Entries for the USBG Most Imaginative Bartender Competition presented by Bombay Sapphire gin will open on March 15, 2017.  This marks the 11th year that Bombay Sapphire has presented this competition. 

In fact, Bombay Sapphire believes that bartenders are artists.  And last year, to support the 10th anniversary of this competition, they brought bartending and art closer than ever by, quite literally, turning cocktail ingredients into paints.

Conceived by Bombay Sapphire’s creative agency partner BBDO New York, the brand took the most creative cocktails in this competition, broke them down into their basic ingredients and then used these ingredients to create paint pigments. Over 173 batches of paint were made from different cocktail ingredients like pistachio, beets, jalapeño pepper, lavender, mint, cinnamon, etc.

These paints were given to artists from the New York Academy of Art who brought to life each cocktail using its corresponding pigments. The collection of cocktail paintings was exhibited in an art gallery in Chelsea, NYC, drawing crowds from both the art and cocktail-making worlds.  For the first time people could simultaneously experience the drinks and the art that was created with those exact same ingredients.

It all culminated in the December issue of GQ Magazine where the winner of the competition was featured on a promotional cover as a portrait painted using the ingredients from his incredible cocktail.