One of the tastiest limoncellos in the world comes from Den Bosch. Wietse de Boer (28) makes the lemon liqueur in his shed and won a gold medal with it. He enthusiastically shows his workplace. “I’m not even Italian.”
Lemons, peelers, canisters full of alcohol, cardboard packing boxes and a large metal tank with a small tap attached: this is what the workplace looks like where one of the best limoncellos in the world is made.
“I was kicked out of the kitchen. My girlfriend thinks the smell of lemons is a bit intense,” laughs Wietse. He created the limoncello that won a gold medal at the International Wine & Spirits Competition, a competition where entrepreneurs compete with other diligent spirits with their liquor and liqueur.
The drink is ‘thoroughly tasted’ during the competition. Several judges taste the drink blindly. They also do not receive any information about the origin of the liqueur in advance. This way they choose the best liqueur purely based on taste.
On the ordered counter, between the ingredients and homemade limoncello, the medal is framed against the wall. Wietse is still beaming with his victory and still can’t quite believe it: “Bizarre, you don’t expect it! The feeling that your limoncello is competing with the big boys and I’m not even Italian,” he chuckles.
If you want to compete with the big boys, your product has to be good. The secret lies in the ingredients: “Lemon peels, pure alcohol, water and sugar. That in the right proportion makes for a delicious limoncello.”
While Wietse is peeling a lemon, he explains that it is precision work: “When you peel, you make sure that you don’t take any white from the pulp, which creates a bitter taste. You also have to work with the best quality you can get. Then it doesn’t matter whether nuns’ hands in Italy do it or a 28-year-old boy from Den Bosch.”
Although Wietse is very proud of his medal, he does not run too fast. “I’m going with the flow† I started with ten bottles, that went to one hundred, that will soon be two hundred and so on. You want to grow, but in a controlled manner.”
That does not mean that the Boschenaar is sitting still. In the meantime, he is already hard at work making other liqueurs. “I will lift a small corner of the veil”, Wietse whispers. “I now work with a local coffee roaster. So there is definitely more to come.”