“LIQUEURS ARE A STAPLE IN ANY GOOD BAR”

where we have fun extracting and capturing the flavour of the fruits.”

So far the, erm, fruits of their labour have been a Dry Cassis, made using Tasmanian white bud blackcurrants, an Orange Curacao using Navel, Seville and blood orange varieties grown in Mildura, and Apricot Brandy, made with South Australian brandy grapes and apricots from Cobram in rural Victoria, where farmers are still feeling the effects of cuts made by major buyer SPC Ardmona a few years back. “Our [apricot] farmer, along with his brother, adopted the farm from their father,” Bonkowski explains. “It’s a proper family affair.”

“We hear a lot of noise about the struggles of ‘imperfect’ or ‘ugly’ fruit,” she says. “But it’s not until you spend time with farmers and see all the beautiful produce going to [waste] that the problem really sinks in. [It’s] a huge motivator to help reduce waste.”

The team is also hard at work producing a blackberry-based mûre and a redcurrant groseille.

Over in South Australia, Applewood Distillery are making a Limoncello from hand-peeled lemons grown in the Adelaide Hills, which supermarkets had refused to buy as they are “different sizes and kind of weird looking”.

While liqueurs are a staple in any good bar – and the cocktails they knock up – they’re not as commonly found in home set-ups, as their typical use is a little less cut-and-dry than, say, a standard G&T. But Bonkowski’s go-to, a simple mix of Marionette’s Dry Cassis combined with ginger beer, proves liqueurs aren’t as fussy as you might think. “It’s like Ribena for grown-ups,” she says. Consider us converted.