Ventura Limoncello Crafting Limoncello by Hand

Come to the heart of the lemon capital of the world – where some 80% of the lemons in the United States are grown – and you’ll find Ventura Limoncello.

Nestled in these California lemon groves, Ventura Limoncello founder and co-owner James Carling describes the flavorful history of his brand. “We’re the product of three generations of family recipes, and we work directly with local Ventura County growers to store our fruit. We don’t use packing house fruit. Our lemons are sorted and picked for our specifications by size and color.” Carling also processes his fruit by hand. “That means we wash the lemons, and we hand peel them. It’s very important to hand peel. The limoncello flavor comes from the lemon peel, not the juice, there shouldn’t be any juice in it. Machines can’t tell the difference between pith and peel, and hands can,” Carling asserts.

Along with the finest lemons, Carling crafts his limoncello using “a very high, one-hundred-ninety-proof neutral corn-spirit as our base alcohol. It’s a very clean, high-quality spirit that adds absolutely no flavor, just pure alcohol goodness, to our product.”

Ventura Limoncello offers three different styles of liqueur: the classic Originalle, which was introduced in 2008, the Limoncello Crema, and Ventura Orangecello, which adds the flavor of fresh blood oranges to Carling’s limoncello family. Released in May 2011, it received Double Gold Medal, “Best in Class” at the 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

In fact, all three of Carling’s limoncello styles are award winners. “The Limoncello Crema is a cream liqueur made with whole milk. The Orangecello features locally sourced and hand-peeled oranges,” Carling attests. “Blood oranges, unlike lemons, are only grown seasonally, not year-round, so we have to rely on one seasonal harvest for our oranges.”

Carling got started creating limoncello as a business after crafting it at home for about ten years. “I decided on a career change, and my wife and I discussed creating a family business.” Formerly in IT, Carling had to learn many things about his new business, including the fact that unlike wineries and breweries in the state, he couldn’t have a tasting room or offer direct consumer sales of his product. “We can’t have a tasting room by law, so we need to take our products out to the people at food and wine festivals, as well as to charity events, to educate consumers about our product and how to enjoy it.”

Carling learned how to make his limoncello from his mother-in-law. “She visited our home, and we had a lemon tree on the deck. She saw the lemons were ripe, and so we picked the lemons and watched her hand peel them meticulously with a paring knife. She made it from scratch. As an Italian-American, it was all new to me, but I was hooked from then on. And after that, we were never without it in the freezer.”

The company began with just Carling and his wife, Manuela Zaretti-Carling, with his mother-in-law often helping. They peel 1500-2000 lemons each week, but Carling says the job takes “only Monday and Tuesday. It’s not a forty-hour-a-week job just to peel lemons.”

To sweeten the lemon and alcohol mix, Carling uses granulated, pure cane sugar. “We tasted other sweeteners over the years, include agave and stevia, but it’s not the same.”

Comparing Ventura Limoncello to other brands, Carling notes that his liqueur is extremely mixable in cocktails. “Mixing ease is due to our all-natural flavors and pure base alcohol, which mixes well compared to the base alcohol in other products. We think of our limoncello as an alternative to Triple Sec or Grand Marnier.”

Tasting this smooth, sweet liqueur will have craft cocktail lovers thinking the same way.