Limoncello roundup - Averna, Pallini and more

The sunny skies outside tell me it's still limoncello drinking weather, so I thought I'd do one more post about limoncello to help you buy the right bottle. Since Danny DeVito's (the best limoncello in my opinion) isn't available in Washington State, I thought it worth a quick evaluation of the rest.

First, one more tasting review. I recently purchased a bottle of the Averna Limoni di Sicilia, thinking that since Averna is a decent label, they'd make good limoncello. I was sadly mistaken. It smells like Crystal Lemonade Light and has a strange citrus taste that doesn't have any of the snap of good limoncello.

So with that final taste test out the way, my list of limoncellos generally available in Washington state are, in order of quality, as follows:

1. Finamoré (see my previous review)
2. Pallini  - while artificially colored, this is still a nice, medium-bodied limoncello with low alcohol (26%). Imbibe magazine recently reviewed a number of limoncellos, and gave Pallini 3 1/2 stars (out of 5), describing it as a "well-balance limoncello that fares well as a digestif or in cocktails." The Imbibe limoncello reviews are unfortunately not online, otherwise I'd link to them.
3. Gioia Luisa Lemoncello and Caravella - Neither are particularly exciting. Imbibe reviews Caravella as needing more depth and balance and gives it only 2 1/2 stars. The Gioia is probably a better bet.
4. Black Heron (see my previous review - it's not worth getting)

There are a few other bottles of limoncello available at miscellaneous stores which may be of better quality. So for instance, the Luxardo and Russo limoncello are both quite good, but are only available at 4 or 5 stores. I particularly liked the Russo since it's not artificially colored and has a nice balance of sweet and tart flavors.

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 . . .?