Tim Laferla

Coming Up

Behind the bar, service teaches pace, judgement, and how to read flavour under pressure. Tim Laferla’s early work as a bartender sits in that register: quick decisions, constant motion, a practical sense of balance, and a habit of treating ingredients as something active rather than disposable. That mindset now carries into his approach to by-products, where waste streams are not the end of the line but a source to be worked, measured, and brought back into use.

Where They Are Now

Close-to-zero-waste spirits depend on restraint as much as invention. In Tim Laferla’s practice, imperfect and spent produce is handled with the goal of keeping taste and quality at the centre, not forcing novelty for its own sake. “We knew we didn’t want to compromise on taste and quality, so our spirits are crafted with the utmost care.” Transformation, here, is a process of testing and adjustment rather than a fixed formula. “From carefully chosen waste streams that have incredible flavour potential, we tinker and toy until bam—magical metamorphosis happens.” The line gets at the method: hands-on, iterative, and alert to the point where something overlooked becomes something worth drinking. It also places Laferla’s work in a longer making tradition, one that treats available material as the starting point. That logic is stated plainly in another line from Laferla: “All alcohol was created out of waste originally; the problem is over time it has become more of a luxury item rather than something to use up excess.” Read that way, the spirits sit inside a history of economy and resourcefulness. The aim is not scarcity as a virtue, but disciplined abundance: making flavour from surplus without losing control of the result.

Signature

Tim's signature dishes include Final Squeeze Citrus Gin, Smashed Apple Aperitivo, Out of Season Mandarin Gin, and Gone Bananas Vodka. Each name suggests the spirit of the project itself: bright, playful, and rooted in the expressive potential of produce that might otherwise be overlooked. Together, they form a portrait of a maker interested in turning excess into elegance, and in giving spent ingredients a second, more luminous life.

In Their Words “All alcohol was created out of waste originally; the problem is over time it has become more of a luxury item rather than something to use up excess.” “From carefully chosen waste streams that have incredible flavour potential, we tinker and toy until bam—magical metamorphosis happens.”