Meloncello turns up as a tiny frosted glass at the end of a meal in southern Italy, the creamy, dessert-like cousin of limoncello, the bright lemon liqueur from the Amalfi Coast. At VayCay Couple we drink both, so this explains what each one is, how they differ, how to serve and store them, and how to make them at home. Written and checked in July 2026.
What is meloncello?
Meloncello, sold in Italy as crema di melone, is a sweet liqueur made by steeping ripe melon, usually cantaloupe, in neutral alcohol and then blending it with a sweetened cream or milk base. It pours a pale apricot colour, smells like chilled melon, and drinks like a light dessert. Because of the cream, it is gentler than limoncello, often somewhere around 16 to 25 percent alcohol depending on the maker. Southern Italy is where you will find it most.
What is the difference between limoncello and meloncello?
In short, limoncello is a clear, zesty lemon liqueur with no dairy, while meloncello is a creamy melon one. Limoncello is stronger and keeps longer, meloncello is softer, lower in alcohol and best drunk fresh. Both are served very cold in small glasses after dinner. Here is the side by side.
| Limoncello | Meloncello | |
| Main flavour | Lemon peel and zest oils | Ripe melon, usually cantaloupe |
| Texture | Clear and light | Creamy and velvety |
| Typical strength | About 25 to 32 percent | Lower, often 16 to 25 percent |
| How to serve | Straight from the freezer | Well chilled from the fridge |
| Keeps for | A year or more, flavour fades slowly | A few months once opened, refrigerate |
What is limoncello, and where does it come from?
Limoncello is a lemon liqueur made from the peel of unwaxed lemons, not the juice, which is why it tastes aromatic rather than sour. It comes from the coast around Sorrento, Amalfi and Capri, where the thick-skinned Sfusato lemon grows on terraced groves, and most accounts trace it to the early 1900s. This is the same corner of Italy that gave the world Neapolitan pizza. You can read more on its origins and method on Wikipedia.
What are crema di limoncello and limoncino?
Two names you will see on the shelf. Crema di limoncello is the creamy version, where some of the water and syrup is replaced with milk, giving a softer, lower-strength drink much like meloncello. Limoncino is simply the name used in parts of northern Italy for the same lemon liqueur, though it sometimes marks a lighter recipe. None of them are hard to tell apart once you know that crema means cream is involved.
How do you serve them like an Italian?
Cold, small, and after food. Keep limoncello in the freezer and pour it into little cordial or ceramic glasses as a digestivo, or lengthen it over ice with soda for an aperitivo. Meloncello is happier in the fridge with a short spell in the freezer just before serving, since the cream can seize if frozen solid. Both go well with lemon tart, ricotta cake, almond biscuits or a scoop of vanilla gelato. That slow end to a meal is part of eating like a local in Italy.
How do you make limoncello at home?
It takes about ten minutes of work and a week of waiting.
- Peel the yellow zest from unwaxed lemons, leaving the bitter white pith behind.
- Steep the zest in neutral alcohol for five to ten days, until the spirit turns deep yellow.
- Stir in cooled sugar syrup to taste, then let it rest so the flavours settle.
- Bottle it and keep it in the freezer. A good batch turns cloudy when cold, which is the lemon oil showing.
How do you make meloncello at home?
Same idea, with melon and cream instead of lemon.
- Blend or infuse ripe melon flesh in neutral alcohol for a few days.
- Warm a cream or milk base with sugar until it dissolves, then cool it fully.
- Combine the melon spirit with the cream base and stir well.
- Bottle, chill thoroughly, and drink it within a few months. The dairy means it will not last like limoncello.
How long do they keep?
Sealed limoncello is good for a year or more, and an opened bottle is best within six to twelve months, with the freezer helping to hold the aroma. Anything creamy, meloncello and crema di limoncello, should be refrigerated once opened and finished within a couple of months. If the smell turns dull, the drink separates and will not stir back together, or it tastes harsh, it is past its best.
Easy cocktails to try
Both liqueurs do more than sit in a shot glass. Three worth trying.
- A limoncello spritz is 45 ml limoncello, 90 ml Prosecco and a splash of soda over ice, with a lemon slice.
- A meloncello spritz swaps in 60 ml meloncello, 90 ml Prosecco, a little soda and a slice of fresh melon.
- For an affogato al meloncello, pour 30 to 45 ml over a scoop of vanilla gelato and eat it with a spoon.
Where can you buy them in the UK?
Limoncello is easy to find. Pallini, Luxardo and Villa Massa are all sold widely and travel well as gifts, and Bottega does a lighter Limoncino for spritzes. Meloncello is harder to track down outside Italy, so pick up a bottle while you are there, along with the other finds worth a spot in an Italian supermarket.
Trying them at the source
Both drinks taste better where they are made, in a shaded piazza with the bottle straight from the freezer. If that is the trip you are planning, plenty of the most romantic towns in Italy sit within reach of the lemon coast. Until then, a cold glass at home does the job nicely.
FAQs
Ripe melon, usually cantaloupe, steeped in neutral alcohol and blended with a sweetened cream or milk base. That cream is what makes it soft and pale, and it is why meloncello is lower in alcohol and shorter-lived than limoncello.
Yes. Meloncello is commonly a cream-based melon liqueur and is often labelled crema di melone in Italy. Both names point to the same soft, dessert-style drink served very cold.
Meloncello is usually the weaker of the two, often around 16 to 25 percent, because of the cream. Limoncello generally sits at 25 to 32 percent. Both are still spirits, so the small glass is deliberate.
Straight from the freezer, in a small cordial or ceramic glass, as a digestivo after dinner. In warm weather it is also poured long over ice with soda as an aperitivo.
The sugar and alcohol preserve it, but the fresh lemon aroma fades. Use an opened bottle within six to twelve months. Creamy versions like meloncello last only a couple of months and need the fridge.
Not really, because the flavour depends on alcohol pulling the oils from the peel. For a soft drink version, simmer lemon zest with sugar and water into a syrup and use it in mocktails.
