Homemade Limoncello ready to drink in 24 hours

Limoncello is delicious. Whether you use it in cocktails, cook with it, drizzle it over sorbet or sip it chilled, the sweet-tart lemony liqueur is simply delightful.

A bottle at the liquor store will run $20 to $ 35. Making your own costs even more: Traditional homemade limoncello recipes, like our favorite from The New York Times (arkansasonline.com/215limoncello/) take weeks to make and can cost you $45 or more depending on your preferred vodka.

But there’s another way. This recipe from Tanji (aka @mixmastermaitai on Instagram), mixologist for Kauai Rum Safaris (a farmto-glass cocktail experience) at Kilohana Plantation on the island of Kauai, Hawaii — a must-do if you ever visit Kauai — ditches the pure grain alcohol and vodka for white rum and is ready to drink in just 24 hours.

Instead of slowly infusing PGA and vodka with lemon zest over the course of a couple of weeks, Tanji reaches for a blender. The alcohol and lemon zest are blitzed in a blender, combined with water and sugar and then refrigerated for 24 hours, before straining and enjoying.

I recently gave the recipe a try, scaled down to make a third of the original, and was pleasantly surprised by the results. A sideby-side tasting of the quick and dirty rum version and a bottle of Caravella proved the two are comparable.

Although quite a bit sweeter than the Caravella, the 24-hour rum limoncello was also much smoother with little to no burn and the lemon flavor was just as vibrant.

And considering I made my batch with ingredients I already had on hand, it didn’t cost me a penny.

How to enjoy it is up to you, but I recommend trying it in citrusy rum-based drinks like mojitos and daiquiris, and of course, any cocktail that calls for limoncello or even lemon juice, simple syrup and vodka. If you’re a baker, try it in place of lemon juice and/or water in your next pound cake glaze.

24-Hour Limoncello

10 lemons, organic preferred (see note)

3 cups white rum (750-mL bottle)

3 cups (or less) granulated sugar

3 cups water

Using a vegetable peeler or a careful hand and a sharp paring knife, remove the zest (colored

portion only) from each lemon. Save the naked lemons for another use.

Combine the lemon zest and 2 cups of the rum in a blender or food processor and blitz until smooth.

In a large lidded pitcher or other container, combine the remaining rum, sugar and water; mix well, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the pureed rum-lemon zest mixture and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate 24 hours, shaking or stirring occasionally, such as when you open the fridge for something else.

Strain mixture through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth into a clean bottle or jar.

Discard solids. Enjoy in cocktails, on its own or in cooking. If you find it too sweet, add a little more rum.

Note: For my one-third batch, I used the zest of four lemons and 1 cup each rum, sugar and water.

Limoncello is traditionally served straight from the freezer as an after-dinner drink, but it’s excellent in cocktails, too. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Kelly Brant)