A glass of BROTKA … with Moritz Aschauer

For this edition of our series "A Glass with …" we are delighted to bring you an interview with Moritz Aschauer. He turned his attention to the bread waste problem in Austria and discovered that "every year around 60,000 tonnes of bread end up in the bin". Clearly "too much" was his conclusion — and with that, the spark was lit for the upcycling project "hochBROTzentig".

Farthofer: Dear Moritz, what brings us together is a shared passion for giving stale bread a new lease of life. Josef and you know each other from the Campus Wieselburg of the FH Wiener Neustadt, where you studied product marketing and project management and Josef was a lecturer. How did you come up with the idea of giving the wonderful bread from your bakeries a second life?
Aschauer: At the time I was doing a lot of delivery runs at our bakery. You drive to various shops, drop off fresh bread and take back whatever was left over from the day before. Every single day you're confronted with just how much bread actually remains unsold. Just think — the surplus from Vienna alone could feed the entire city of Graz. Of course, when you're driving from shop to shop, you also have plenty of time to think, and that's often where the wildest ideas are born. When I eventually learned one day how gin is produced – and that the base of gin is also grain – I couldn't get it out of my head. After all, bread is made almost entirely from grain too. I kept spinning the idea further and further, until I finally plucked up the courage to talk to Josef about it. A friend of mine, who knew Josef a little better at the time, made the introduction. Josef was immediately taken with the idea and said: "Let's give it a try." The professional's positive attitude was ultimately a great motivator to pursue the project further. During the development phase, the ideas for the vodka (BROTKA) and ouzo (BROTUZO) also came to life.

Blog Interview Moritz Aschauer - Destillerie FarthoferBlog Interview Moritz Aschauer - Destillerie Farthofer

Farthofer: You come from a Mühlviertel baking family that has been baking bread for five generations. What was your family's most touching reaction to your hochBROTzentig project?
Aschauer: In our family, baking has been a tradition for over 125 years. The best part of the whole project was the support I received from the very beginning. My parents were immediately taken with what is quite an unusual idea, and without their backing it would certainly never have come to fruition. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my parents and my brother, all of whom have supported me tremendously throughout this project. The enthusiasm for hochBROTzentig is palpable in all of them. That genuinely moves me, and it keeps pushing me forward.

Farthofer: Baked goods have a short shelf life – you give them a longer one. In your opinion, which other product would deserve a second lease of life?
Aschauer: Of course, every food that ends up in the bin. When you're involved in the production of something from start to finish, you really see what goes into it. That's why I felt it so keenly with bread, for instance. But there are certainly a great many products that would break someone's heart to see thrown away. The one that pains me most when it's needlessly discarded, though, is meat. Meat is not only an incredibly resource-intensive commodity – an animal also had to give its life for it. When that has to go to waste, I find it quite heartbreaking and disrespectful to the animals. It might sound a little crazy, but it would be truly wonderful if someone could find a way to rescue it from the bin.

Farthofer: Your range consists of three spirits – BROTKY, BROTGINSKY and BROTUZO – all wonderfully fun and unusual names. What's your pet's name?
Aschauer: I don't have any pets at the moment. But as a child I had two cats – one was called Minki and the other Kuschel, inspired by my favourite TV show at the time, "Bob the Builder". :-D

Farthofer: Who are the typical customers for your spirits?
Aschauer: The typical hochBROTzentig customer places great value on quality and sustainability They look for something extraordinary, something with variety, that stands out from the crowd.

Farthofer: We recently visited Josef Junior in Finland. There, the topic of recycling is held in extremely high regard, and there are some particularly innovative ideas and companies in that space. Have you come across any noteworthy observations of your own lately?
Aschauer: I think food-sharing concepts are fantastic. Not long ago I attended a talk by Foodsharing OÖ, who run the "Fairteiler" sharing stations in and around Linz. I love the name "Fairteiler", but of course the concept just as much. They rescue food from supermarkets and make it available at the sharing stations. Anyone who wants to can pick up food there free of charge — items that may no longer be perfectly fresh, but are absolutely still enjoyable and usually only have minor imperfections. Projects like these really do add value.

Blog Interview Moritz Aschauer - Destillerie FarthoferBlog Interview Moritz Aschauer - Destillerie Farthofer

Farthofer: It's clear that as a society we need to reduce waste. What's your biggest personal waste-reduction win lately?
Aschauer: hochBROTzentig, without a doubt. By now we've already managed to rescue several tonnes of precious bread from the bin and, together with you, transform it into truly delicious spirits. In my private life I'm making more and more of an effort to choose sustainable alternatives. One product from a start-up that I particularly like, for example, is BRüSLi. They make granola from leftover bread. Highly recommended for anyone who loves muesli.

Farthofer: Could you imagine living a zero-waste life?
Aschauer: We also run a local convenience store in a small municipality in Upper Austria with around 1,700 residents. In stores like these, the focus is on the bare essentials for daily life to offer. Zero-waste products are too small a niche here, and unfortunately we're simply not able to offer them. In a city with the right infrastructure and a larger customer base, I could definitely imagine it – but out in the countryside, living a zero-waste life is quite a challenge. Besides, packaging does have its advantages. Take this example: film wrapping protects meat from spoiling. You can debate whether it's better to have plastics that ultimately end up as waste – or whether it's better to throw away more meat that wasn't purchased in time. From my perspective, neither option is ideal. I think what will matter more is making the waste we inevitably produce less harmful to the environment – something that is already being put into practice in part with cornstarch-based plastics. As a society, we need to move more in that direction; doing away with packaging materials entirely is probably not realistic anytime soon.

Farthofer: Which of your bread schnapps is most popular during the colder months?
Aschauer: BROTGINSKY is, throughout the entire year, our most popular spirit. In the colder months it's also wonderful enjoyed as a punch. You'll find recipes for it on our website www.hochBROTzentig.at

Farthofer: In what context will we be hearing the name Moritz Aschauer next?
Aschauer: With hochBROTzentig, we're planning our next steps. It has become clear that the concept works really well for our bakery. Now we'd like to expand it and offer it to other bakeries as well. That way, bread can be rescued by many different producers, and each of those bakeries can offer their very own BROTKA, BROTGINSKY, and BROTUZO. For the people of Pabneukirchen and the surrounding area: there's more exciting news from our bakery too. We're currently right in the middle of the planning phase for expanding both our bakery and our food shop. So there's plenty more to come here in the years ahead as well.

Farthofer: Wonderful that you're upcycling precious leftover bread. All the very best going forward!
Aschauer:Thank you, Doris, but without you as a partner none of this would be possible. So a huge thank you to you as well for the great collaboration!

Matching Products

  • Out of stock

    BROTGINSKY, Bread Spirit

    36.70 € incl. VAT

    Base price: 73.40 € / 1000 ml

    Delivery time: Austria 2 to 3 working days, Germany 3 to 4 working days

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