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I was given some decent Limoncello from Italy as a gift, 30% proof, brand name 'Villa Massa' from Sorrento.
I had a tiny sip of it and it is quite smooth, not too sharp and rather nice.
However I'm not sure if I should continue drink it neat or whether to mix it with tonic water, lemonade or something else altogether. I've read it is good as a cocktail ingredient, but I'm not too keen on the hassle of making a cocktail.
How should I take it ?
Drink it neat but chilled. the author of the Wikipedia entry seems to agrees with this statement too.
Limoncello is traditionally served chilled as an after-dinner digestiv
I would recommend it chilled in a chilled shot glass. It’s an aperitif/digestiv so you wouldn’t want to fill up on it...Separately you are quite right though, it is a nice cocktail ingredient and there are plenty of recipies on your search engine of choice!
This is how limoncello is served in the province of Salerno (where it mainly comes from):
Very cold shot glasses (they're not opaque, it's rime on them).
But I'd rather drink it in a cocktail, it's just tooo sweet for my taste.
The sweetness is a little much for me on its own but I find it very refreshing, So I tend to enjoy it as a frappe. Simply equal parts ice and Limoncello and run it through “crushed ice” setting in the blender for a mintute or two. Brilliant summer time drink!
I like it as a digestive, refreshed around a few °C above 0.
However, making some ice cubes in a freezer (nice to have a few of these special plastic bags in the freezer, each filled with a different liquor in fact), and after having crush a cube (e.g. with a mortar and pestle), adding that "slush" on top of an adequate cocktail (fruity one for instance) plus a leaf of mint, makes a great beverage.
Do not abuse those cubes… :o)
It is served cold, in a cold glass. And above all, take the time to enjoy it in your mouth, as the essential oils, trapped into tiny droplets of some hundreds nanometer size, will be released giving rise to the taste of Limoncello.
Some more info can be found in this article: Looking into Limoncello: The Structure of the Italian Liquor Revealed by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering
I either pour a little at the bottom of a glass, and then add prosecco... or as of late...
I pour a shot of it into a fruity beer, such as a cranberry/ raspberry sour. I call it an italian car bomb. It's surprisingly refreshing.
