Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for BOMBAY SAPPHIRE
In the beloved 1995 comedy Tommy Boy, Rob Lowe’s character asks Tommy (played by Chris Farley) this important question: “Did you eat a lot of paint chips as a kid?” The reason is that eating paint chips is a pretty unintelligent hobby that can lead to brain damage and other maladies. As children, most of us learned that eating paint chips or imbibing paint in any capacity was bad news, but as adults, the rules are different. Would you drink a cocktail featuring edible paint?
Bombay Sapphire hopes so. The Bacardi-owned brand recently released a blue edible paint that’s designed to add a little pizzazz to your cocktail; it paints the glass and helps release flavors in gin and tonics.
The unassuming paint can is adorned with the words “Stir Creativity” and contains what appears to be basic, blue house paint. But, looks can and will be deceiving as this paint is not meant to paint your soon-to-be-born baby boy’s bedroom. It was created to add extra flair to your cocktail as well as a way to add to the overall taste experience.
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A simple swipe of the blue paint on the inside of a glass is all a bartender needs. Then, he or she prepares the gin and tonic as they desire.
The edible paint cocktail concept was created by a collaboration between Bombay Sapphire, Rich Woods (bartender and head of cocktail development at London’s Duck & Waffle), and alcoholic confectioners Smith & Sinclair (known for its boozy gummy candy as well as other products).
Sadly, in order to try this flavor-infusing and eye-pleasing paint in action, you’ll have to travel to Great Britain and visit one of the five participating bars to sip on an edible paint cocktail.
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The good news is that each bar has its own version of the edible paint cocktail so you can do a themed bar crawl. Mr. Fogg’s in Fitzrovia is using a citrusy calamansi (a citrus hybrid commonly found in the Philippines) paint. Duck & Waffle is using a floral, geranium paint. Tariff & Dale in Manchester is using a pineapple paint. Scout, also in London, is using Bergamot (the flavor of oil from a Sevilla orange rind). Outside of the London area, Edinburgh’s Panda and Sons is using grapefruit-flavored paint. That one might be a little harder to get to in your bar crawl, but at least it gives you a reason to visit England’s neighbors to the North.
