It takes maybe a spade of mystery and little magic, but mainly an extremely developed sensation for exceptional taste and long-time professional experience. That might be a simplified recipe for how to become a renowned and sought-after distiller, who prepares original recipes of successful beverages for his own business and colleagues in the industry. Milan Metelka has become that person.
His friends say that his ability to ‘tune up’ a liqueur to an ultimate unique flavour is like a work of a gem cutter. “He can grind a raw material to a real gem,” they say admirably. The author of dozens of recipes enjoys these compliments but knows he can’t be satisfied with them. “I still have a lot of stuff to learn. I want to gain new experiences and I want to find out how they do it elsewhere,” Metelka points out. “I just can’t sit in Vyškov or Vizovice and tell myself we’re doing everything right,” he added.
With colleagues to explore how they do it elsewhere
The most important opportunity to get enriching information is a business trip which is annually organized by Union of Importers and Manufacturers of Spirits for Czech and Moravian distillers. Representatives of producers and distributors of the Czech Republic meet with representatives of a local union or directly with representatives of major producers abroad.
Thanks to the membership in the Union, Milan Metelka has travelled around the globe. England, Scotland, Ireland, USA, Mexico, Martinique, Cuba, Brazil, Turkey, France, China and other countries. In the mentioned countries, he visited factories of renowned and less-known local alcohol producers. “We visited factories of Jim Beam, John Walker, Baileys or a maker of popular Brazilian rum cachaça. We even saw how tequila is made in Mexico,” as he listed some of the destinations. “All these journeys brought new experiences and important insights. I realised that some things weren’t as important as I used to think. But now I know that we don’t have to be ashamed of anything,” he summed up.
Magazine and social media section
Milan Metelka has enormous experience that would need a separate column. That’s why we decided to bring you ‘Metelka on the Road’. Photographs from his travels accompanied with written experiences are published not only in the printed magazine but also on social networks. You can recognize the posts with a distinctive visual and logo.
