Root Beer Flip Foundation Downtown Raleigh Website I shy away from cocktails that have soda as a main ingredient—I prefer less dilution and more thoughtful ingredient combinations than soda-based drinks usually reflect. The root beer flip at Foundation, however, is an absolutely delicious cocktail that I don’t regret breaking that rule for at all. The
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Mole-Mole bu·ku, Downtown Raleigh This thick cocktail should be listed as a dessert. With both chocolate vodka and crème de cacao in the ingredient list, it’s awfully close to drinking a Mexican hot chocolate in cold cocktail form. The Navan, which is a vanilla cognac as I just learned, is very subtle in the mixture.
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Qahweh Sitti, Downtown Raleigh Website $9 The Qahweh is a coffee cocktail made with espresso, Stoli Vanil, Bailey’s Irish cream, simple syrup, and a thimbleful of espresso beans. It is served frothy with a few ice chips in the mix, which I always enjoy. The Irish cream is by far the strongest taste, and that’s
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Christina G. (@yelpnctriangle), the wonderful manager of Yelp for our area, invited me plus the husband to come to their free Pop Culture Palooza event this last Friday. Pop Culture was a bit hard to dress for, so we didn’t attempt costumes, but there were a few mild takes on Lady Gaga’s style and plenty
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Cosmopolitan Wild Turkey Loft at the Angus Barn Raleigh Website $10 The Cosmopolitan is my favorite drink, for its high level of alcohol that comes with cranberry and citrus splashes to help it go down. There are many varieties of the drink, mainly tweaks on the amount of cranberry used and types of citrus juice,
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The TLC Martini Wild Turkey Lounge at the Angus Barn Raleigh Website $8.25 (I think) The Wild Turkey Lounge is the upstairs bar at the Angus Barn. It used to be the cigar lounge, but I imagine it’s actually doing much better business without the cigar smoking. It’s definitely got that barn feeling, and with
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Two weeks ago, the Busy Bee invited me out to a promotional event for Cruzan 9, a new spiced rum. Appetizers and drinks were provided for free and highlighted a range of Cruzan’s offerings, in both cocktails and cooking explorations. The Busy Bee cleared their liquor shelves of all but Cruzan’s several flavored rums, and
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Absente Minded Posta Tuscan Grille, Raleigh Website $12 The Absente Minded cocktail, which I tried at the Triangle Foodie Tweetup held last week at Posta Tuscan Grille, was a delightful, satisfying, smooth cocktail. I enjoyed it so much that night that I came back the next one for another before heading to the Adam Lambert
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Caipirosca Bahama Breeze, Raleigh Website A caipirosca is the Russian version (read: vodka) of a caipirinha, a Brazilian cocktail made with cachaça, lime, and sugar. Bahama Breeze takes the change in base liquors a step further by subbing in mango vodka. The sugar is replaced by a mango puree, but the lime stays the same.
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White Satin Bahama Breeze, Raleigh Website This drink started out very, very well. It’s a delicious combination of coconut rum, Cointreau, coconut milk, and just a hint of ginger. Served in a large martini glass, the first half of the drink was a heavenly blend of those elements, with the orange and ginger flavors highlighting
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