Mexico has tequila and Japan is known for sake, but two New South Wales distillers say Australia is in need of a national spirit and it should start with infusing native fruit.
Wollongong distiller Dean Martelozzo likes to drink his Illawarra plum-infused spirit straight because he is still trying to work out the complex flavour.
Deep blue in appearance with dark red flesh and an external seed on top, it has become the unlikely local hero of the Headlands Distilling Company.
"It gives it a unique flavour," he said.
"We're the only distillery in the world that uses it, to the best of our knowledge, and it's a raw Australian flavour."
So far, he and his business partner Jared Smith have blended it with a spirit to create its own specialty drink, as well as added it to their gin.
"Gin is seen as a European spirit and it really gives that Australian edge to it," he said.
Even their regular gin does not use the traditional juniper berry widely grown in Europe, Asia and North America, but instead an Australian species called boobialla.
It has been nicknamed the native Australian juniper for its similarity in taste and use in gin making.
Developing a spirit 'to show the rest of the world'
For Jared Smith, their use of native bush fruit to flavour their products is an effort to create a national Australian spirit.
"We're passionate about making spirits we can have as unique to show to the rest of the world," he said.
"For instance, Greece has ouzo, Mexico has tequila, Scotland has scotch whisky, and Australia doesn't have a national spirit.
"We make great red wines and great beer here, but they're not made from Australian natives."
Bush-tucker spirits recognised internationally
The distillers made their first step towards international recognition recently by winning two silver and two bronze medals at the San Francisco World Spirits competition.
The two bronze medals were for products featuring the Illawarra plum.
"We were fortunate to be given those awards because it's the first competition we've entered," Mr Martelozzo said.
"We entered all of our four products and the Illawarra Plum [spirit] is such a different flavour, they didn't know how to categorise it, so they put it in the vermouth category.
"We're happy to represent the Illawarra globally, because people will be seeing this and will get interested in it."
He said he is now looking for more native Australian fruits he can use in his products to introduce both domestic and international consumers to new flavours.
Finding fruits in the wild
The fruit is hand-foraged in bushland, while some supply comes from people with Illawarra plum trees on their property, who allow the distillers to come and harvest it.
Dean Martelozzo admits the flavours are different to sweeter fruits found in supermarkets.
"It's not commercially farmed and you can't go into a shop and buy it, so it doesn't have the sweetness that comes with farming over time and people are drawn to that," he said.
"We're lucky a friend has a bunch of trees on his property, and some other people have been generous enough to give us some of theirs.
"We're trying to get our hands on as much of it as possible."
