A sensory explosion in Newtown
NEWTOWN – A number of companies partnered up to create a sensory explosion at one of the city's hotspots.
Distell brandy group hosted an event on 24 August, along with a neuro-marketing consultancy, Neural Sense, at the venue owned by the Life Grand Group, Gentlemen’s Arthouse, to show guests how their senses could be aroused by different sights, sounds, smells and tastes.
Hosted at the Edwardian-style venue which was once a public toilet, Distell brandy ambassador, Nick Holdcroft, explained how he’d planned to allow guests to experience the night. “Tonight is a sensory experience. When you taste a brandy – a decent pot still [a method of distillation] brandy – all your senses get involved. You see the shape of the bottle and judge it immediately. You smell it, you taste it, you feel it on your lips and those are all the factors that come into judging a brandy. Tonight, we thought we’d make it 10 times better.”
Guests were treated to a six-course dinner paired with six different drinks using pot still brandies which were prepared by some of the country’s top mixologists from the Life Grand Group.
In addition, Neural Sense allowed guests to become scientific test subjects and see how their brain reacted to the brandies by analysing their brain activity on their specially designed software.
“It was so interesting to see that my brain knew what I wasn’t going to enjoy and what I was going to enjoy before I even tasted it – just by the smell,” said one of the guests, Nadia Ismail.
“The neuro-scientific experiment combines electroencephalography, galvanic skin response, and facial coding to create a holistic representation of how the mind responds to certain stimuli,” added Mark Drummond, director of Neural Sense.
Guests also enjoyed acts by a burlesque dancer, fire dancer and a belly dancer – visual stimuli that really got the crowd going.
“Anyone who enjoys a fine brandy knows the pleasures one receives from South Africa’s most noble spirit. Using the neuro-scientific experiment enabled us to accurately quantify the sense of enjoyment for premium brandy on a personal and even subconscious level for the first time,” Holdcroft concluded.
