The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is putting its name on something stronger than beer and wine this football season. UNC Athletics has teamed up with Cape Fear Distillery to launch the Spirit of Carolina Collection, the school's first officially licensed Tar Heel-branded spirits line, debuting this weekend as UNC football hosts East Tennessee State in its home opener.
The four-product lineup includes Chapel Thrill Vodka, Old East Whiskey, Rams Head Silver Rum, and Best Blue Coconut Cream, according to CBS 17. Chapel Thrill Vodka draws its name from Chapel Hill's energy and Tar Heel spirit, while Old East Whiskey is named after UNC's Old East residence hall and Rams Head Silver Rum celebrates the university's ram mascot. Best Blue Coconut Cream, meanwhile, takes its inspiration from the blue color long associated with UNC athletic excellence.
Kenan Stadium will offer specialty cocktails made with the featured spirits during UNC home football games, per the same report. Fans can also find the collection at participating retailers, select area restaurants, and at Cape Fear Distillery's tasting rooms in Elizabethtown and Bald Head Island, with online ordering available to customers in states that allow spirits shipments.
An Alumnus Behind the Bottle
The distillery's founder, Alex Munroe, is a UNC alumnus who graduated in 1989 with a journalism degree, the station notes. Munroe told the outlet the Spirit of Carolina Collection is especially meaningful to him as a UNC graduate. He founded Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery in Elizabethtown in 2016, which later expanded to include a distillery and now includes a boutique resort, restaurant, spa, and events center.
Munroe's connection to Tar Heel athletics runs deeper than his diploma. According to Midtown Magazine, he was inspired to collect art and sports memorabilia after getting an autograph from legendary UNC basketball coach Dean Smith on a commercial flight when he was six years old.
Cape Fear Distillery has grown well beyond the Chapel Hill partnership in recent years. The company opened a second boutique distillery and tasting room on Bald Head Island in June 2025, as reported by Bald Head Island. The distillery also reached national shelves in March 2022, when its Cape Fear Rum was selected for onboard service across 22 ships in the Carnival Cruise Line fleet, according to Cape Fear Distillery. The company has additionally established the Cape Fear Distillery Conservation Foundation, which directs a portion of sales from products like its GameFish Vodka toward U.S. coastal ecological conservation initiatives.
Trademarks Filed Ahead of the Debut
UNC filed federal trademark applications for “OLD EAST WHISKEY” and “BEST BLUE” in August 2026 ahead of the collection's official release, according to Japanese Tar Heel, Inc. The Collegiate Licensing Company helped with the collection's packaging and branding, per CBS 17's report. Nicole Armentrout, the company's senior vice president of marketing, said the collection demonstrates the power of strategic licensing partnerships.
Rick Barakat, UNC Athletics' deputy athletic director and chief revenue officer, said the launch expands how fans engage with the UNC brand and celebrates UNC traditions and community. Per UNC Athletics, the products carry distinctive Tar Heel-inspired branding designed to resonate with fans on game day.
A Century of Kenan Stadium, and a Newer Legal Landscape
The timing carries extra weight this fall: the home opener where the collection debuts coincides with the 100th anniversary year of Kenan Stadium's opening, according to the Tar Heel Tribune. Stadium sales of any alcohol at North Carolina public university venues are a relatively recent development. Alcohol sales at these venues were first authorized statewide in June 2019, when Governor Roy Cooper signed House Bill 389, per the Carolina Journal. That law only authorized public university governing boards to permit stadium sales of beer and wine, leaving mixed spirits out of the earliest game-day concession options, the outlet reported.
UNC is not the only Triangle-area school to explore branded beverages as a revenue tool. North Carolina State University expanded its own collegiate beverage licensing in August 2023 by partnering with Raleigh-based R&D Brewing to release officially co-branded cans of Riviera Mexican-style lager, according to 247Sports. Craft distilleries themselves have only been able to sell bottles directly to consumers on-site since a 2018 North Carolina statutory change, per the Columbus County Economic Development Commission, a regulatory shift that helped make tasting rooms like Cape Fear's possible in the first place.
