About
The journey beginsAbout The Company
Inspired by our Fynbos Floral Kingdom and the Cape’s botanical and spice-infused history, alchemy and production are run by Jean-Baptiste Cristini.
OUR INSPIRATION
Our name is founded by the balance and structure one finds in Nature. Constantly inspired by our surroundings, Geometric Drinks seeks to harness all that the Cape has to offer, producing our own expression of botanical and grape-based drinks.
THE PRODUCER
Jean-Baptiste Cristini (Tista) was born and raised in the Cape to a South African mother and French father. Enthralled by wine since his early teens, he followed his patrilineal heritage to Burgundy, and then Champagne.
After over a decade in Chablis and Champagne, he finally returned home where he discovered the endless creativity and passion of the South African wine industry. This cocktail of French tradition and South African ingenuity made Tista thirsty for experimentation and harnessing the Cape’s unique surroundings.
Distilling had been a hobby for several years, prompted by home-brewing in Champagne with his friends and the immersion into experimentation and mixology, with his first love being the classic Negroni. On arrival back in the Cape in 2013, Tista decided to distil his own gin using the locally sourced botanicals. As this hobby grew, so did the desire to produce everything from scratch, even the components of the Negroni.
Nature & Conservation
Our passion for nature is reflected in our support of the Geometric Tortoise, a local inhabitant of the rehabilitated land where we first started harvesting wild botanicals for Geometric Gin and Symmetry Tonics.
With 95% of its previous fynbos and renosterveld habitat destroyed, the Geometric Tortoise is a critically endangered animal, affected by three key factors in Cape conservation: control of intensive agriculture, development of the local fynbos, and drought and fire hazard.
The areas where we pick botanicals are maintained under strict conservation laws and we practise sustainable picking and foraging which encourage endemic flora and fauna to propagate and develop.
The beauty of the shell has also been an inspiration: the precise yet gentle motif reflects the underlying ethos of our design and work.