[imagesource: Instagram / Pantone]

Pantone’s Color of The Year was chosen as an unconventional shade for an unconventional time.

Vibrating with vim and vigour, it is a shade rooted in nature descending from the red family and expressive of a new signal of strength.

The stand-alone shade is Viva Magenta 18-750, welcoming anyone and everyone with the same verve for life and rebellious spirit to experiment and express without restraint.

According to the colour experts, the bold but soft red straddles between nature and digital, creating new opportunities for us to express ourselves with confidence and bravery:

 

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Besides wearing the colour in various forms, another excellent way to integrate Viva Magenta into your year is with a delicious cocktail.

Forbes notes that scores of bars and restaurants are creating gorgeous cocktails inspired by Viva Magenta, from a gin, lime juice and plum liquor cocktail to another made with bourbon, hibiscus, lemon, saffron liqueur, and pineapple.

Plum, pomegranate, red dragon fruit, cranberry, beet juice, hibiscus and all the berries are some of the popular go-to ingredients to create the bold and fun Viva Magenta colour in your drink.

It turns out, Kinship Spirits is already ahead of the curve with its Karo Brandy concoctions:

With roots in the Klein Karoo, the finest grapes were planted and conjured by the hands of the heroine Karo – a wild-haired goddess who infused her sacred earth with nurturing spells to create Karo Brandy.

She is depicted on the bottle’s tarot card label, floating above the beautiful Karoo landscape while inviting us to share the fruits of her magic.

Viva Magenta also evokes a sense of mystery capable of “imbibing us with a primordial signal of strength” per Pantone, so we’re on the right track here.

Try any one of these three Karo/Viva Magenta-inspired cocktails to stay ahead of the colour curve this year.

This one has hibiscus:

 

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A post shared by Karo Cape Brandy (@karobrandyxo)

While this one favours grapefruit:

 

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A post shared by Karo Cape Brandy (@karobrandyxo)

Or you can dabble with some maraschino cherries:

 

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A post shared by Karo Cape Brandy (@karobrandyxo)

Karo Cape Brandy XO is double distilled in copper pot stills and matured in French oak barrels for 13 years, resulting in a unique flavour combination of delicate dried peaches and litchi, with a hint of indigenous herbs from the Karoo bush.

Shop for a bottle of the Karo Brandy on the Kinship Spirits website.

Viva Magenta will never look this good again.

[sources:forbes&pantone]