New Hampshire seems an improbable place to find good limoncello, but Phil Mastroianni and his family have proved that the Granite state actually is a great place to make this storied Italian liqueur.
“New Hampshire is a very unlikely place to find a limoncello or citrus company, and I love to joke about it,” says Phil, who with his brother Nick, founded Fabrizia Spirits 13 years ago, out of their parents’ garage. “It’s been a long journey.”
The journey started back in January of 2008, when Phil served their Uncle Joe some limoncello Phil had made from scratch. “He looked up at me, and he said ‘You know, Phil, this is the best limoncello I’ve ever had, and this is what you should be doing,’” Phil says.
Immediately, Phil told him no, but he kept tossing and turning that night, and by the morning, he had decided to follow his uncle’s advice. “I couldn’t sleep, and as an accountant, I was trying to figure out what it might cost to produce it,” Phil says. “I cold’t find a reason to not do it so that’s how we got started.”
In September of that same year, the two brothers bought about $600 worth of lemons, peeled them in their parents’ garage and set about making the best limoncello they could. “We peeled lemons for two days, and that’s how we got started.”
That first batch took six months to make, and they made 700 bottles. It took them four months to sell their original batch of bottles, which retail for $17.99-$19.99. Today, their company sells about 200,000 bottles annually of their spirits, and their limoncello is now made with lemons imported from Sicily. Their spirits are now sold in 18 states, mostly on the East Coast from Maine to Florida, but also Nevada and Michigan. They have 25 employees, and within the next year, their distribution will grow to California, Illinois and Arizona.
Fabrizia not only makes its original limoncello, it also makes a blood orange liqueur and a creamy … [+]
While limoncello remains their signature spirit, they also make a blood orange liqueur, a pistachio cream liqueur, a limoncello cream liqueur, as well as an entire line of canned cocktails, baked goods and more.
Their company’s evolution comes from “listening to their customers,” as well as looking to reduce waste. “By 2015, our business had grown so much that it was my full-time job, and we were throwing away something like 150,000 lemons after we zested them,” Phil says. “So, our sister Jenna would make an Italian take on a margarita, with our limoncello, fresh lemonade and tequila. Everyone loved them, and I had a light bulb go off in my mind.”
Fabrizia makes a line of three different canned cocktails.
So, the “Jenna-ritas” became Fabrizia’s Italian margaritas. They also make a line of vodka sodas – lemon, blood orange and raspberry, as well as a line of Italian Breeze cocktails, which are a fruity spin on spirited Italian lemonade. The canned cocktails sell in four-packs for $10.99.“They’re made with all-real, fruit juices, and we’ve become a leading canned cocktail producer,” Phil says, adding that Whole Foods recently started carrying them in eight states.
But besides their entire line of spirits, they also produce an entire line of baked goods. The pandemic led them to this pivot. “When corona first hit, a lot of distributors started cutting orders, and it seemed like the world was going to end, and no one needs a bunch of Fabrizia laying around in a warehouse,” he says. “We made a bunch of hand sanitizer, but we saw we could take the brand further. I do like to bake, and I do like to cook – I am Italian, after all – so I said, what else can we do with lemons?”
Phil says he used to make limoncello cakes, and he would take them to liquor stores when he did tastings so they decided to start a bakery. “People don’t drink limoncello all the time, but people eat cookies every day,” he says.
Fabrizia’s limoncello cookies were once featured on Good Morning America.
So, in November 2020, they launched a direct-to-consumer, Fabrizia Lemon Baking Company, where they sell cookies, biscotti, cakes, whoopie pies and more, starting at about $10.99. “Around Christmas, we got featured on Good Morning America,” he says. “It was an interesting and wild ride, and we turned into a 24-hour operation with three shifts for five days to meet the demand. We did not miss one order.”
Their latest venture is a Fabrizia lemon vodka, which will hit the store shelves next month, and they’re also developing a limoncello-flavored popcorn. “We always have some tricks up our sleeves,” Phil says.