8 minute read
DRINKS: Limoncello
When life gives you lemons
Limoncello is slowly making more appearances behind the bar.
- WORDS Aristine Dobson
LIMONCELLO IS AN Italian digestif believed to have been invented over 100 years ago in Azzurra, located off the coast of Capri. However, surrounding islands have also staked claim to its inception. Regardless of its disputable origins, limoncello is the ideal liqueur to commence a meal in a cocktail application or end one in a shot glass.
Although it is simple to make and easy to drink, the tangy elixir has yet to really boom within Australia’s hospitality scene. But in the right setting, limoncello has serious potential to become a go-to item behind the bar.
Hospitality talks to Henry Hammersla of Unico Zelo and Kwame Sinclair from QT Sydney’s Gowings Bar & Grill about the makings of limoncello, cocktail options and why they think it’s set to boom in the bar world.
Henry Hammersla oversees the production of Unico Zelo’s limoncello product Unico Cello, which is made in South Australia. The former bartender says limoncello has significant heritage in Australia, with the drink moving from a housemade product to a more formal setting. “We have a wonderful history of backyard or hooch limoncello all throughout Australia because of the influx of Italian immigrants bringing Italian culture with them in the ’50s and ’60s,” says Hammersla. “I know an Italian grandpa in every major city who makes it in his backyard.”
While limoncello is widely celebrated in its country of origin, the drink has been largely overlooked within the local bar industry. “Limoncello has never really taken off like the rest of the drinks the Italians have produced, and I think it’s a lack of experience holding it back,” says Kwame Sinclair, bartender at Gowings Bar & Grill in QT Sydney. “There’s a lot of people who have never tried limoncello and don’t know much about it. They probably don’t know they would really enjoy it.”
Traditionally, limoncello is consumed chilled and straight up. It is a slow sipper designed to be drunk at a leisurely pace due to its typically high alcohol content. Unlike the original version, Unico Cello has a much lower ABV. “We’re sitting at 20 per cent, whereas most Amalfi Coast or Calabrian limoncellos sit around 25 plus, some even go up to 35,” says Hammersla. “But it means we get really good mouthfeel. Ours is creamy because we add a lot of sugar.”
While the product bears similarities to traditional limoncello, Unico Cello differs slightly in consistency. “When you’re sitting at 35 per cent ABV, it can appear slightly watery so you chill limoncello to become more viscous,” says Hammersla. “When you put ours in the freezer, it almost turns syrupy because we’ve got so much sugar in there.”
– Kwame Sinclair
Gowings makes limoncello in-house, which fits right in with the venue’s Italian steakhouse theme. While Gowings serves the digestif neat, Sinclair says its uses are multifaceted. “I think it’s a great way to start or end an evening,” explains the bartender. “We’ve been able to mix it up with some of our cocktails and the flavours you get are pretty awesome.”
When describing the flavour profile of limoncello, Sinclair describes Gowings’ version: “I would say it is really rich and flavoursome,” says the bartender. “It has a sharp sweetness at the beginning, but then it slowly mellows out. There’s a lot of veracity to the one we make here, and it has great texture with a rich, sharp sweetness.”
Limoncello is made with “fruit, booze, sugar and nothing else” as Hammersla succinctly puts it. Lemons are of course the star ingredient, with Unico Cello using a combination of Meyer and Eureka citrus sourced from South Australia.
“Montacute Valley is the oldest orchard in South Australia,” says Hammersla. “They’re absolute nuggets of lemons, but we don’t care what they look like, we care what they taste like. The orchard is now over 150 years old, which means the lemons they produce are incredibly complex and very high in mineral content.”
Aside from sugar or sugar syrup, alcohol is the other core component, which is vodka in most cases. Unico Zelo uses ethanol as a base distillate for limoncello. “All of our ethanol comes from Tarac,” says Hammersla. “They purchase grape musk and waste from most of the wineries in South Australia and re-distil it into different products [including] a neutral-base distillate that we buy at 96 per cent, which we water down.”
Choosing the right alcohol is essential for the maceration process. Ideally, a neutral, clean foundation is used as a vehicle for the lemon or fruit flavour. “I personally feel that if you start to get too experimental with the vodka, there’s no real value added because all the other flavours, textures and notes are so overpowering,” says Sinclair. “The vodka is just the alcohol component.”
The limoncello at Gowings uses Campari’s Skyy vodka, but substitutes can achieve the same result. “I’ve known recipes that call for gin and some suggest you should use overproof,” says Sinclair. “It’s not something I’ve experimented with too much, but I look forward to mixing it up at QT.”
Like all distilling processes, making limoncello is a science and comes down to the simple things such as peeling the lemons. “The touchpoints are mitigating the amount of bitterness we are looking for; we don’t want pith,” says Hammersla. “We are using the whole fruit, which is a bit different from a more traditional method, but we want a very fine peel because of the oil that floats in the first layer of the skin.”
Maceration is the next step, Unico Cello’s process takes 14 days or longer. “There’s a dependency there on the variability of the fruit, which means it can be longer or shorter,” says Hammersla. “We then pass the mixture through a small micron filter [which] doesn’t strip out any oils and then we bottle it.”
– Henry Hammersla
Fifteen lemons are used per 700ml of vodka for Gowings’ limoncello, with the maceration process conducted over multiple stages. “We let the lemon skins infuse in a dry setting for about two weeks
and then we add 50 per cent sugar syrup (1/3 of that is just straight water) and half a bottle of vodka and it sits for another two weeks,” says Sinclair.
At Gowings, time is a big factor when it comes to achieving a high-quality product. For Sinclair, the longer the lemon peels spend in the vodka, the better the flavour. “It is probably a one-month process in total [for our limoncello], you want to allow it time to breathe, aerate and macerate together.”
Although limoncello is often consumed as is, many overlook the fact its bright flavour profile is ideal for a raft of cocktails. “We wanted to create something you want to drink in a spritz [for example],” says Hammersla. “It should have ease of application and not get you absolutely hammered straightaway, which can sometimes happen with Italian limoncello when you’re using it in those applications as opposed to drinking it as a traditional digestif.”
There are myriad options for bartenders to try. “Something as simple as limoncello and soda is really refreshing,” says Hammersla. “You can pour 60ml and it’s one standard drink. You can also use it in place of Aperol and make a limoncello spritz with Prosecco and soda.”
Limoncello is the hero ingredient in one of Sinclair’s cocktails dubbed the Aurelius in Rome. The drink calls for 40ml limoncello, 20ml raspberry gin, 10ml raspberry syrup, 30ml lemon juice and 20ml egg white. “It’s shaken with ice and then double strained into a hybrid between a coupet and a wine glass,” says Sinclair. “In this particular drink, the limoncello enhances and complements everything else that’s going into it. It’s lemon on top of lemon with freeze-dried raspberries [which are] typically more sour than they are sweet. The raspberry gin and basil leaf round everything else out.”
The consensus among bartenders and producers is that limoncello is highly underrated. “I think it’s a bit of a lost artform, particularly in Sydney, and is definitely underappreciated,” says Sinclair. “It’s a little bit on the fringes and is typically served in an Italian eatery or perhaps among friends at home. There’s not a lot of commercial push behind it, whereas I feel there should be more.” So what are you waiting for?
-Limoncello is popular along the Amalfi Coast
-Unico Zelo makes a mandarin version of limoncello: Unico Mando
-Limoncello is believed to have been invented by Maria Antonia Farace in Azzurra
-The Aurelius in Rome cocktail uses freeze-dried raspberries
