Nicola Pallini founded a successful trading business in Italy in the late 1800s. His descendants expanded into wine and spirits, eventually launching Pallini Limoncello in 2001. Micaela Pallini improved the quality by sourcing fresh Amalfi Coast lemons rather than cheaper frozen lemons. The Amalfi Coast and Sorrento regions have protected status for their lemons, which are used to make high quality limoncello according to traditional methods. Pallini uses organic sfusato amalfitano lemons grown in the unique terrain and climate of the Amalfi Coast to produce their premium limoncello.

1. Limoncello Confidential

2. The History
- Nicola Pallini, born in 1851, grew up poor.
- He worked from the age of 6, taught himself to read
and write, and by the age of 24 was a prominent,
wealthy trader in goods in Antrodoco, 70 miles from
Rome, where he built the largest building in town, a
four-storey shop, warehouse, factory, winery,
liqueurs shop and family home, that still stands.
The building also housed the local bank, which
Nicola owned. To this day, Nicola's safe is still
cemented into the wall of the building.

3. The History
- In 1922, Nicola's son Virgilio moved the wine &
spirits side of the business to Rome, and had a big
success with one of their first products, mistra, an
aniseed liqueur.
- The firm moved to it's present, much larger
premises on Via Tiburtina in 1962, and continued to
have success making alcoholic products, non-alcoholic
syrups and the worldwide hit with
Sambuca Romana.

4. The History
- Nicola's great-grandson Virgilio took the company
to greater heights in the 1970s, and Virgilio
launched Pallini Limoncello in 2001.
- Virgilio's daughter Micaela came on board in 2001
after completing a Phd in biochemistry.
- Her first big job was to improve the quality of Pallini
limoncello, which she did by moving from frozen
peels to fresh, choosing to pay as much as 12
times more for the best Amalfi lemon peel as
opposed to cheaper frozen peels from other lemon
types, and by adding back in lemon oils lost during
peeling and infusing, to ensure Pallini limoncello
displays the full flavour of Amalfi coast lemons.

5. The Definition
EU 110/2008: Min. 100g sugar/liter
Min. 15% alcohol (30º)
No nature-identical flavourings
P. G. I. for: Liquore di limone della
Costa d'Amalfi
P. G.I. for: Liquore di limone di
Sorrento
- P. GI = “protected geographical indication”,
meaning under EU law something has to come
from a specific region.
- The PGI is for the lemons – not the limoncello

6. The History: Citrus
- All citrus fruits descend from citrus medica, which
originated in southeast Asia and came to Europe
via the Silk Road to the Middle East (c. 30 BC) and
then via the Muslim annexation of the Iberian
peninsula, (711 – 1492) and the Crusades (c.
1100s-1400s) to Europe.
- “Citrus” comes from the Greek “kedros”, meaning
cedar pine cone. as a knobbly citrus medica (a/k/a
citron) does look like a pine cone.
- Citrus fruits delight all our tastes – high in both
sugar (sweet) and acid (sour) flavours, they can
also have bitter flavours, and are remarkably high
in umami; an orange contains 150% of the umami
of beef!
- Unusually for mammals, we can't make our own

7. The History: Citrus
- All existing citrus fruits are hybrids of the citron (l.,
citrus medica), and/or the mandarine (m., citrus
reticulata) and/or the pomelo (r., citrus grandis)
- Lemons (citrus x limon) came to the Amalfi coast
around 1000AD, and Amalfi lemons were already
famous and being sold outside Amalfi by the 1400s.

8. The Place: Italy
- Amalfi Coast is on the coastline on the Gulf of
Salerno, in the province of Salerno, in the region of
Campania, in Italy.

9. The Place: Amalfi Coast
- Amalfi, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was
the centre of a powerful, wealthy maritime republic
from the 800s to the 1200s, and the fame of it's
lemons spread across Europe.
- Sorrento, also famous for it's lemons, is “around
the corner”, on the Bay of Naples, with a similar –
but distinctive – climate, providing a different terroir
for the lemons grown there, which are a different
type of lemon than the Amalfi lemon.

11. The Guardians
- The Consorzio di Tutela Limone Costa d'Amalfi
IGP (Consortium for the Protection of the Amalfi
Coast Lemon) was founded in 2002, to protect and
promote the Amalfi lemon, sfusato amalfitano
Rules for PGI lemons:
- Traditional farming methods
- Chestnut wood trellises
- No more than 800 plants per hectare, yielding no
more than 25 tons.
- Not less than 100g, nor with juice less than 25%,
nor with acidity less than 3.5g/liter
Rules for PGI limoncello:
- Must be made and bottled in the area where the
lemons are grown (in this case Amalfi)
- Recipe must contain a minimum 250g lemons/liter
- Minimum 25% alcohol, 200-350g sugar/liter

12. The Lemon: sfusato amalfitano
;
- The Amalfi lemon used to make Pallini is a specific
type of lemon (citrus x limon) called femminiello
(because its ends look like nipples), that is also
known as sfusato amalfitano - literally, the “Amalfi
spindle”,as it is long and has two spindly ends.
- Sfusato amalfitano can reach 2lbs in weight and up
to 8 inches long. It's so sweet it can be eaten with
being peeled first, but of special interest is the peel,
rich in aromatic lemon oils.
- Sfusato takes 15-18 months to grow (Florida citrus
takes just 4). No fertilisers are used in this fully
organic process, and proof of this is that grass
grows under the lemon trees. Avoiding fertiliser
means lemons grow more slowly.

14. The Lemon
;
- The Amalfi coastline farms lemons (and other fruit
and vegetables) on steep, almost vertical terraces
carved out of the hills and mountains.
- The soil contains ballast soil from all around the
Mediterranean, Middle East and north Africa, from
when Amalfi was a maritime republic, creating a
unique “terroir” for growing lemons, together with
the large amount of sunshine the lemons receive
from being grown so high.

15. The Lemon
- The lemon terraces are netted, to prevent birds
feeding on them, and no synthetic fertilisers may be
used. Netting also prevents lemons banging into
each other when its windy.
- Lemons have to be harvested by hand, then
walked down – or up! - steep hills to the few roads
that twist around the terraced hills.

16. The Harvest
Photo courtesy of Camper English
- Sfusato grows so large and heavy that the lemon
trees are trained along chestnut pergolas, to
support their weight.

17. The Harvest
Photo courtesy of Camper English
- Lemons are harvested by hand as they ripen, then
walked down – or up! - steep hills to the few roads
that twist around the terraced hills.

20. Give or sell?
- It's very common, especially in Italy, to be offered a
free glass of limoncello after a meal; many bars and
restaurants make their own, and as such consider it
a cheap way to “buy” a customer a drink.
- Of course, this represents a missed opportunity to
sell the limoncello to them; it also encourages
consumers to view limoncello as something
generic, interchangeable, and almost certainly
cheap.
- Adding just $6 to each guest's bill by selling them a
glass of limoncello instead of giving it to them,
would result in significantly higher sales, better
cashflow – and higher tips.
- But to do that, it has to be good limoncello....

21. Make or Buy?
- You can make quite OK limoncello at home IF you
have access to 96% alcohol to infuse the lemon
peels into – but it will cost you time and money, and
the problem is stability.
- When exposed to the air, all liquids oxidise,
especially those containing alcohol, altering the
color and flavour significantly.
- Unstabilised home-made limoncello will also
change color when exposed to sunlight.
- Using 96% alcohol also speeds up infusion hugely,
taking just a few days, and increasing the chances
of over-extraction.

22. Run The Numbers...
Recipe
(courtesy Jeff Morgenthaler's “Bar Book”
USD$
15 lemons 5
1.5 liters 50% alcohol vodka 36
800g sugar 1
5 cups water 0
42
Per 750ml bottle: 21
Pallini Limoncello
Per 750ml bottle: 19.99
- This is a decent recipe from a highly respected
bartender and bar manager, Jeffrey Morgenthaler.
- And on the face of it, there isn't much to choose
between the two.

23. Run The Numbers...
Recipe
(courtesy Jeff Morgenthaler's “Bar Book”
USD$
15 lemons 5
1.5 liters 50% alcohol vodka 36
800g sugar 1
5 cups water 0
Total 42
Per 750ml bottle: 21
Wash, peel lemons, infuse 0.75hr
Make sugar syrup, add to liquid 0.125hr
Fine strain and bottle 0.125
Total 1 hour
Per 750ml bottle: 0.5 hour
Pallini Limoncello
Per 750ml bottle: 19.99
- But when you factor in staff cost, the price seems
far higher. How much do you pay staff per hour?
- This also raises questions of consistency – will staff
always make the limoncello in exactly the same
way?

24. Run The Numbers...
Recipe
(courtesy Jeff Morgenthaler's “Bar Book”
USD$
15 lemons 5
1.5 liters 50% alcohol vodka 36
800g sugar 1
5 cups water 0
Total 42
Per 750ml bottle: 21
Wash, peel lemons, infuse 0.75hr
Make sugar syrup, add to liquid 0.125hr
Fine strain and bottle 0.125hr
Total 1 hour
Per 750ml bottle: 0.5 hour
Wastage per 750ml bottle 20%
Pallini Limoncello
Per 750ml bottle: 19.99
- Unstable products lead to higher wastage.
Conservatively, 20% of home-made limoncello has
to be thrown away after a month or two, as its
flavour has degraded. 15% of the alcohol will also
be absorbed by the lemon peels, resulting in higher
wastage.
- Is it legal?
- Finally, home-made limoncello that has to be kept
in the freezer, wrapped in silver foil, has no eye
-appeal, no backbar presence – unlike Pallini
limoncello.
- If you can, execute a tasting between Pallini and a
limoncello made with Jeffrey's method. Each
sample should have been opened 2 weeks ago.

25. And Finally...
Family owned (since 1875!)
Organic, authentic sffusatto amallffiittano lemons
Artisanal production
Low in alcohol
Low in sugar
Stable, consistent, beautiful –– and delicious!