In Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy’s northeastern corner, lemon verbena does not grow wild and is not picked in meadows. It is a South American plant that spends the winter in a pot, sheltered from frost. That matters to the recipe more than it seems: it decides when you pick and how many leaves you actually have.
Here you will find the recipe with scalable amounts, the calculation of the ABV it really reaches, when to pick the leaves for the most aroma, and the version made with grappa instead of alcohol.
What lemon verbena is, and why in Friuli it lives in a pot
Lemon verbena is Aloysia citrodora (also known as Lippia citriodora), a shrub of the verbena family native to South America and brought to Europe by the Spanish in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Its Italian name, erba luisa, comes from Maria Luisa of Parma, queen of Spain, to whom the plant was dedicated. In Italian the same plant also goes by erba Luigia, cedrina, limoncina and verbena odorosa: synonyms, not different varieties.
Two points before you put your hands in the alcohol.
The first is identity. Lemon verbena should not be confused with common vervain, Verbena officinalis: same botanical family, different plant, no lemon scent. If the leaves rubbed between your fingers do not leave a clear citrus smell, that plant is not lemon verbena.
The second is climate. In the ground Aloysia citrodora tolerates only short, light frosts, down to about −5 °C (23 °F); where winters go below freezing it is grown in pots so it can be moved under cover in the cold months, and in winter it drops its leaves and grows them back in spring. On the Friuli plain, and even more in the valleys, that means a modest plant, often on a balcony or near the house, with a limited number of leaves. It is why traditional recipes count leaves instead of weighing them: you take what the plant gives.
That sets it apart from other Italian regional liqueurs. Génépy or mirto come from foraging, with all the rules and seasons that brings; lemon verbena comes from home growing. There are no harvesting limits to respect, there is a plant to keep alive until next summer.
One note of context, because the web often takes it for granted: lemon verbena liqueur is not among Friuli Venezia Giulia’s officially listed traditional food products. The regional list counts 179 products, 7 of them in the drinks, spirits and liqueurs category: pear brandy, grappa, most (a cider-like drink), a few syrups and apple juice. Lemon verbena is not there. It is a widespread family recipe, documented by the local press and handed down at home, and it is worth calling it what it is.
The lemon verbena liqueur recipe: amounts for 1 liter of alcohol
The most common version works on a liter of alcohol and makes a little over two and a half liters of finished liqueur.
| Ingredient | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh lemon verbena leaves | about 125 | stripped from the stems, without the woody stalk |
| 95% alcohol (190 proof) | 1 liter (33.8 fl oz) | food-grade alcohol |
| Water | 1 liter (33.8 fl oz) | for the syrup |
| Granulated sugar | 1 kg (about 5 cups) | |
| Lemon zest | 1 lemon | optional, yellow part only |
Counting leaves is the weak point of the traditional recipe: a leaf from a vigorous plant can weigh twice as much as one grown in a small pot. If you want to repeat the same result next year, do one thing: write down the weight of the leaves you used this time and start from that number, not from the count.
- Strip the leaves from the stems. If the plant is clean, do not wash them: washing takes away some of the essential oils on the surface and the water has to be dried off anyway. If they need a rinse, pat them dry and let them dry completely before they go into the alcohol.
- Steep for 15 days in an airtight jar, with the alcohol and the lemon zest if using. In the dark, at room temperature. Shake once or twice a day.
- Make the syrup: dissolve the kilo of sugar in the liter of warmed water, turn off the heat as soon as it is clear and let it cool completely.
- Strain the infusion through a fine strainer or cheesecloth, squeezing little: pressing brings the most herbal part with it.
- Combine the infusion with the cold syrup, bottle and let it rest at least two weeks before drinking.
The amounts scale in a straight line.
| 95% alcohol | Leaves | Water | Sugar | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 L | about 60 | 0.5 L | 500 g | about 1.3 L |
| 1 L | about 125 | 1 L | 1 kg | about 2.6 L |
| 2 L | about 250 | 2 L | 2 kg | about 5.3 L |
You need nothing specific for this recipe: an airtight jar, a strainer, a funnel and bottles.
When to pick the leaves for the most aroma
The leaves are most fragrant in high summer, and picking is advised from the second half of June on. Behind that traditional advice there is a measurable fact.
The essential oil of Aloysia citrodora is dominated by citral, that is geranial plus neral, and by limonene. In the available analyses geranial ranges from 26.8% to 38.3%, neral from 20.8% to 29.6% and limonene from 5.7% to 20.6%, with large variations by geographic origin, harvest time and drying. The useful point for anyone making the liqueur is the seasonal pattern: the citral isomers tend to drop from May to September, while limonene rises.
In practice: a June or July harvest gives the most recognizable lemon verbena profile, sweet and “ripe lemon”; a late summer harvest shifts the aroma toward the terpenic, more citrusy and sharp. Neither is wrong. If you want the liqueur that smells like the plant rubbed between your fingers, pick early.
In Friuli there is a second constraint, the cold: the leaves have to be taken before the plant drops them with the first cold spells. If you keep lemon verbena in a pot and bring it in for the winter, the useful season effectively ends when autumn begins.
About dried leaves: you can use them, but the liqueur changes. Drying loses the most volatile part of the aroma, which is exactly why traditional recipes call for fresh leaves. If you work with dried leaves, increase the amount and taste during steeping.
How strong is lemon verbena liqueur?
The final ABV is calculated, not guessed. The pure alcohol in the recipe is the volume of alcohol times its strength; the final volume is the sum of alcohol, water and the space taken by the sugar, which once dissolved occupies about 0.63 ml per gram.
With the base recipe (1 L of 95% alcohol, 1 L of water, 1 kg of sugar) the math is: 950 ml of pure alcohol in a volume of 1000 + 1000 + 630 = 2630 ml, that is 36.1%.
| Version | Alcohol | Water | Sugar | ABV | Final sugar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional | 1 L at 95% | 1 L | 1 kg | 36.1% | 380 g/L |
| Less sweet | 1 L at 95% | 1.1 L | 600 g | 38.3% | 242 g/L |
| With grappa, dry | 1 L at 40% | 0 ml | 250 g | 34.6% | 216 g/L |
| With grappa, stretched | 1 L at 40% | 150 ml | 250 g | 30.6% | 191 g/L |
The “less sweet” version comes out stronger than the traditional one even though it starts from the same liter of alcohol. That is not a typo: taking out 400 grams of sugar also takes out 252 ml of volume, and adding 100 ml of water does not make up for it.
You can also run the math backwards, starting from the strength you want. With 1 liter of 95% alcohol and 800 grams of sugar: to reach 30% you need 1.66 liters of water, for 32% 1.47 is enough, and for 35% 1.21.
A rough idea of the calories, using 7 kcal per gram of alcohol and 4 per gram of sugar: a 30 ml (1 fl oz) glass of the traditional version brings about 60 kcal from alcohol and 46 from sugar, that is about 105 kcal.
Syrup first or steeping first? The two methods compared
The Friuli recipe published by the local press follows the reverse order from the one above: dissolve the sugar in boiling water and, while the syrup is still warm, add the leaves and the alcohol; let it rest two weeks, strain and bottle. One container, one step.
The two roads lead to different liqueurs.
| Syrup first (Friuli method) | Steeping first | |
|---|---|---|
| Alcohol strength during extraction | about 36% | 95% |
| Color | deeper green | lighter, yellow-green |
| Profile | more herbal | cleaner on the citrus |
| Containers | one | two steps |
| Control over the result | less | you taste before sweetening |
95% alcohol extracts the essential oils more forcefully and more selectively; a medium that is already diluted and sweetened works more slowly and brings out the green part too. If you are making the liqueur for the first time, separate steeping has a real advantage: at the end of the infusion you can taste the extract and decide how much syrup to add.
The same Friuli source gives two home variations worth knowing. The first halves the lemon verbena and adds the zest of two lemons, with a week of steeping in alcohol before the syrup. The second, spicier, adds cinnamon, cloves and rosemary to the lemon peel.
On one point the two schools agree: the syrup always goes in cold. Pouring hot syrup onto the alcohol evaporates part of the alcohol and with it the most volatile aromas, which are the reason you waited fifteen days.
Can you make it with grappa instead of alcohol?
Yes, and it is the version that makes this liqueur more Friulian than the plant does. In Friuli grappa is called sgnape, from the German Schnaps, and grappas flavored by infusion, with herbs, rue or small fruits, are a documented tavern tradition even before a distillery one. The region’s liqueur tradition was born there, as well as in the pharmacy and herbal studies of convents and monasteries.
With a 40% grappa three things change.
The amounts. There is no room to dilute: a liter of grappa with 250 grams of sugar and no water gives 34.6% and 216 g/L of sugar. Adding 150 ml of water brings it down to 30.6%. Better to stop above 30%, because long-term stability gets worse below it.
The time. Extraction at 40% is less efficient than at 95%, so steeping should be longer and above all tasted: you decide by flavor, not by calendar. Three or four weeks is a reasonable starting point, not a tested rule.
The starting aroma. Grappa is not a neutral solvent: it brings its own character, and in this recipe it competes directly with the lemon of the verbena. A young grappa not aged in wood is better.
Why “digestif” is a family name and not a property
Lemon verbena liqueur is almost always presented as a digestif. That is what families call it, and nobody needs to stop calling it that at the table. On a label, though, that word would carry a different weight.
In the European Union, Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 states in Article 4(3) that drinks containing more than 1.2% alcohol by volume may not bear health claims, nor nutrition claims other than those about reduced alcohol or energy content. It applies to every alcoholic drink sold in the EU, craft liqueurs included. In the United States, the TTB likewise restricts health-related statements on alcohol labels.
It is also why shops sell “amari” and “herbal liqueurs” and not “digestifs”: the category exists in everyday language, not on labels.
The mistakes that ruin lemon verbena liqueur
- Hot syrup on the alcohol. You lose alcohol and you lose the volatile aromas. Always wait until it is cold.
- Wet leaves. Leftover water dilutes the alcohol exactly where it needs to be concentrated and encourages clouding.
- Steeping in the light. Light breaks down chlorophyll and turns the color brown. Keep the jar in the dark or in a cupboard.
- Too many leaves or too long. Past three weeks the extract gains mostly herbal and bitter notes. With fresh leaves, fifteen days is enough.
- Squeezing the filter. Wringing the cheesecloth pushes through fine particles and the harshest part. Better to let it drip.
- Drinking it right away. The first two weeks in the bottle blend alcohol and syrup. Before that the alcohol tastes separate.
Frequently asked questions
How many leaves do you need for a liter of alcohol? About 125 fresh leaves per liter of 95% alcohol, according to the most common recipe. It is a rough count, because the weight of a single leaf varies a lot from plant to plant: if you want to repeat the result, write down the total weight you used the first time.
Can you use dried leaves? Yes, but the liqueur comes out less fresh: drying loses the most volatile part of the aroma, the one that gives the lemon note. Traditional recipes call for fresh leaves. With dried ones, increase the amount and taste during steeping.
Why has my liqueur turned brown? Almost always light. The chlorophyll extracted from the leaves breaks down quickly if the jar or bottle is exposed, and the green turns brown. The liqueur is still drinkable, but the color does not come back: keep it in the dark from the start.
How long does lemon verbena liqueur keep? At 36% and 380 g/L of sugar it is stable for a long time, as long as the bottle is well sealed and out of the light. What changes over time is not safety but aroma: the fresh side fades within about a year.
Can you make it without 95% alcohol? Yes, with grappa or vodka, with the caveats above: less room to dilute, longer steeping and a base aroma that is not neutral.
Before you pour
Lemon verbena is a plant to grow, not to forage: if you want to make this liqueur every year, you first have to get the plant alive through the winter. The rest, fifteen days, a cold syrup and two weeks of rest, is the easy part.
This liqueur contains alcohol. Drink in moderation, never before driving, and only if you are 21 or over.