In June, Espolon Tequila gathered 11 likeminded and creative bartenders together in Hobart to attend Dark Mofo, the winter festival of arts and culture known for being a little subversive and provocative. They discussed creativity, swapped ideas, and found inspiration in the depths of winter — and now they’re sharing what they found with bartenders in their cities.

Andie Bulley is the award-winning bartender and bar manager at Sydney bar, The Waratah; below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, Andie talks about her creative process — and her Espolon drink, After Dark — as well as why she can’t be creative 100 percent of the time, and how she finds ideas for her drinks.

BOOTHBY: Andie, tell us about your drink?

So my cocktail’s name is so unoriginal. It’s called After Dark. And it’s essentially about all of those moments that happen after the events and the installations and the art shows finish. It’s about that kind of moment of meeting, and discussion about how those things made us feel.

And the drink is essentially a way to help invite you into that moment and that headspace of feeling comfortable to talk about something, or feeling comfortable to share how something made you feel.

What’s in the drink?

It is Espolon Blanco, and then we have a liquid gold agave — a bunch of different beautiful Australian native gold ingredients like lemon aspen and a bunch of other nice citruses. And then we have our smoked rosella liqueur, smoking some rosella with paper bark, combining a bunch of different spirits, mezcal and curacao, and creating a really nice, well-rounded viscous liqueur. Fresh lime, obviously, it’s tequila and I’m a Queenslander. And then a little bit of a bush salt solution. And then on top we’ve got a little campfire mist.

Very cool. Then how does this cocktail drink?

It’s supposed to be drunk like a Tommy’s Margarita. It is super smashable. It’s thick. It’s really homely and it’s exactly what I want to drink after a night out, around the fire with a bunch of friends.

Do you consider yourself a creative person?

Sometimes. I definitely feel like there are stints in creativity a lot, but I think a person’s ability to inspire themselves is how it makes them creative.

Right. Can you expand on that a bit? What does that mean in practice?

In practice — I’m not full of creativity. It’s a spontaneous combustion of creativity. It’s got to stem from somewhere. So being able to go out and seek that creativity and seek the things that inspire you, seek the things that make you feel emotion. That’s what I’m always looking for in terms of being inspired.

If I feel an emotion and I want to trigger that emotion in someone else, I’ve got to find a way for that, and that’s how I put creativity in drinks.

What were the emotions and the experiences that you had at Dark Mofo? Can you describe that feeling?

This is something I’ve said before, there’s something so radical in making something beautiful just because someone else is going to experience it. Caring in a world that tells you not to care. And I think Dark Mofo was exactly that. It was giving people an experience of being able to see a bunch of different installations that they’ve never seen before. But then after that, giving them a platform to be able to actually talk about how that made you feel and how you interpreted that. I’ve really, really enjoyed it.

What’s that like being with a group of bartenders down there, all sort of there for that same sort of reason to experience things?

It was great. My drink is inspired around the aftermath. We were sitting around a campfire, and we all got to sit together and talk about what event, what installations we liked, what shows we didn’t like, how it made us feel. And we talked about drinks and then we didn’t talk about drinks. And then we talked about lived experiences and everything on the scope of what it means to be human. And it was just the best experience.

What advice would you give to bartenders starting out or people in general who are trying to find some inspiration to spark their creativity?

Our catchphrase at The Waratah, is that story is flavour. And that just rings so, so true. For me, you can’t have a drink without a story. You can’t have a tasting without emotion. So if you ever are stuck or stunted or don’t know where to go, go out and do something. Go to an art show, go to a live music gig, try and reignite that emotion within you and figure out how you can channel that excitement you felt to make someone else feel excited through your drinks.

Andie Bulley’s After Dark recipe

• 45ml Espolon Blanco
• 15ml “Gold” agave syrup
• 15ml smoked rosella liquour
• 15ml fresh lime
• 2 dashes bush salt solution

Garnish: Campfire Mist
Vessel: Ceramic Cup

For the Smoked Rosella Liquour

Ingredients

• 750g Rosella (fresh, pitted and chopped)
• 5g Paperbark
• 300ml Raspberry Eau de Vie
• 100ml Mezcal
• 100ml Curaçao
• 350ml Vodka (neutral, 40%)
• 250ml Water
• 200g Caster Sugar (20% of total liquid mass)
• 2g Citric Acid per litre of total liquid

Method
STEP ONE: Smoke the Rosella

1. Spread chopped rosella evenly on a perforated tray.

2. Add paperbark chips to smoking chamber.

3. Smoke at 60°C with low fan in combi oven for 20 minutes.

4. Remove tray and cool immediately to preserve volatiles.

STEP TWO: Blend With Spirit + Water

5. Add smoked rosella and paperbark to a Thermomix with eau de vie, mezcal, curaçao, vodka,

and water.

6. Blend on high speed for 10 minutes until completely puréed.

7. Transfer purée to a vacuum-seal bag and seal.

STEP THREE: Infusion – Sous Vide

8. Sous vide the sealed bag at 55°C for 2 hours.

9. Remove and chill rapidly in an ice bath to arrest infusion.

STEP FOUR: Strain & Clarify

10. Open bag and transfer contents to a container.

11. Add pectinex (0.2% w/v recommended) and rest for 30 minutes.

12. Strain through chinois or superbag.

13. Centrifuge at 4000g for 15 minutes if clarity is critical.

STEP FIVE: Sweeten & Adjust

14. Add 200g caster sugar gradually while stirring until fully dissolved.

15. Add 2g citric acid to balance acidity and assist microbial control.

16. Bottle and refrigerate. Rest 24 hours before service or dilution testing.

For the “Gold Agave”

Ingredients:

• 30g Sunrise Lime Powder
• 10g Lemon Aspen Powder
• 5g Lemon Scented Ironbark Powder
• 2.5g Strawberry Gum Powder
• 1g Pepperberry
• 800g Agave Syrup
• 200ml Water (ideally filtered or distilled)
• 2.5g Citric Acid (adjust to 0.2% final TA)

Method:

1. Combine all powdered botanicals in a beaker or jug.

2. Add the water and agitate thoroughly with an immersion blender to hydrate powders.

3. Add agave syrup and stir until fully incorporated.

4. Add citric acid and blend again to dissolve completely.

5. Allow the mix to steep for 4-6 hours at ambient temperature, then chill.

6. Fine strain or vacuum filter to remove any insoluble plant matter.

7. Store refrigerated and test Brix (target: 55-60°Brix) and pH (target: 2.8–3.4).

For the Bush Salt Solution:

20% saline solution with Wardnu Bush Salt and water.