By R.L. Bynum
Tar Heels fans have long known how to celebrate a win, a rivalry, and pretty much anything involving the color Carolina blue. Now, for the first time, they can toast to it with something that shows their school spirit via official spirits.
UNC Athletics has teamed up with North Carolina-based Cape Fear Distillery to launch the Spirit of Carolina Collection, the university’s first officially licensed line of Tar Heels-branded spirits.
The lineup includes three liquors and a cream liqueur, each one leaning hard into Carolina lore: Chapel Thrill Vodka, Old East Whiskey (named for the university’s oldest residence hall), Rams Head Silver Rum and Best Blue Coconut Cream, a nod to the shade of blue Tar Heels insist has more history and winning tradition than any other blue more common a few miles away.
UNC’s licensing partner Learfield and the Collegiate Licensing Company developed the collection, which officially launches this weekend, timed to coincide with UNC football’s home opener against ETSU at Kenan Stadium.
Fans attending the game will be able to sample specialty cocktails made from the collection, so the tailgate lineup just got a little more interesting.
Rick Barakat, UNC Athletics’ deputy athletic director and chief revenue officer, described the launch as a new way for fans to connect with the program.
“This launch represents an exciting opportunity to expand how our fans engage with the UNC brand, while creating a unique product line that celebrates our traditions and community,” Barakat said in a UNC release. “We are also excited to align with a partner in Cape Fear Distillery and owner Alex Munroe, who has a personal connection to UNC and understands the deep love and passion our fans have for Carolina.”
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That personal connection runs deep. Munroe graduated from UNC in 1989 with a journalism degree before founding Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery in Elizabethtown in 2016, a property that has since grown to include a distillery, a lakeside resort, a zoological garden, a spa, an events center and, somewhat improbably, a celebrity art museum. For Munroe, bottling a piece of his alma mater felt like a natural next step.
“As a UNC graduate, bringing the Spirit of Carolina collection to life is especially meaningful,” Munroe said in the release. “My years at UNC provided me [with] incredible memories, lifelong friendships, and a passionate fan community like no other, and that’s what I hope our specially crafted beverage experiences and our new UNC-branded spirits can deliver for fellow Tar Heels.”
The full collection will be sold at Cape Fear Distillery’s tasting rooms in Elizabethtown and Bald Head Island, shipped online to states that allow it, and stocked at select retailers and restaurants across the region.
More fan activations tied to the collection are expected to roll out throughout the fall, which raises an obvious question heading into the ACC schedule: will there eventually be a signature cocktail for beating Duke?
No word on that yet, but Tar Heel fans will almost certainly be raising a glass either way.
Photo courtesy of UNC
