As you’ve surely noticed, what makes us different is the combination between the bartending and botanical world (wild plants, flowers, roots, aromatic herbs, seasonal fruits)
My name is Elia Calò, professional bartender, sommelier, bartending teacher, passionate about wild foraging .
I was born in Molise, a small region in the middle of Italy, but I spent most of my teenagehood in Salento, the bottom part of Apulia region ( as you know, Italy has boot shape, right? Then Apulia is the heel of it!)
Since my very young age I’ve started working “far from home” and right after the end of highscool I’ve started to travel not only in different parts of Italy, but also abroad (Austria, UK and Thailand).
No matter where I was heading to, I always brought with me the curiosity to discover and use botanicals into my cocktails recipies.
I came back home in the 2016, and I’ve started to work in several local bars and restaurant, not only as a bartender but also as a consultant, that made me realize there was a lack of usage of botanicals in bars, so I took advantage of it and I’ve started to deepen and focus my studies on local wild herbs, experimenting new home-made drinks , infusions, liqueurs and bitters which would recall the flavours and taste of our typical wild flora locally called “macchia mediterranea” (mediterranean brush).
In 2017 I met my girlfriend Betty Locane, who has much of her expertise in responsable tourism and fare trade, she’s also nature lover, perennial explorer, reckless researcher of the beauty a great adventure companion and last but not least demanding cocktail tester!
We have started to record video-recipies for our YOUTUBE channel "IL GIARDINO SOTTO IL NASO", in order to give some inspirations about both wild herbs and homemade cocktails to NON PROFESSIONAL people.
In 2019 our company "Mita Spirits" was born!
We collect wild herbs, especially local aromatic ones, in order to obtain syrups, infuses, liqueurs, bitters, fermented and so on ingredients then used in our “wild cocktails".
We created 5 unique products:
Vermouth Mita the official red Apulian Vermouth made out of Salento’s Verdeca wine and 60 different botanical including Savoury, Helicrisum and olive leaves.
Amaro Satiro, first apulian savory bitter in the world (herbs collected inthe protected area of Parco Otranto –Leuca, Lecce)
Liquore Pineta, first apulian liqueur in the world made out of Pinus Halepensis baby pine cones, collected in Torcito Park in Cannole, Lecce.
Liquore Fore, apulian liqueur made out wild myrtle berries and leaves, pine resin extract and helichrysum extract.
Liquore Fenú, apulian liqueur made out wild fennel seeds collected in the Otranto-Leuca Park.