If you've ever had the chance to go to Italy, or eaten at a traditional Italian restaurant in the United States, you may be familiar with the sweet drink known as limoncello. Limoncello is an Italian liqueur made from soaking lemon peels in alcohol and is most frequently served after meals as a digestive. Limoncello made in Italy uses a special type of lemon that helped make the beverage the staple it is today.

The lemon peels from lemons harvested in the south of Italy, around Campania, and the liqueur is most famously made in Sorrento. These oval-shaped lemons were unusually sweet and fragrant, and able to hold their own against the harsh alcohols used to create limoncello.