Name: Lemon Drop Crusta
Total time: 8 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Vodka; 15 ml Limoncello liqueur; 20 ml Lemon juice; 7.5 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 2 dash Lemon bitters

Lemon Drop Crusta
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Serve in a Flute glass

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Ketel One Vodka
¹⁄₂ oz	Pallini Limoncello liqueur
²⁄₃ oz	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₄ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
2 dash	Fee Brothers Lemon Bitters

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill a FLUTE GLASS.
Select a small wine or flute glass with a rim diameter that will snugly accommodate a small lemon tightly enough to act as a watertight extension to the glass. Cut off both ends of the fruit and carefully remove the pulp to leave a barrel-shaped shell of skin. Place in the top of the glass. Wet the edge of the glass and exposed fruit shell with sugar syrup and dip in caster sugar to frost the edge of both peel and glass. Leave for a couple of hours to form a hard crust.

How to make:

SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass with pre-crusted rim.

Garnish:

Due to attractive pre-crusted rim, no further garnish is required.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Cocktail of the day:

29th August 2025 is National Lemon Juice Day

Review:

Zesty lemon with a sugar-crusted rim. This tasty drink's name aptly describes it.

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Variant:

Lemon Drop Martini
Lemon Drop Shot

History:

This riff on a vodka sour, inspired by the hard candy sweet, may have earlier origins but rose from the popularity of the Lemon Drop Martini during the Crusta (although it was never a true Martini). This version by yours truly.

More cocktails by Simon Difford

Nutrition:

One serving of Lemon Drop Crusta contains 133 calories

Alcohol content:

1.2 standard drinks
18.51% alc./vol. (18.51° proof)
16.3 grams of pure alcohol

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Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Charlie Forbes

29th August 2024 at 22:54

For those who might find a little more tartness preferable (such as She Who Must Be Obeyed), add another half ounce of lemon juice.

Lugless Booth

3rd September 2023 at 18:13

Eschewed the labor intensive garnish to make a fantastic drink for those who crave sweet. My wife loves it! Used Boston Bitters de Bittermens instead of bonafide lemon bitters. I also trimmed the syrup (brown sugared) a tad, since the limoncello is already dulcet.

Charlie Forbes

29th August 2024 at 22:55

Agreed re: garnish. You can get most of the way home w/ a long twist, carefully curled around a straw and then draped languidly across the rim of the glass.