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.

Jay Cozma is an award-winning bartender you’ll find at Old Mate’s Place in Sydney; below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, Jay talks about his creativity process, where he finds ideas, and why it’s important to get things wrong and make mistakes.

BOOTHBY: Jay, what’s the idea behind your drink?

JAY COZMA: This was inspired a lot by food. My drink’s name is Carota. And I guess it’s inspired by food, and primarily carrots, and the organic producers that we got to experience when we were down there. We had a lot of unique experiences there — with both the Espolon team and also with local producers, suppliers, some of the food, the market stalls, the events we went to, and the amazing big feast at the end. I tried to take elements of all of that and put it together to create this one drink.

So tell us about where you all went?

Yeah, my drink was inspired by the Dark Feast, it was the big, overriding event we went to at the end of Dark Mofo. This was a great showcase with Tasmanian producers, chefs, food, drinks, everything. We got to experience a lot of different styles of food, see some really, really interesting ways of using animals and meats and stuff, but also vegetables, which I thought was really, really cool.

Was there a particular carrot moment you had down there?

Yeah, most definitely. On the opening night we had a big feast at the estate that we stayed at. And the chef brought out these absolutely insane carrots, that I pretty much was climbing along the banquet table as each section ran out of these carrots. I proceeded to somehow work my way down. I excused it saying I was introducing myself to everyone, trying to get to know everyone else who was on the journey. But it was really whoever had carrots left, I was still their friend.

It was definitely a night that I won’t forget, and it was really cool to be there with so many creative people, and to be surrounded in such an amazing, tranquil place that we were.

What’s it like going to a place like that and what does that do for sort of creativity?

Dark Mofo in itself is I guess an emergence of cultures, experiences, viewpoints. You know, it’s quite loud. It’s also quite quiet in a lot of aspects as well. And so where we were, being on the edge of town there, we spent our days going through different creativity sessions, talking with each other, discussing things, having rest times, reflection times, but then also having the ability to walk and go for wanders. And I ended up finding horses and all kinds of things. We got to experience so much in such a small place and then just fully dive straight into the most immersive creative experience, which is Dark Mofo and seeing art, music, conception, food, all come to life, which is really, cool. It was definitely a melting pot. It was quite interesting to see how many different ways we could look at things, how many different ways we could try things.

Okay, walk us through your recipe.

So, Carota was about working on something that was going to be a little bit savoury, a little bit moreish, definitely, because I was kind of thinking about the giant feasts that we had down there. I worked on carrot being the main part — I loved that carrot dish. But then I wanted to work venison smoke into it. I chased venison when we were down there. I was fortunate enough to get an absolutely delicious venison burger at the feast, which just made everything absolutely incredible. I built on that, and wanted to do a nice little light refreshing style Highball. I had to clarify the carrot which was a great challenge, a lot of time, a lot of fun playing around with that. It was the principle of cooking down the carrots, increasing the water volume into them, adding a little bit of gelatin. Then freezing it — we’re lucky enough to have a medical freezer downstairs at Old Mate’s, so I could freeze that thing right down to minus 35 degrees. From that point, once it was frozen, I cut it all down into blocks, strained it over about three days in a cool room, and got it nice and clarified in the end.

Where do you typically get your ideas from when it comes to drinks?

As you can tell, I eat a lot. So I do tend to find myself getting inspired by food. Personally, I love working with fresh vegetables and a lot of greens in what I do with my drinks. That kind of comes from eating, comes from cooking.

Also just by breaking down, looking at the products and looking here with Espolon, I was inspired by those grassy, vegetal notes, those peppers that come through, things like that that I thought would really, really pair quite well into a moreish style cocktail. So that kind of inspired that. I usually try and work backwards from the base spirit, and what we’re doing, and try and represent the flavours of the product.

And creativity? Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you get something that only you can love, you know? And that’s the joy of making drinks, I guess.

I’m on social media a lot. I follow people I think are absolutely incredible bartenders and I try and draw inspiration from them and their drinks. Just whatever information I can get my hands on. It’s how I’ve always been as a bartender.

I draw inspiration from everywhere in that sense.

So you’re known as being quite the host as well. Is there a role for creativity in that human one-on-one interaction?

Yeah, most definitely. That’s what we get to enjoy here a lot is customer interaction, guest interaction. We get to talk to them a lot, and see what they like, see what they enjoy. We ask them where they’ve had dinner and what they ate.

When I think about drinks, I’m not making drinks for myself, I’m not making drinks for another bartender 99 percent of the time. I’m making drinks for someone who’s just trying to enjoy a drink, and I need to get as much feedback as I can on it and talk to them about it. And I think that’s where we do spend a lot of time on the floor talking to people, you do get that feedback and you get that engagement and you hear about life experience.

I think that for me, in hosting, it just comes from a genuine love of interacting with people like. I like having a great time. I love people having a great time. You know what mean? It’s making sure that everything’s taken care of, you’re trying to anticipate what everybody needs before they know they need it.

What advice do you have for people looking to unlock their creativity?

Just try everything. Just try everything and get it all wrong.

Why is getting things wrong a good thing?

Well, I can tell you how to do it the right way, and I learned the right way by getting it wrong. But then you don’t know why it only works that way, or why six other different ways don’t work. Just because I say that’s the right way and that’s the way that I’ve shown you and it produces something that is desired, it doesn’t mean it’s the only way to do it, and it doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it.

Your right way might be the right way for you.

Yeah, exactly. That’s what I’m saying. It gives someone the opportunity to create change, create a challenge, come across new things for themselves.

Jay Cozma’s Carota recipe

40ml Espolon Blanco
30ml clarified pickled carrot extract
10m venison smoked salt solution
10ml champagne vinegar
100ml pepperberry honey soda

Build ingredients over ice in a Highball glass.