A Lemon and a Cello Walk into a Bar
This time of year, our lemon trees are weighted with fruit all ripe at once, so rich with yellow they look like their foliage hopes to camouflage a school bus. Fortunately, it’s not much of a chore deciding what to do with all that deliciousness. I’m here to suggest limoncello, that sticky Italian liqueur. I like the idea of messing with two old sayings at once: If life gives you lemons, lemonade is dandy, but limoncello is quicker.
Note there are as many limoncello recipes as there are people who buy some and pretend that they made it themselves (locally, Ventura Spirits crafts a delicious one). There are arguments over which kind of lemon to use, but as usual, I’m fond of Meyers, as they hit a lovely sweet-tart spot on my taste buds.
There are arguments over whether one should use vodka as the infusing spirit or Everclear—pretty much “raw” grain alcohol (it warns you how flammable it is right on the label). You can get 151 proof Everclear at BevMo! and other stores. I’d argue the higher the ABV of your infusing alcohol, the more lemon you will extract, so go for it. (Note: I did make four variations to test my taste beliefs: Meyer/vodka, Meyer/Everclear, Eureka/vodka, Eureka/Everclear. All were tasty, so there’s no loser option.)
The recipe for making the limoncello is quite detailed, so I’ll just point you down to the article’s end for that. Do note it does take time—you want to let the lemony goodness infuse into the alcohol, and then age does not wither this high alcohol product. Simply put, you can’t make this cocktail minutes after you started the limoncello. (Which is why many people just buy some, at least to tide themselves over.)
Limoncello, of course, is a fine digestif all on its own and works in spritzers and all sorts of mixed drinks (consider a margarita variation with limoncello in for the lime juice, say). But I hoped to come up with something particularly apropos for Santa Barbara “winter,” when you need a bit of warmth, but in a town like ours elegance is also always in season. The drink also features a Los Angeles product, Greenbar Distillery Grand Hops Amaro. Whoever decided that the bitter of hops deserved to star in an amaro deserves many kudos.
The Limo Ryed Cocktail offers pucker first, what with the double dose of lemon. But the limoncello, despite its alcoholic kick, is quite tempered by the sweet of the simple syrup you mix into it, so it’s the fresh juice that gives the most citric acid zing. Add it all up, and you get a rich golden taste. The mid-palate of the drink is all rye whiskey, a breadiness, some toast, some oak, some grassiness. Then the finish sings like solving a complicated math problem: more of that wide range of citrus notes, the twist of the Hops Amaro with some pine and grapefruit, but just enough sweet to leave you licking your lips. For a simple concoction, it piles on the delicious contradictions.
Limo Ryed
Ingredients
- 4 ounces rye whiskey
- 2 ounces limoncello
- 1 ounce Greenbar Hops Amaro
- 1 ounce Meyer lemon juice, fresh
- 4 dashes of a spicy bitters, Bitters Lab Habanero Lime recommended
- 2 Lemon wheels, cut as narrowly as you can and still have them hold their circular shape
LIMONCELLO
- 750 ml bottle Everclear, or the highest alcohol % vodka you can buy
- 10 ish lemons, Meyer preferred
- 3 cups white sugar, granulated
- 3 cups water
Instructions
- Add the first 4 ingredients into a cocktail shaker full of ice. Shake well. Drain into 2 coupes. Garnish each glass with a lemon wheel.
FOR THE LIMONCELLO
- I’d prefer to be more accurate with how many lemons, but it depends upon the size of your fruit—one of our trees likes to grow monsters, so we can get by with 8 lemons for a recipe like this. Consider 10 as your goal if your lemons are about 1½ inches in diameter.
- Here’s the actual labor for this project: Scrub your lemons. Peel all the lemons—gently and carefully, as you want as little pith as possible (the white stuff). A vegetable peeler tends to be a good tool for this work.
- Place the lemon zest in a large, clean jar. Pour the Everclear over the zest and give it a good stir. Seal the jar and give it a light shake. Store the jar in a dark spot at room temperature, for at least a couple of weeks. Once most of the color has leached out of the peels, you’re ready to go.
- To make a simple syrup, heat the water and sugar in a saucepan. Stir to dissolve all the sugar. Let it reach boiling, then lower it to a simmer. After 5 minutes, turn it off. Let cool to room temperature.
- Drain the peels from the infused liquor. Combine the infused liquor with the simple syrup. This remains stable at room temperature, but tastier stored in the freezer, and with all that alcohol, it won’t freeze.
