Stirring creativity with art and Bombay gin

Bombay Sapphire is stirring creativity once again in its Stir Creativity campaign that has unveiled the works of more than 100 young South African creators who participated in A Million Acts of Creativity.

Part of the campaign’s aim is how art and gin are a perfect pairing. Since 2020 this has created content pieces in more than 1,000 user-generated posts tagging creators or brands.

Marking World Creativity and Innovation Day on 21 April, the artworks on display are the result of talented Cape Town illustrator Russell Abrahams, also known as Yay Abe. He challenged his online community to draw the first thing they saw from a series of shapes he posted on his Instagram feed for about a month.

During the event at the picturesque Beechwood Gardens in Johannesburg, he challenged guests to draw anything. However, the artwork had to incorporate water droplets and a smiley face.

This added a fun twist to the event. We were also treated to a “taste of creativity” menu, which was a fun play with food. Think of a bright rainbow dim sim with beef and chicken filling, a theatre of mini margarita pizzas with blue candy floss that dissolves with a magic blue liquid and “blank canvas” desserts.

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On the topic of food, one of the cultural leaders is chef Nti Ramaboa. Bombay Sapphire’s other cultural leaders include familiar faces such as Thickleeyonce (Lesego Legobane), Lerato Kganyago and Zakes Bantwini.

Nti says the brand partnership was six months in the making due to the pandemic, alcohol bans and her focus on her food TV show but they finally managed to ink a deal.

“The mandate was to stir your creativity, encourage your following, friends and the people around you to be creative. I loved it because it made life so easy and when they dropped the Bombay I knew I was going to infuse it with food.”

One of the first recipes she made with the gin was a cocktail with kgemere (home-brewed ginger beer). The chef says the idea comes when festivities and celebrations such as Easter are over and there can be plenty of kgemere left over. She says it makes a delicious infusion of any classic cocktail.

The botanical notes from Bombay gin blends beautifully with other flavours. The recipe is such a favourite of the chef’s, she jokes when she asks for a cocktail, she prefers one with ginger beer.

“Gin for me is one of my go-to drinks, it is so refreshing. You can pair it with other foods because it is so light and flavourful.”

Kgemere cocktail recipe:

 

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This kgemere inspiration is indicative of Chef Nti’s intention of always celebrating our heritage. She’s hoping to explore that even further with gin and local food favourites.

“You can take what you have at home that you grew up eating and alleviate it.”

She just bagged a TV gig on the Food Network channel called Street Food in Africa. For the chef it is a dream come true. The journey started in 2018 when she went to Dubai to Food Network’s head offices.

“Food Network is one of those channels you want to end up at when you are a food person. Who else is going to tell our stories of African food? We need to showcase that to the world.”