When we stepped into The Spirits Library on opening night last September 4, the air felt charged with the sort of warmth only old friends and kindred spirits can create. Familiar faces from the food industry mingled with art collectors and creatives, their conversations looping between flavor and form, brushstroke and balance. The clink of glasses made a rhythm of its own. Cocktails moved from hand to hand, a little sparkle in the lamplight, and the night quickly found its merriment.

The evening’s centerpiece was "When Cocktails Imitate Art," a collaboration between Fundacion Sansó and The Spirits Library that runs through October 4. Five of Juvenal Sansó’s works, from his vibrant floral still lifes to his famed Brittany seascapes, inspired a collection of cocktails crafted by the bar’s mixologists. Each drink was not just an interpretation but an extension of the canvas.

One of the more striking pairings came with the floral piece En Vase Floral “With Grandiosity and Splendor.” The mixologists translated its exuberance into Martinique Rhum, chamomile and cherry cordial, and egg white. Across the room, guests compared impressions of A Universe of Things, a turquoise-toned Sansó work from the 1960s, which the bar brought to life with Beefeater Gin, Génépi Liqueur, and a whisper of kinchay flowers, the blue Curacao catching the light like a brushstroke in glass.

The mood shifted when Stars of the Earth arrived. The cocktail carried layers of smoke and earth: Código Blanco, Martell VS Cognac, mezcal, Braulio, Bénédictine, and osmanthus tea. It was complex, enigmatic—“a mysterious blend,” as one bartender described, that demanded attention the way the painting does on the wall.

For the Brittany Series, Exalted in Surf and Rocks found its echo in a flute of elderflower cordial, kombu-infused gin, peach, and prosecco, crowned with chocolate rocks that slowly altered the drink as they dissolved. Guests lingered over the transformation. Meanwhile, Calm Sea Spray refreshed the palate with Havana Club, pineapple aloe cordial, olive brine, and jasmine tea, a composition as gentle as its namesake.

The paintings themselves lined the intimate corners of the bar, inviting slow gazes between sips. To stand with a glass in hand and meet Sansó’s vision head-on gave the night a rare balance: drink and art in dialogue, neither overpowering the other. As one guest said quietly, “It’s like drinking the painting.”

Sales from the Sansó cocktails will benefit the foundation’s scholarship fund for art students, a gesture that tied the night’s indulgence back to a greater cause. And for those wanting a keepsake, limited-edition glassware hand-painted by artists was available, each piece as singular as the drinks poured that night.

The collaboration runs until October 4 at The Spirits Library in Makati. Until then, the art of Sansó lives not only on canvas but also in the glass.