did a story about them somewhat humorously called "Alumni serve up a buffet of tasty and palatable foods and spirits." I suspect I wouldn't be invited back to a friend's house if I used the word palatable to describe dinner. Hopefully the writer was referring to some of the other alumni profiled in the article.

As a I mentioned in my previous limoncello post, Danny DeVito Limoncello is my gold standard of limoncello because of its perfect combination of natural color, amount of alcohol and flavor. So how does Finamoré stack up to Danny?  Pretty well actually. Finamoré is a high quality limoncello made in Italy, so it doesn't have any artificial color or preservatives. At 35%, it has a higher alcohol content than Danny DeVito (32%), which you can taste since it has a slightly hot finish. Finamoré definitely has a lot of lemon flavor, though it tends to be less sweet than Danny DeVito. Finamoré could benefit from an ice cube to help mellow out the alcohol and slight bitterness.

So overall, Finamoré isn't a bad choice if you can't get your hands on Danny DeVito Limoncello. Finamoré is widely available in Washington State, though it's only available in Washington, Oregon and California. As always, Danny DeVito Limoncello is available in Idaho and other fine states. If anyone is heading to Boise anytime soon, could you bring me back a bottle or two . . .? 

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.