Arancello: The Zesty Orange Liqueur That Makes For A Perfect Mimosa

You've heard of limoncello, the Southern Italian lemon liqueur commonly served as an after-dinner drink. Now get ready for...arancello, the liqueur made from — can you guess? — oranges. Like limoncello, it can be chilled and sipped straight, or added to cocktails for a boozy infusion of sweet, citrusy flavor.

Like lemons from Positano, Sicilian blood oranges are an important and well-loved agricultural product of Italy. They're best known for their distinctive, deep red flesh, but like limoncello, arancello is made from the fruit's peel, which is a standard orange color. There are a handful of companies commercially producing arancello, and you can often find 750 milliliter bottles being sold for $20 to $40, give or take. Sometimes sold as arancino, it's definitely not as common as its lemony counterpart, so you might have better luck online than at your local liquor store.

Of course, the other option is to get your arancello the old-fashioned way — by making it yourself. It's a pretty easy undertaking and only requires a handful of ingredients, and it'll make a nice addition to your bar cart or an excellent homemade gift for someone else.

Fruity Italian liqueurs like arancello are typically served as digestivi, after-dinner drinks traditionally thought to aid digestion. Because they're sweet and contain less alcohol by volume than straight spirits like vodka or whiskey, they're pleasant and easy to drink on their own, maybe poured over a little ice. But of course, that's only the beginning of ways to use arancello.

Next time you're hosting friends or family for brunch, elevate your mimosas by adding a healthy splash of arancello. It'll round out and deepen the taste of the orange juice, and give the daytime cocktail just a bit more kick — not to mention some Italian flair. Arancello would also make a great base for a spritz, another daytime-friendly, relatively low-alcohol refresher. Just add an ounce or so of the liqueur to a glass of prosecco and top off with bitters and a splash of soda water. It'll be as light as a more typical spritz made with amari or aperitivi like Aperol but with a brighter, sweeter flavor profile.

You very well may have received a bottle of homemade limoncello before, say, from a colleague at the office holiday party or your foodie, DIY-loving cousin. If you're interested in being the person with homemade booze to go around, good news — making fruit liqueurs is a super approachable project that's virtually impossible to mess up. And since the orange stuff is much less common than limoncello, your homemade arancello will have a bit of a fun novelty factor for your recipients.

All you need to do is soak orange peels (preferably from Sicilian blood oranges) in a neutral-flavored grain alcohol and let the mixture sit for about two weeks before straining and discarding the peels. Then, make a basic simple syrup by dissolving sugar in water and add it to the orange alcohol, and you have a delicious digestivo to serve on its own or use in cocktails. Nonna would be proud.