Tuesday, December 10, 2024

DRIP’s Alan Cosme Talks About The Secrets To Creative Drink Recipes, Business Expansion And The Perfect Day In Denver

If you have been backstage at any DWP music festival the past few years as an artists or guest you have probably tasted one of Alan Cosme’s out of this world drink creations. Alan owns and operates DRIP with his team backstage at music festivals across the country to provide healthy and innovative drink options. His pop-up bar serves everything you can imagine from coffee to smoothies to fancy lemonades and everything in between.

Rockstars, Celebrity chefs and VIP guests have all come to love and crave the concoctions mixed up behind the DRIP bar all summer long.

We caught with Alan Cosme from DRIP at INKCARCERATION and Bourbon and Beyond to talk about his creative drink recipes, Denver Pop Ups, and the importance of non-alcoholic, healthy drink options.

Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

Tell me about DRIP.

I’ve been making small batch drinks for the past two years and really just honing in on my craft, understanding how drinks are vital to the festival scene and how serving drinks of vitality are a necessity for festivals of all calibers. I wanted to bring my experience out into the festival world and Danny (Wimmer) has brought me into their artist lounge at the festivals and I’ve been serving up drinks for all their events throughout the year.

Sirius XM’s Jose Mangin and wife Melissa Mangin appear at Inkcarceration Music and Tattoo Festival with DRIP drinks at Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

Is DRIP available outside of the festival scene as a pop up?

It is. I’m out in Denver, Colorado, and I do Pop Ups there. I will be doing a lot more Pop Ups in the near future as I’ll be building multiple bar units. Expanding my operations is going to be really fun.

Brandon Mendenhall, left, and Alyce Hayes of The Mendenhall Experiment seen at Inkcarceration Music and Tattoo Festival with DRIP on Saturday, July 15, 2023, at Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

We have your talk about your vitality drinks and the original recipes that you offer on the menu. The menu is everchanging daily at every festival backstage. How do you come up with the creative recipes?

I like to use my creativity when I’m at the grocery store. I just see what’s fresh, what’s in season. What I know goes well together. I use my Caribbean and Island influence on my drinks as well to bring that tropical fusion and to really just bring something that is not normal to the drink scene at these festivals. 

Here at my bar you can get carrot ginger juice, lavender vanilla iced coffee, or a passion fruit dragon drink which you know you just could never find on a normal basis, and I think it’s a really fun experience for so many people.

DRIP's Alan Cosme Talks About The Secrets To Creative Drinks
Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

My favorite this weekend has been the what’s called the Momma’s Mango drink. It’s like a bright, refreshing smoothie. Tell me about that these special mangos.

When I was 10, my Mom planted this mango tree and I watched it grow in our backyard. It takes seven years for a mango tree to develop and so by the time I was 18 years old going to college, my mango tree starting to produce fruit and my mom would send me mangos every year or I would just go home and eat them. 

It’s been almost 15 years that I’ve been getting mangos from her and now I’m using them in my business. The Momma’s Mangos drink is a homage to my mom. It’s a frozen mango drink that is infused with papaya and passion fruit when it’s blended with ice and it’s just it’s to die for. It’s definitely one of the best drinks I’ve ever made.

DRIP's Alan Cosme Talks About The Secrets To Creative Drinks
Mike White from Traverse the Abyss with DRIP Momma’s Mango seen at Inkcarceration Music and Tattoo Festival on Saturday, July 15, 2023, at Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

When you come to the festival, do you drive out? Do you bring everything?

I fly out and ship a lot of things. I’ll drive-in between certain festivals if they’re close, but mainly ship all my stuff around the country and I fly and try to make it happen. I’m a mobile bar unit so I can pop up anywhere at any festival, any time.

Do you have a bartending background?

I have a barista background, but I wanted to use it and bartending together and call it drip-tending, and I’ve used it together just to bring a different aspect to how you get served. You get served a fancy drink, but it’s coffee. 

Chef Amanda Freitag poses at DRIP with Peach Paradise during Bourbon and Beyond Music Festival on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023, at Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky. Photo Credit: Amy Harris/The Travel Addict

Non-alcoholic drinks and other low alcohol options are a huge trend in the cocktail world right now. There are non-alcoholic cocktail bars popping up all over the country. I think it’s an awesome option for artists at the festival to have this as an option versus alcohol.

I think it’s important to have drink options for people because you never know where people are in their life. There’s a lot of people who are recovery. Many people at the festivals are out there working all day long and can also use a drink that is refreshing and good for you.

We need to take care of our bodies in this day and age. It’s time to start now, so I want to bring my experience to more places.

DRIP's Alan Cosme Talks About The Secrets To Creative Drinks
Music Photographer Marie-Christine Quirion seen with DRIP at Inkcarceration Music and Tattoo Festival on Saturday, July 15, 2023, at Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio. Photo Credit: Amy Harris

What’s your perfect day in Denver?

69 degrees: climbing a mountain, searching for waterfall, sticking my head inside of the rushing river and going downtown afterwards watching the sunset and going to eat at El Five rooftop. It’s like a fifth-floor Mediterranean experience. That would be my perfect day.

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Amy Harris
Amy Harris is a writer and photographer who has been traveling for 20 years and flown over 2 million miles to visit over 80 countries on 6 continents. She is a freelance photographer for Invision by Associated Press, AP Images and Rex/Shutterstock. Her work can be seen in various publications and websites including: Rolling Stone, AP Images, National Geographic Books, Fodor’s Travel Guides, Forbes.com, Lonely Planet Travel Guides, JetStar magazine, and Delta Sky Magazine.

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