Elisa Rodrigues wants to make weird drinks and make people happy

Elisa Rodrigues began her career as a graphic designer, spending 10 years in that world before moving to Australia from Brazil. The move here necessitated a change. “Unfortunately I couldn’t keep up with my career because of the student visa,” she says.

Well, the graphic design industry’s loss is the bar industry’s gain, with the Maybe Mae bartender now one of the top 25 finalists in the Espolòn Afterlife To The Bone cocktail competition.

Elisa’s drink for the competition is called Puentes, and you can get it at Maybe Mae throughout the month of August. And if Elisa is successful in this round of the competition, she’ll find herself flying to Sydney for the national final during Sydney Bar Week next month.

Below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, Elisa talks about her creative process, the thinking behind her drink — and the significance of the marigold flower.

But yeah, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us where we are?

Hi, my name is Elisa. We’re here down in the basement in Maybe Mae in Adelaide, South Australia.

Tell us what’s the name of your drink and what’s the big idea behind it?

So my drink is called Puentes, which means bridges in Spanish. The whole idea behind that was to have a connection between Mexican culture as well as the tequila.

So I chose to use a marigold flower, which is used as a connection bridge between the ones that passed, and connecting to their families during the Dia de los Muertos. That’s why there’s marigold everywhere.

The main ingredient of the drink is marigold, I’m using it as a tea. It symbolises the rebirth — the flower is dehydrated, so I’m bringing it back to life. Which happens as well with the agave when they’re making distilling the tequila. First, the agave has to die, so you distil it, bring the tequila back to life.

The drink as well carries Fino Sherry, which I smoked with Palo Santo and spiced citrus oil.

What’s the kind of classic cocktail that the drink is so inspired by?

So I wanted to serve this drink warm, which is really fun for a tequila cocktail, that’s not really usually seen. But it’s really traditional in Mexican culture, and as a South American, in winter specifically, you always have a warm drink.

I got into the Bishop, which is one of the oldest classic cocktails that was made with spices and wine. Obviously, back in the day, they used to have heavy, heavy wines like port and heavy spices. I just wanted to make it a bit lighter and more into our day.

How’d you get into the bar world and hospitality?

I was a graphic designer in Brazil for about 10 years and when I decided to move to Australia, unfortunately I couldn’t keep up with my career because of the student visa and all that. I ended up starting working in a restaurant and never left. So I’ve been in Australia for nearly 10 years now and I’ve been in hospitality for about the same.

I think it helps me to use my creativity as I’m not doing design as much anymore; I do here and there, I can create drinks but not only drinks — the whole thing that I love about hospitality is creating flavours, and the experience that you put something in your mouth that you’ve never had before is like that little scene from Ratatouille when you eat the cheese and the strawberries and you get fireworks.

I love seeing people’s reactions on their face when I make a weird drink and they’re like, this is actually good. I never tasted this before. I love that. I just want to make weird drinks and make people happy and have experiences that they haven’t had before.

How do you go about coming up with new ideas for drinks? What inspires you?

Food a lot. My partner’s a chef, so he makes me eat a lot of things — I wouldn’t eat anything when I met him, so now I’m just a crazy person, I just go around eating weird things. So just going about and trying to taste as much as I can.

Puentes recipe

40ml Espolón Reposado
15ml Smoked Palo Santo Sherry
15ml Spiced Citrus Oleo
60ml Marigold Tea

For the Smoked Palo Santo Sherry:
200ml Fino Sherry
Thinly cut palo santo (approximately 5g)

Place the palo santo chips in the smoking chamber of a smoking gun. Pour the Fino Sherry into a glass container or a jar. Use the smoking gun to fill the container with smoke, seal it, and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Repeat the smoking process two more times to achieve a more intense smoky flavour. Strain the sherry to remove any sediment and store it in a sealed container until ready to use.

For the Spiced Citrus Oleo-saccharum:
2 lemons (peels only)
2 limes (peels only)
2g Mace
2g Pimento
2g Allspice
100g Sugar

Peel the lemons and limes, making sure to avoid the white pith. Place the citrus peels in a bowl. Add the sugar, mace, pimento, and allspice to the bowl. Use a muddler or the back of a spoon to press the peels and spices into the sugar. Let the mixture sit for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, until the sugar has drawn out the oils from the peels and formed a syrup. Strain the syrup to remove the solids and store it in a sealed container.

For the Marigold Tea:
10g Marigold tea
100ml water

Boil water to 90°C. Add the marigold tea to the water and let it steep for 10 minutes. Strain the tea and let it cool to room temperature.

For the cocktail:
Ensure your marigold tea is prepared and set aside. In a mixing glass, pour 40 ml of Espolón Reposado, 15 ml of Smoked Palo Santo Sherry, and 15 ml of Spiced Citrus Oleo-saccharum. Add 60ml of marigold tea to the mixing glass.
Stir well to combine all the ingredients. Pour the mixture into a serving glass. Garnish with a marigold flower.