We love spirits.

We hate waste.

We saw the unlimited potential of unwanted produce.

And DGDC was born.

Join a movement of people passionate about saving our planet, one sip at a time.

We’re on a mission to prove that spirits made with imperfect ingredients don’t have to be anything less than perfect… in fact, as two ex-hospo alums, our palates are finely tuned to seek perfection, so that’s the only thing we’ll accept.

We’re not trying to recreate the same spirits you’re used to, though. We’re aiming for even better. Our unique ingredients and innovative distilling techniques create traditional taste profiles, with a delightful twist. And you won’t believe they ever came from waste.

We’re all about pushing boundaries, not only with our recipes, but with our operations across the board, including at our close-to-zero-waste distillery. And we’re genuinely passionate about the planet, which makes it all the more satisfying knowing that we are saving produce from landfill, one sip at a time. Now drinking the highest quality spirits and making a sustainable choice don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Cheers to that.

Meet the Founders

Tim

I started bartending the day I turned 18. It was the one constant through years of trying out different vocations (Electrical Engineering, Physiotherapy, Marketing to name a few..). When none of those felt like the right fit, I realised it was because hospitality had my heart. So I went full throttle, learning anything and everything I could about the spirits I was using to create drinks. Through stints in Perth, Sydney and London, I made a name for myself as an award-winning cocktail bartender, and eventually spirits expert.

My last job in London was where I really started to become passionate about the issue of food waste. I was working for Michelin-starred chef Adam Handling, managing all the bars across his portfolio of restaurants, and a big part of his cooking ethos was around minimising waste. Seeing how Adam was doing things in the kitchen inspired me to translate that same philosophy into my drinks offering. Back in Australia, I gravitated towards bars and people with similar philosphies, and continued to delve deeper into the sustainability world.

The crystalising moment came during COVID, after pivoting to working as a spirits specialist for an online liquor store, I found that there were a few independent distilleries adopting dribs and drabs of the zero-waste approach, but most were too afraid to talk about it due to perceptions of lower-quality. Then there was blatant greenwashing from large multinationals… That was the moment I knew we had to do it – that I could take all the skills and knowledge I had learnt, and scale them up to produce sustainable spirits that were as good, if not better, than what I was tasting.

Pia

I was born in Berlin, Germany. There, gardening is part of the school curriculum, and recycling & composting have been a part of the culture for many years. I found a passion for food at an early age, and by 18 I had already completed my apprenticeship in cooking. Very early on in my chef career we would laugh at our executive chef, who would regularly climb into the large bins and find the produce we threw away that could have still been used. We wouldn’t cook with it after it had been through the bin (that would be gross!), but it taught us a valuable lesson.

I moved to Australia in my early twenties, to broaden my horizons of cooking and the world (or maybe to escape the cold Berlin weather). I worked in hatted restaurants, and met and fell in love with Tim while working at Fred’s in Sydney, where he was the venue manager of the basement cocktail bar. I also met perhaps my most influential mentor there too: Danielle Alvarez, the head chef, and person driving Fred’s nose to tail philosophy. The high-end restaurant industry had become so obsessed with perfection, but I began to realise that there was so much flavour in all those odds, ends and offcuts that we were making an effort to use, rather than throwing them away like many other restaurants.

Danielle taught me to respect produce: to always place front of mind the hard working farmers that grew it to such a high standard. When you think like this, you will always try to use every last bit of it. It feels overwhelmingly sad when you miss your chance to use the produce before its “expiry date” and have to throw away all those stalks, stems, skins and husks! I never planned to have a spirits company, but I was always interested in the drinks side of the business, and seeing and tasting all the samples that Tim would bring home did make me wonder if we could do things better. Perhaps I could bring a chef’s approach to spirits, I thought… and the rest, as they say, is history.

Some waste has more taste

Zero waste spirits aren’t about dumpster diving, or the scrapings left over on your home or restaurant plate. The majority of food waste happens behind closed doors, before it ever reaches you, simply because something might not look perfect. But each of our products is created from carefully chosen waste streams that still have incredible flavour potential. We lovingly experiment with the hero ingredient until – BAM. A magical metamorphosis. A second life. An epic transformation into a seriously good spirit.