Creating the best cocktail with the right ambiance in a space is all about alchemy and design. For Carlos Garcia, bar manager and educator at Brooklyn’s on Boulder in Colorado Springs, his path has been about understanding the history of the spirits he is using to make his drinks and passing on that belief and expertise to the customer.
Garcia got into the industry during his senior capstone at UCCS. He had to create a business from start to finish. “Being young, and not knowing much about the spirits world, I decided to create an American tequila company.” This of course is not possible in the definition of tequila. “I reached out to Nick and Ian [Lee], the owners of Lee Spirits [locally], and said, “My group wants to learn how to distill.’ Garcia did the typical sweep, mop, and bottle work at first just for free to learn. He then started moving up the ranks from bartender to head bartender to bar manager to head of sales.
Garcia is not a native of Colorado Springs. He grew up in the Aurora/Centennial area. When he met the Lees, he says his knowledge of spirits just became a thirst he couldn’t quench. “I just kept learning more and more. I was never a big history buff but correlating alcohol with history has been very substantial in my life in understanding everything.”
Garcia says the beautiful thing about the spirits industry is that as much as one might want to learn about the whole industry, there is a deep history from rum to tequila to gin to vodka that can never be fully learned.
Highlighting a Product to Fit the Customer’s Taste at Brooklyn’s
He says the goal at Brooklyn’s on Boulder is always to highlight a product, so it fits the customer’s taste. “We create these dynamics to show them like, ‘Hey, this Strawberry Ginger Gin, for example, and it will be good like this.’ We can make it sweet, bitter, sour, savory.’” This way it educates the consumer. “And if they don’t like something, we will always take care of them. ‘Hey, you don’t like bitter? We’ll find that exact same spirit you like but sweet or sour or savory.’ And we truly stand behind what we do and try to make sure everyone has an enjoyable time.”
Garcia says one of his all-time favorite cocktails to make is Tom Collins. A traditional Tom Collins is gin, lemon juice, sugar, and soda water. Garcia says that most people react by saying, “Oh, that’s just a gin lemonade.” He says though, if it is made correctly, the Tom Collins highlights so many more aspects than just gin and lemonade. It is about how a specific gin blends with lemon juice or with sugar. “You look how it pairs with all those things to make it more than just a gin lemonade.” Of course, Garcia adds, some people just like simple cocktails. “We can accommodate that too.”
One of the fan-favorite cocktails at Brooklyn’s is Bee’s Knees. Traditionally, this drink is dry gin, honey, and lemon juice. What they use at Brooklyn’s is Lavender Gin (from Lee Spirits). That way, they can show how lavender can play with honey. Part of that process is teaching about the use of real lavender, and not what people think of when they hear the name; namely essential oils.
“You’re not going to go to your grandma’s perfume closet. [Think of it like] laying down in a lavender bush to enjoy the full [aspect] of the cocktail.” The balance is making the customer understand that the further away the drink drifts from the original recipe, the more adventurous it becomes. The Bee’s Knees, as a reference, is nothing like, per se, a margarita, but it has margarita qualities. Garcia says at Boulder’s, they want to show the customer how cocktails were made in the past but also show creativity in the present.
Knowing Basic Flavor Profiles with Distinct Notes
With the bartenders and their training at Boulder’s, it is about knowing the basic flavor profiles. However, it is also about understanding that when someone orders a Rum and Coke, are they looking for the sweetness of the Coke? Are they looking for the earthy notes of the rum? And what kind of rum are they thinking of? Garcia says, continuing the example of Rum and Coke, that at the end of the day, it is about what specific elements of the drink the customer really likes.
In creating their summer cocktail menu, Garcia says they infused their gin with tamarind because it adds a summer taste. In July, they also did certain frozen cocktails and tried to educate people on the history of where blended drinks came from, how to taste them, and how to mix all those ingredients properly. “We can kind of dawdle and play around with the ingredients, and there are times when we can get very creative within our tasting room.”
Brooklyn’s On Boulder is also known for its martinis. Garcia says that there are two trends of thoughts for what makes a martini great. “So, with an old-fashioned martini, a Manhattan, a Martinez, a Gimlet, an Aviation, you can do what history said, and do the exact recipe. Or you can go around the way of ‘What do people enjoy to drink?’” If customers want their Old Fashioneds a little sweeter, Boulder’s has trained their staff to ask that question. “We just want to make sure people have a phenomenal cocktail.”
The key, in Garcia’s perception, is to be unassuming and approachable. Garcia believes the average consumer is willing to be educated on spirits if it is in a non-pompous way. Some “star-tenders”, be it on TikTok or YouTube, tend to forget this point. “I think the average consumer honestly has driven more towards trying new things, trying different things, and exploring.”
The Building Artisan Nature of the Spirit’s Culture
Garcia says that the cocktail culture in terms of the worldwide experience has skyrocketed in the past 10 to 15 years. “We talk about Michelin-star chefs all the time. But no one thinks of a bartender in the same way. But in reality, that could be a very similar kind of craft.” He uses the example of Picon Amer which is a bitter Italian liqueur with some amazing possibilities in terms of taste and mix. It might be slightly outside the lexicon, but it is about training the staff to use such ingredients, thereby allowing both the consumers and bartenders the ability to take chances on new things.
However, at the end of the day, what the guest wants is what the guest wants. “But at the same time, it is about can I interest you in, “Hey, we made this weird new concoction.’” Garcia says it all boils down to the context of hospitality and style. “We want to make sure the drinks are made the way America wanted it, way, way back in the day, pre-Prohibition style. That’s our main spiel. But also, at the same time, our motto is ‘One foot in the past, one foot in the future.’ It is about having fun but paying homage to the ancestors of spirits. “I always tell everyone, all trends are cyclical because what your parents do is lame, but what your grandparents do is cool. So you copy your grandparents. It’s just a never-ending cycle.”
Respecting the History of Cocktails
Garcia says every society around the world has come up with its own version of alcohol. “Whether it’s from whiskey Bertha, which is Gaelish, and known as the water of life. Or Aquavit [in Scandinavia] which is also known as the water of life. Everyone has had something that brought their community together. It was more sustainable than water.” However, people also still want to learn about the basis of their spirits and some of their stories, especially in the continually burgeoning craft industry.
“That’s what really drives a lot of people who care about this industry. Where it’s like “Hey, I know nothing about rum so I’m going to go to this rum class. I know nothing about tequila so I’m going to go to the tequila class. It is just the camaraderie of this industry coming together and lifting one another up – that’s what really attracts me to it. The beautiful mindset of, ‘Hey, it’s a busy Friday or Saturday night. Let’s get through this hurricane together.’ I really love that!”
Garcia says what he loves most about the Springs and being within this current industry is that there is such a sense of community. People want to hang out. People want to talk. “It’s not this mindset of me against you. It’s more like, ‘Hey, how can we help each other? How can we grow?’ And I think we are that way in the Springs, we’re still a community. We still want to better one another.”
