When you want a break from the beach, the winding little streets of Positano are littered with Lemon shops selling anything from lemon candy to room perfumes and body products.
One of the most popular drinks in Italy, “Limoncello”, is the traditional liqueur distilled from the peel of lemons produced along the Amalfi Coast and in Sorrento. With an alcohol content of 31-32%, Italians are known to drink Limoncello after dinner as a digestive and usually served ice-cold in a small glass to be sipped on.
Although the lemon industry in the Amalfi area dates back to the 1500s, it was not until the early 1900s that the first evidence of Limoncello production was recorded. The Amalfi Lemon is ideal for liqueur production due to its superior perfume, acid to sugar balance, flavor and presence of essential oils. To ensure the best quality, the production is limited to 25 tons per hectare and the harvest is done by hand. The lemons are carefully selected, firstly during the harvest process and a second time before production begins.
The first thing that you will notice as you drive from Sorrento towards Positano, is how big the lemons are, equalling almost the size of a football. What also makes this fruit so unique is that it yields no less than 25% of its volume in juice and has the highest content of vitamin C of all other lemons.
So if you haven’t already had a glass of Limoncello at the end of your meal in Italy, do so!, reminding yourself you are drinking a liqueur made with some of the best lemons in the world while emersing yourself in a traditional Italian custom.
Article by Deborah Ambar
Other Articles about the Amalfi Coast:
Join FlorenceForFun in the Amalfi Coast
If you would like to go to the Amalfi Coast join FlorenceForFun for a weekend trip to the land of the Lemons. The tour takes in the beautiful Island of Capri, the Amalfi Coast town of Positano followed by stepping back in time at Pompeii and Vesuvius. All the information about our Amalfi Tours can be found on the FlorenceForFun website by searching in the Trip Finder for ‘Amalfi Coast’. www.florenceforfun.com
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