Whether you’re ditching dessert for a post-dinner treat with a little more clout or starting your night with something so sugar-filled you won’t even need a Jagerbomb later, dessert cocktails are the epitome of indulgence. Cream, chocolate, syrup, even ice cream – it all gets better with the addition of a little alcohol. Or a lot.
Here’s where to find Brisbane’s sweetest.
Up on Constance | Fortitude Valley
If your dinner plans include a movie, skip the buttery popcorn and head for Up on Constance, where you’ll find the ultimate boozy substitute. Turns out, buttered popcorn-infused rum is a thing, and if you blend it with amaretto and and vanilla sugar syrup, it creates the Popcorn Thief, a cocktail even more delicious than those weirdly irresistible choc tops.
Canvas | Woolloongabba
You want dessert cocktails? You’ve got them if you head to Canvas, whether you like them sweet and creamy or fruity and frothy. Start with the L.P.R, a sweet but salty blend of patron, white cream cacao, salted caramel ice cream and pimento bitters, and finish (or just continue) with Penny’s Big Bang – basically raspberry lemon cheesecake in a glass.
Madame Wu | CBD
The classic espresso martini has had a chocolate loaded upgrade at Madame Wu, with chocolate crème, Tia Maria, double espresso and honeycomb creating a liquid Malteser that is definitely worth skipping dessert for. Will it go down well after pork dumplings? Only one way to find out!
The Fox Hotel | South Brisbane
Definitely one for the ladies, Dandys Rooftop’s Popping Candy Marshmallow Martini is as eye-popping as it is delicious. Marshmallow infused vodka is shaken with lemon butter and pineapple juicy and served with a rim of popping candy, just for good measure.
Blackbird | CBD
Like doughnuts? You’ve never tasted a doughnut like the one being shaken up at Blackbird. Spiced rum, treacle caramel syrup and doughnut milk (we don’t know what that is but we like it) combine with a dusting of cinnamon sugar dust to make Dunkin’ Doughnuts – like it’s namesake, only a million times better.
The End | West End
When life gives you lemons, screw lemonade, make limoncello. Better yet, head to The End, where they’ll mix that limoncello with vanilla vodka, elderflower liqeuer, Orgeat, egg white and a dash of lemon bitters with crème brulee foam. Or you know, just grab the tequila.
Soleil | South Bank
Sweet is an understatement when it comes to Soleil’s She’s a Daydreamer, a nectarious blend of Belvedere vodka, lemon and vanilla syrup, raspberry puree, lemonade and vanilla ice cream. Whoever decided alcohol and ice cream went together was an actual genius.
John Mills Himself | CBD
Cocktails with a side of racy political slurs? We’re in. You’re bound to get a giggle out of the Va Va Gina (Rinehart), even before you’ve downed three of the butter vodka (oh yeah), lemon curd and lemon juice drinks. Just don’t be childish guys, seriously.
The Retro Bar | Kenmore
Does anyone else remember Toblerone cocktails? You know, those ones you ordered when you were 18, and thought were so grown up – and then you discovered wine. Well The Retro Bar is bringing them back, with an epic mix of Baileys, Tia Maria, white crème de cacao, frangelioc, honey and cream.
Don’t blame us for the sugar-headache that comes with your hangover.
Words by Ranyhyn Akui
