Limone Costa d'Amalfi

Appearance & taste

The lemon is elongated and elliptical and has a pronounced tip. The medium-thick peel is lemon yellow when ripe, rich in essential oils and strongly fragrant. Each fruit weighs at least 100 g. The juice is straw-yellow and plentiful: the juice yield is at least 25 % and the acidity at least 3.5 g per 100 ml. The fruits have few seeds.

According to the specification, its aroma, scent and juice and acid content have made the lemon known worldwide.

Production

All steps from cultivation to harvest take place on the Amalfi Coast. The lemons are sold in rigid containers, preferably made of plant material or cardboard, from a single lemon up to a maximum of 15 kg. The label gives the PGI, the producer, the contents and the year of production. The logo shows a lemon with leaves and, between two circles, the lettering “Limone Costa d’Amalfi”; inside are the outline of the coast from Maiori to Capo Conca and a maquis shrub.

Origin & history

The area comprises the whole municipality of Atrani and parts of Amalfi, Cetara, Conca dei Marini, Furore, Maiori, Minori, Positano, Praiano, Ravello, Scala, Tramonti and Vietri sul Mare. According to the specification, the “Sfusato Amalfitano” variety is grown almost only here, and its characteristics have developed over centuries from local conditions. The lemon tree became the coast’s most important crop: it is economically significant, shapes the landscape and protects the soil from drying out.

According to the specification, lemon growing on the Amalfi Coast has been widely documented since the beginning of the 11th century. The Republic of Amalfi, also drawing on the medical school of Salerno, ordered that lemons be carried on board ships against scurvy; this contributed to the spread of cultivation on the coast and in the hills behind it in the 12th to 14th centuries. According to a parchment found by the historian Camera in the 19th century, the cultivation of lemons and oranges goes back at least to 1112. Documents from the 17th century show extensive lemon groves along the coast, and in 1646 Ferrari described the “Limon amalphitanus”, a forerunner of today’s variety, for the first time. The lemon trade grew in the 18th century and above all in the second half of the 19th century, when traders from other areas such as Sorrento bought up almost the whole harvest. After that, new plantings declined, partly owing to a lack of land; terraces were used in an attempt to intensify cultivation.