At Limoncello we do our best to bring the best of Italian food, drink and attitude into the heart of Cambridge.  In great part this is due to our commitment to excellence when it comes to the refined pleasures of eating and drinking.  And we loudly proclaim that Italians simply do this better.

But every now and then we find a local gem.  Something so good that even we have to grudgingly admit that the English have done it better.  This time.  And this is certainly true of the locally distilled Cambridge Gin.

A Gin Explosion

It’s fair to say that the past couple of decades has seen an explosion of new gins coming onto the market.  Part of this is due to an increased level of wealth and interest in awesome beverages.  But also partly due to the relative ease of entering the gin market.

Most spirits are distilled from a specific organic source: brandy from grapes; rum from molasses; and vodka and whiskey from various grains.  Some of the flavour of that original organic source ends up in the final product and contributes to its quality.  So if you wanted to start making brandy, you need to start with a vineyard.

Dark spirits also have to be aged for a few years up to a few decades for their flavours to mature.  And then expertly blended into the final product.  Not a problem for gins.

But the starting point for gin is effectively pure ethanol.  A blank canvass onto which one can paint new flavours.  Far easier and quicker to get hold of.  And the infusion of those botanicals into gin is also swift and easy.  Which means that one could go from having a great idea for a new premium gin to your product on shelves in just a couple of years.  Compared to a couple of decades for a new premium whiskey or brandy.

Cambridge Gin

This is exactly what our friends down at the Cambridge Gin Distillery did.  Their take was to go foraging in the countryside around Cambridge for botanicals.  And then take whatever they found and make gin from it!  Local gin.  Literally.  Initially they made small seasonal batches, but the product has since been refined into their wonderful signature Cambridge Dry Gin: flavoured with basil, rosemary, angelica seed, rose petals and lemon verbena amongst others.

It makes a wicked Dry Martini.  And a great Gin & Tonic too.

But then they went beyond to create some truly unique and remarkable new gins.  Our favourite for sheer audacity has to be their Japanese Gin.  No, not made in Japan or by Japanese.  Instead they took the foraging for ingredients idea and turned it upon the sorts of herbs, spices and pastes found in Japanese cuisine.  Then used them to make gin!  Crazy idea, but award winningly successful!

However, our favourite for relevance is a simple choice.  Limoncello is widely known for our love of truffles and our offering of a wide array of truffle infused products.  So when they came up with a Truffle Gin…it was clearly a match made in heaven!

Come down to Limoncello sometime to see the full selection.

Here at Limoncello we like to think of ourselves as being a fusion of Italian and British culture.  Perfectly reasonable for an Italian deli located in the heart of Cambridge.  Mostly this takes the form of introducing magnificent Italian cuisine to British sensibilities, and then sitting back to enjoy the results of this unlikely combination.

But what happens when we have to deal with something that Britain is known for far better than Italy?  Like a long cold winter…

Italian Winter

Now to most of us, the Italy of our imagination is a place of warmth and sunshine, where concepts such as cold and rain simply do not exist.  And there is a fair amount of truth to this.  October in Rome is as pleasant as Cambridge in July.  On a good day – English weather being as unpredictable as it is.

But Italy south of the Po valley is a very hilly country.  And due to centuries of instability following the fall of the Roman Empire, there are a lot of old towns and cities in Italy which started out as secure hilltop forts.  Safe places the people could retreat to when armies and marauders came through the countryside.

And we all know that the tops of hills are much colder places to live than the floor of lush valleys.  So it is no wonder that, despite its overall Mediterranean climate, Italian towns and cities also had to deal with a lot of cold nights.  And so we should not be surprised that Italian cuisine adapted to reflect this.

Italian Winter Warmers

Good food is central to the concept of Italy.  Since long before the modern nation existed.  And so naturally this also includes a serious number of good, hearty dishes.  True winter warmers which warm the soul as much as they feed the body.  And which are particularly well suited for transplantation to a cold, wet and windy island off the edge of the known world.

For example there is the world renowned Aubergine Parmigiana.  Also know as Melanzane alla Parmigiana.  This is a classic oven baked dish consisting primarily of tomatoes, aubergine, mozzarella and breadcrumbs topped with a molten layer of parmesan which binds the other flavours together into a rich tapestry of tastiness.

Then there is the ubiquitous Lasagne.  A dish so well known that many Englishmen grew up with it as a staple.  Only much later in life discovering to their shock that it was an Italian dish all along.  For both of you out there who don’t know, this is a classic layered then baked Italian dish.  Consisting of layers of pasta sauce, flat lasagne pasta sheets, ricotta cheese and a meat sauce, finally topped with mozzarella and parmesan.

Here at Limoncello we change our menus with the seasons.  So drop in soon for a lovely winter warmer to brighten your day.

Roses and chocolates are both well known as romantic gifts.  But how would you go the extra mile and turn a romantic gift of chocolates into something even more special?  The Italians know how.  Because of course they do!  You give them Baci.  A kiss.

Baci

Baci is a truly iconic hazelnut chocolate treat made by the Perugina chocolate company.  The was another Italian venture founded in the years after WWI still around to this day.

Baci was created by a master chocolatier named Luisa Spagnoli.  And it was very nearly not Baci at all.  For this was a time when people tended to be a lot more literal about naming their creations.  Hence it’s original name was Cazzotto, or “punch” – since it looked a bit like a clenched fist.

Fortunately, one of the business partners stepped in and asked the obvious question: do we really want customers to walk into a sweet shop and say “per favore, un cazzotto?”  “Excuse me, can I have a punch?”  That sounds more like a euphemistic line from the Godfather than any innocent request.

So the name was changed to Baci.  Asking for a kiss certainly sounded a lot nicer than asking for a punch.  And while it may also lead to misunderstandings, they would be of a much more fun and flirtatious nature.  And no true Italian is going to ignore the opportunity for some gratuitous flirting!

An Exquisite Marketing Campaign

But Baci needed to be more than merely a great product with a great name to become a world conquering icon.  It also required a great marketing campaign.  And what it got was one of the most romantic marketing campaigns in history.

According to the official story, Luisa Spagnoli, Baci’s creator, and one of the company’s founders were “clandestine lovers”.  Presumeably meaning that one or both of them were married.  And that they would exchange love note within the individually wrapped Baci chocolates.  Which is definitely an interesting take on an office affair.

In other cultures you might expect an extra marital affair to be judged poorly, and deemed shameful.  Especially at the time.  But apparently not in Italy, where this clandestine love became the founding myth of Baci’s marketing campaign.

Not only was each Baci individually and exquisitely wrapped, but they also contained a love note like the ones the two lovers used to send each other.  That’s right – Italians actually managed to make a gift of chocolate even more romantic!  A difficult feat to pull off.  As Baci crossed the Atlantic following the Italian diaspora their love notes became bilingual.  And then later they were written in the local language of every country in which Baci is now sold.

So come into Limoncello some time and ask for un Baci.  Maybe you’ll leave with some chocolates.  Or maybe you’ll end up kissing a complete stranger!  Fun either way…