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.

Roy Das Neves finds inspiration in his childhood, in memories and formative moments with his parents, and in his heritage. Sharing his drinks with guests, he says, is “almost like you’re giving a little preview into your life to that guest.” Below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, he talks about his inspirations, the way he develops drinks, and the creative process.

BOOTHBY: What’s the name of the drink?

Gobstopper Nostalgia. The inspiration behind it is basically of my childhood, and my love for pairing different sodas and flavours and gobstoppers. It’s got a Espolon Reposado in there, a little bit amontillado sherry, it’s rectified with three different acids, it’s got quite a lot of oleo saccharums in there with mandarin, orange and banana peel, a little bit of green tea and a lot of love.

Nice. So how did the drink come together?

After being completely inspired by my time over at Dark Mofo with the other guys, I wanted to be a little bit playful, a little bit whimsical and really hit the button on nostalgia and how it all started with me and that was playing around with Gold Star sodas that used to get delivered to your house. I’m not sure if you remember that way back when. You’d get 101 different flavours. You get to choose, put a little bit of an order through and they’d deliver it the following week. But I would mix and match — like chintoto with pineapple. Disgusting by the way, but a lot of R&D during those times and a lot of love for gobstoppers. So thought I’d do something similar to that.

So you’ve been mixing drinks for a while then?

Apparently, not a lot of them good in the early days, but hopefully I’ve gotten a little bit better.

How do you tend to come up with drinks? Do you have like a regular creative process you follow?

It’s always about a moment, a fleeting moment in my past. Usually a lot of childhood moments. A lot of times with my parents and little flavours and nuances and this just being one of them things that made me smile.

Why is that such a rich sort of vein of creativity to draw from for you?

I think it's going back to moments that made me laugh and smile, to my heritage being four different nationalities. It's a lot to pick from and I love my background and the dichotomy between each and every one of those nationalities.

A lot of it comes with a lot of beautiful memories.

When you do create something like this, it obviously means a lot to you and you serve it to a guest. Can you describe that sort of process and feeling that you get?

Yeah, there's definitely that storytelling element. Having that human connection with a guest and expressing that drink organically with all that love. And seeing the guests, hopefully like it, having that connection. It's almost like you're giving a little preview into your life to that guest.

Have you tried to systematise this creative process for you?

I’ve tried, I've failed because it changes every single time. I know that if I try too hard in one element, I tend to get frustrated and then I'm rewriting everything I thought I knew. The best way to do it for me personally is just keeping it simple. The ideas will develop once you nail the first thing. Trying to figure out the whole entire drink or the whole entire offering can be little bit overwhelming. Just take it beat by beat, honestly.

So your experience in Dark Mofo, what was it that brought out this particular drink?

I went in completely just open to the whole experience. I didn’t know what to expect, which is great. And I found myself being inspired by, again, that unapologetic nature from what I saw from the Dark Mofo program itself. The art, everything was just beautiful. But my greatest inspiration, I probably I’ve said this a hundred times over with the guys, are the other bartenders.

Honestly, just seeing their eyes light up, being in management for ages, opening venues, with the procedures and stuff like that, you kind of lose that creativity and that childlike nature in you. But seeing everyone light up is just infectious. So the other guys are definitely my inspiration.

Roy Das Neves’ Gobstopper Nostalgia recipe

• Espolon Reposado
• amontillado sherry
• mixed Citrus and banana oleo saccharum
• feijoa and green tea soda
• smoked fennel espuma
• Loomi ash