How Mariah Carey’s New Liqueur Brand Is Actually a Tribute to Her Heritage

Mariah Carey/Twitter

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Update: Mariah has teamed up with popular New York dessert maker Milk Bar on a Double Chocolate Caramel Cream Cake, inspired by Carey’s Black Irish Salted Caramel Liqueur. The limited-edition “chart-topping cake” (Milk Bar’s words, not ours) is a mix of chocolate chip cake and cheesecake with caramel, coffee crumble and frosting.

The six-inch cake retails for $80 online at MilkBarStore.com and is available for nationwide delivery, in addition to all of Milk Bar’s products. Milk Bar says this cake will only be available while quantities last.

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Mariah Carey is dipping her toes into the alcohol space with the launch of “Black Irish,” a new line of flavored Irish liqueurs designed for sipping or mixing as the perfect after dinner — or after party — drink.

Carey unveiled the brand in a sultry Instagram photo Monday, which features the singer sprawled out in the sand in a glittery gold gown while posing with a bottle of the new spirit in front of her. “Two years in the making,” Carey captioned the pic, along with her signature butterfly emoji.

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Available in stores and online now, the cream liqueur toasts to the singer’s love of a “festive” moment, while paying tribute to Carey’s mixed heritage – the singer was born to a Black-Venezuelan father and an Irish mother, hence the “Black Irish” label.

The accompanying tag line for the brand reads “a cause for celebration,” taking a lyric out of Carey’s party-starting hit, “It’s Like That” (off 2005’s, The Emancipation of Mimi).

While Carey has been known to request a “splash” of champagne at her concerts (full disclosure: she also once poured white wine into my cup as I sat front row at one of her residencies in Vegas), it seems her tastes have expanded to include a classic Irish Cream as well. Black Irish is launching with three flavors: Original, White Chocolate and Salted Caramel.

Per the brand’s website, the original blend features aromas of freshly-roasted coffee, chocolate, and rich spices, while the flavored white chocolate and salted caramel blends are sweeter and creamier. All three are ideal for sipping after a meal, spiking a dessert or mixing into a cocktail or coffee. Each 750 ml bottle has an ABV of 17%.

The accompanying bottles are sure to become collectible display pieces for fans of the singer (and bar cart #Shelfie fans) as well. Each bottle is adorned with Carey’s signature flourishes: an embossed butterfly on the label and raised butterfly branding on the shoulder of the bottle; her MC initials on the bottle neck; and the singer’s autograph — in gold, natch — set against a wrap-around band.

Black Irish comes almost a year after Carey released her long-awaited memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey. The singer and songwriter writes at length in the book about her experiences growing up biracial, and learning to understand — and eventually appreciate —  all “the shades and the shapes of us.” The new liqueur brand appears to be a continuation of Carey’s journey of self-discovery and the powerful re-claiming of her narrative.

Mariah Carey’s Black Irish is available to buy online now for $27.95 at TheBottleHaus.com. As for the book, The Meaning of Mariah Carey debuted at Number One on the New York Times Bestsellers list when it was released last September and has spawned a paperback version, which is due out later this fall.