Month: July 2020

Without Andy Samberg and Chris “Parns” Parnell catching a screening of The Chronicles of Narnia on the Upper West Side, it’s fair to wonder if there’d be no Hot Rod, no “Dick in the Box,” no Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which would be a tragedy.

“Lazy Sunday” was an immediate sensation. On the morning of December 17, 2005, the day the Jack Black-hosted episode of SNL aired, the Lonely Island, made up of Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone, were a niche comedy group; by the following Monday, the trio were iTunes chart-toppers and, as Samberg told the New York Times at the time, “I’ve been recognized more times since the Saturday it aired than since I started on the show. It definitely felt like something changed overnight.”

But “Lazy Sunday” wasn’t the Lonely Island’s SNL debut. “Lettuce” was.

There’s a reason you probably don’t remember “Lettuce,” which aired two weeks before “Lazy Sunday” reclaimed Magnolia Bakery from Sex and the City. It’s not available on Hulu or NBC.com or YouTube (the only active clip is on Tumblr, which is to say, it’s extremely low-res), and you won’t find it on any The 10 Best Lonely Island Sketches list. It would be a curiosity and otherwise forgotten, like many other mid-2000s SNL sketches (“Art Dealers” anyone?), if it didn’t, years later, lead to Palm Springs (so good) and “Jack Sparrow.” Bob Dylan didn’t become BOB DYLAN with his self-titled album — he became the Voice of a Generation with his second album. I’m not going to claim that the Lonely Island guys are also the voice of a generation, but, hypothetically, if they were, “Mona Lisa, you’re an overrated piece of sh*t / With your terrible style and your dead shark eyes” is a better era-defining lyric than that “blowin’ in the wind” hooey. Hypothetically.

“Lettuce” — which was cut during dress rehearsal from the Eva Longoria episode (November 19) before airing during the Dane Cook-hosted, James Blunt-musical guested episode (December 3) — is charmingly simple, lacking the catchy songs, CGI imagery, and guest stars of later Digital Shorts. Will Forte walks up to a glum-looking Samberg on the stoop of a New York City apartment. “I just keep trying to tell myself he’s in a better place, you know?” Samberg says to his pal, who responds, “You know, it’s all right to feel sad. But the pain goes away.” Forte then reveals that he’s been holding a head of lettuce this whole time, and he takes a huge honking bite out of it. Samberg later does the same with his own lettuce head. We never find out who the “he” is, but we do learn that the conversation between two grieving buddies is actually a commercial paid for by the “United Lettuce Growers Association.” Through good times and bad… lettuce.

The way things usually work at SNL is that if you have an idea for a sketch, you pitch it to your fellow cast members, writers, and the Grand Poobah himself, Lorne Michaels. And if you’re lucky enough to get a laugh in the room, you have to actually write the sketch. Then there’s a read-through, set building, makeup and costuming, and rehearsals, all while the soul of the joke slowly drains away through repetition. Live from New York, baby! But that’s not what the Lonely Island guys did for “Lettuce.” As newbies, with Taccone and Schaffer as writers and Samberg as a featured player, they made it during their spare time. “We knew if we had to pitch it and go through the table and get a budget, we weren’t going to be allowed to do it because we were so new,” Schaffer told GQ back in 2012. “It would have cost a lot of money and been a big deal, so we just decided to skip all that. And a few weeks later it got on air… We had total freedom.”

“Lettuce,” it’s worth noting, is extremely dumb. That’s a compliment, as the Lonely Island does dumb as well as anyone. It takes an expert (or, in this case, experts) to come up with something as profoundly stupid as a socially-awkward dweeb teaming up with Rihanna to rob a bank, only for the shy nerd to get a “boner alert!” during the heist. “Lettuce” isn’t on the level of “Laser Cats” (or “Laser Cats 2” or “Laser Cats! 3D” or “Laser Cats! 4 Ever” or “James Cameron’s Laser Cats 5” or “Laser Cats 6: The Musical!” or “Laser Cats 7”), and it was written by Forte, not Samberg, Schaffer, and/or Taccone, but it set the template for 100-plus Digital Shorts to come. It was also SNL‘s online breakthrough; 15 years later, millions watch the best sketches on YouTube the next day.

The Lonely Island departed SNL in 2012, but when I (regularly) re-watch their old work, I get the same thrill seeing the familiar “An SNL Digital Short” title card as I do when I hear the HBO static. And that’s, in part, because of “Lettuce.” Beautiful, stupid “Lettuce.”

The Lonely Island’s latest effort, ‘Palm Springs,’ premieres this weekend on Hulu.

Interview Magazine often puts artists together for a chat, and the result is usually a fascinating conversation. Their most recent pairing is Phoebe Bridgers and The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, the latter of whom humbled himself and admitted he was “just kind of a sh*t” early in his career.

At one point in the interview, Flowers noted, “I used to be — what would the word be — I was just kind of a sh*t. When we first started, I used to trash talk a lot of people.” Towards the end of the conversation, Bridgers circled back to that point and asked him to elaborate. He explained that he loved Oasis growing up, and since the Gallagher brothers are famously confrontational, he worked that into his persona early in his career, saying:

“Oh, I talked about other bands. I grew up idolizing Oasis, and they wrote great songs, but they were also just big sh*t-talkers. For some reason, I thought to gain respect that was part of the territory. And that’s not who I am at all, but there were a few people I ended up calling and apologizing to later on. Then there are still people that I said things about, and I still carry it with me. I still need to apologize to them. I did it to John Mayer.”

He then described the apology, which happened when the two happened to be in the same Los Angeles restaurant:

“I was at a restaurant in LA, and he comes and sits at a table right near us, and you just feel so bad. I walked up to the table, and he was in the middle of a circle. It wasn’t a square table — he was in between people, so I couldn’t just talk to him. I just addressed the whole table, and I was like, ‘I said this about John, and I regret it, man, and I’m sorry.’ He was really gracious about it. The world doesn’t need more negativity.”

In an April 2005 Rolling Stone interview, Flowers was asked, “If you went to Hell, what song would be playing over and over?” He responded, “What song do I hate? I think ‘Daughters,’ by John Mayer, would be a good candidate. I don’t know why he bugs me so bad. ” A few months later, in an August 2005 column for Esquire, Mayer addressed Flowers’ then-disdain of him, taking the high road and writing, “The Killers’ lead singer doesn’t like me, but he can eat it. I think he has some great tunes.”

Read Flowers and Bridgers’ full conversation here.

The search continues in the disappearance of Glee star Naya Rivera following her swimming accident at a Ventura County lake. Authorities revealed on Thursday that the operation had shifted to a recovery mission, and Naya has been presumed dead.

The updates only grew grimmer with law enforcement admitting (via People) that they “don’t know” whether Naya’s body will ever be found, given that the lake’s filled with debris, and it can take anywhere from a week to ten days for a body to surface after a drowning. Late Thursday, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Captain Eric Buschow declared, according to ABC 13, that “there’s no evidence of foul play at this point.” He was followed by Deputy Chris Dyer, who added, “There are no signs of foul play; there are no signs of anything wrong besides a tragic accident.”

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office released this CCTV footage from a security camera that shows Naya and her son, Josey, arriving and departing from the dock at Lake Piru.

CBS Los Angeles was among the first to report the sad news of Naya’s disappearance after she and Josey had rented and deployed a pontoon boat early Wednesday afternoon. At some point, a swimming accident occurred within the next few hours, and Rivera’s child was discovered alone in the boat about three hours after the pair embarked upon the lake.

The child, who was sleeping unharmed upon discovery, told investigators that he and Rivera, age 33, had gone swimming in the Ventura County lake, “but his mother never got back into the boat.” As of Thursday, the child had been reunited with his father, Ryan Dorsey, and Josey’s reportedly “in good health.”

(Via People, ABC 13, CBS Los Angeles & CNN)

It’s pretty remarkable that Palm Springs, a movie which has a time loop as its central story beat, was first conceived without a time loop. Director Max Barbakow and writer Andy Siara conceived this project, at first, based on just that feeling that daily repetition that so many of us feel even before the pandemic started. Of course, now, it’s not lost on both of them that the film takes on an even deeper meaning.

But in its conception, it was influenced by movies about the daily minutia of life. Film’s like Rachel Getting Married, Patterson, Inside Llewyn Davis, and Anomalisa are all listed as influences. (As a lover of all of those movies, it’s no wonder I like Palm Springs so much.) Eventually, they landed on a literal time loop, then enlisted Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti to star as Nyles and Sarah, characters both stuck in an infinite time loop coinciding with Sarah’s sister’s wedding in Palm Springs.

Palm Springs wound up being a massive success at Sundance, setting a record for the most money ever paid for a film. It was also under sad circumstances because just a couple hours before the premiere the news broke about Kobe Bryant’s death, which, I remember, was heavy in the air as the lights went down. Ahead, Max Barbakow and writer Andy Siara take us through what that particular premiere was like, and then take us through all the films that influenced this funny and very weird movie.

My recollection of the Sundance Premiere was it was the day Kobe Bryant died, everyone was in a sad mood, and the movie started and everyone started laughing. It was therapeutic. Were you pleased how it was received?

Max Barbakow: We had some test screenings and I sat in the back during those and I couldn’t really feel how the movie played and I swore I would never do it again. And then the premiere happened and I sat in the back. And I knew we got a laugh during the Lonely Island Classics card coming up with a room full of acquisitions people, so that was beautiful to know that we got a laugh out of the way. But still, it was a crazy emotional experience for us, because it was like we were giving the movie away to the world at large. I can’t say I had any indication of how it played because I was sitting in the back until afterwards. I knew people liked it, but I’m glad. I don’t know how you felt, Andy. I just was in the back paralyzed with emotion during the thing.

Andy Siara: Yeah. I was paralyzed with emotion and all that. Once people laughed during the Lonely Island Classics card, that put me at ease a little bit, But, yeah, it was just a weird day.

And now the film has new meaning, with people being at home and kind of living the same day every day.

Siara: Obviously we could never have predicted that. I think Max and I were both, during those few years of talking about this movie, each in our own lives, were feeling this daily repetition. And I remember we talked about Paterson, that Jim Jarmusch movie.

Oh, I love that movie.

Siara: As we were coming up with a movie still, what we found was at least we’re in this together. Either be it me and Max in this together, or me and my wife, not having to go through this shit alone. So I think that line has taken on a new, more powerful meaning in the past four months of not having to go through this shit alone.

At the premiere you were asked about Groundhog Day and responded, “Never heard of it.” So obviously you knew that question was coming at some point. Did you consider referencing it in the movie?

Siara: That was brought up, and then we decided to not directly reference it, but people know. Our goal was just to try to take it in a different direction, which is why the movie starts where it does. And this is a sequel to a movie that doesn’t exist. There’s probably a whole lot of movie that can happen when Nyles gets first stuck in that time loop that we don’t do because far more talented, smarter people have already done that movie.

And you kept the whole “time loop” aspect a secret before Sundance. Why? When people found out they were very excited.

Barbakow: It was very, very fun doing press and withholding that information, and I personally loved going into stuff blind. I don’t think there was any way of bringing this movie out into the real world, especially after it was reviewed at Sundance, where people wouldn’t know. But I think there’s enough in there, once you get past the time loop, more surprises and twists and turns and subversion.

See, I kind of like the rules to this universe in comparison to the rules of Groundhog Day. Like how if you can stay awake long enough you can travel anywhere.

Siara: Once we decided to just do the time loop thing, a couple of years into talking about this movie and trying to figure out this movie…

Wait, it wasn’t always a time loop?

Siara: No, no. We just knew we wanted to do something was that “contained.” Rachel Getting Married was a big influence.

No wonder I like this movie. You keep mentioning movies I love.

Barbakow: And then Anomalisa and The Lobster came out. A lot about Inside Llewyn Davis and even The Great Beauty. And it started as a hipster goes to Las Vegas or to Palm Springs to die and weird metaphysical fissures happened. You’re giving us way too much credit if you thought we knew that we were going to always be the time loop.

Again, you list all these influences and it’s no wonder I like this movie. That’s a lot of my favorite movies of the last decade.

Siara: Yeah. That’s where so much of it came from, and then once the time loop stuff got in there, there was a base set of rules and through the writing of it I realized like, oh, there’s a problem here. And then Max and I would put our heads together like, okay, what is our role here? Different problems arise that we did not know, or we did not initially realize when it comes to a time loop. It’s like the mathematics of it all, so there was never one single session that was like, “Let’s come up with our rules.” It was running into roadblocks along the way. Or logical bumps along the way. Then we would talk and figure out our way around it.

What was the biggest roadblock, time loop wise?

Siara: It seems so silly to focus on it: but what time they wake up and where Sarah is versus where Nyles is. So, to me, I think Sarah wakes up at nine o’clock every day, and Myles is always 20 minutes later.

See that’s clever, because she always has a head start and there’s nothing he can do about it.

Siara: Right, because no matter what happens, there’s no way that he could ever wake up earlier and get there in time before she gets up.

So at one point, they celebrate Nyles’ millionth birthday. How long have they actually been in the loop?

Barbakow: Definitely long enough for Nyles to forget what his life was like outside the loop. And definitely, definitely many, many moons. I don’t think we ever explicitly put a number on it, but a very, very, very long time.

Siara: Looking back on our own lives, we go through something ten years ago that seemed so big and important to us, and then ten years later we have whatever wisdom that comes with time and age. And people can get over things in different ways. I think the Nyles sense of truly not knowing who he was or what he did before he got trapped in this loop, so therefore it has to have been, like what Max said, long enough for that to happen. Long enough for the petty things to be pushed aside.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

The Office is an international franchise, with multiple adaptations across the globe, but the original series, the one that premiered on the BBC in 2001, is still arguably the best. (The American Office is obviously great, too, but at least the British Office didn’t have a David Brent/Michael Scott-less season nine.) If it debuted in 2020, however, the show’s creator Ricky Gervais doesn’t think it would be nearly as beloved due to “outrage mobs.”

In an interview with Times Radio on Friday, the five-time Golden Globes host said that contemporary audiences would take things too “literally.” Gervais continued, “There are these outrage mobs who take things out of context. This was a show about everything – it was about difference, it was about sex, race, all the things that people fear to even be discussed or talked about now, in case they say the wrong thing and they are canceled… People want to keep their jobs, so would worry about some of the subjects and jokes, even though [we] were laughing at this buffoon being uncomfortable around difference… Some people have lost their sense of irony and context.”

Is Gervais accurate? Who knows. But at least he’s not giving terrible SNL advice.

(Via Evening Standard)

Katy Perry has been building up to something with her singles over the past year, and now we officially know what: Perry has announced that her next album is called Smile, and it’s coming out on August 14. She shared the title track today, and it’s an upbeat tune from a place of optimism. Perry sings of finding happiness again on the song, singing on the hook, “Yeah, I’m thankful / Scratch that, baby: I’m grateful / Gotta say it’s really been a while / But now I got back that smile.”

Perry revealed the album art yesterday, which features her wearing a clown nose and a disappointed expression, with the album title taking up the bottom two fifths of the frame. She also tweeted of the song “Smile,” “I wrote the title track from the album when I was coming through one of the darkest periods of my life and had lost my smile. This whole album is my journey towards the light – with stories of resilience, hope, and love.”

A demo version of the song featuring Diddy leaked in May, although the rapper does not appear on the officially released version of the single.

The Smile tracklist has not yet been shared, but pre-order links note the album will run for 37 minutes across 12 tracks. Along with the title track, the previously released singles “Never Really Over,” “Daisies,” and “Harleys In Hawaii” are included. Meanwhile, Perry’s other singles from the past year, “Small Talk” and “Never Worn White,” do not appear to be on the album.

Listen to “Smile” above.

Smile is out 8/14 via Capitol Records. Pre-order it here.

On one of this week’s episodes of Fake Doctors, Real Friends, Zach Braff and Donald Faison invited their old friend and former Scrubs cast mate, Ken Jenkins, onto the show. Jenkins played Dr. Kelso on the series, and he proved to be an unexpected delight on the episode, nothing like the more villainous Dr. Kelso of the first season of the sitcom, and everything like the more sweet-hearted version of Dr. Kelso, who kissed Laverne on the forehead on her deathbed, and who had his doctors backs’ when needed.

However, the more interesting part of the episode came when a fan was invited on to ask a couple of questions. Both were directed at Faison. In the first, Faison was asked who he thinks could have played Dr. Turk had he not landed the role, and if timing wasn’t an issue. Unsurprisingly, Faison said Dulé Hill — the West Wing star who had a similar Zach and J.D. dynamic with James Roday on the long-running Psych — but the other two possibilities were a little more surprising: Jaleel White (Urkel from Family Matters) “would have crushed that role,” as would have Damon Wayans, Jr., if he were older back then, Faison said. (Braff’s answer for who could play J.D., for the record, was Ben Platt).

However, the even more interesting part was when Faison spilled a little tea about playing basketball with longtime best friends, Leo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. As Faison tells it, he was in Miami when “Leo and Tobey invited me” to play basketball. “This was one of the biggest moments of my life,” Faison says on the podcast, because “as a young actor, to me, Leonardo DiCaprio is the best actor in the world … I don’t think that anyone is better than him when it comes to my peers, people my age.”

In Miami, the three play on the same team, “and we play against some Floridians in a 3-on-3 game, and we win. And I remember thinking, ‘I have arrived. I played ball with Leo. I played ball with Tobey. We were on the same team. It’s happening! I’m going to be in the next Spider-Man. I can feel it!”

“I was wrong,” Faison said, deflated.

Subsequent to their game in Miami, Leo and Tobey invited Faison out to play again at someone’s house, and this time, when Faison arrived, Maguire said, “I don’t want to be on his team. I won’t have any fun on his team.” It is worth noting, too, that Tobey Maguire has a reputation for being both very competitive and sometimes cruel, if one believes Molly Blooms’ book, Molly’s Game, about a regular celebrity poker game Molly Bloom created and that Tobey Maguire ultimately had a hand in destroying, but not before Maguire humiliated Bloom in front of Ben Affleck and others. (Bloom’s book was subsequently turned into a movie written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, where Michael Cera played the Maguire role).

Hearing that “I won’t have any fun on his team” naturally upset Faison, who had had such a good experience in Miami with him and DiCaprio. “I took offense to it … and I was like, ‘OK, fine.’ And I proceeded bust their ass on their court!”

“Aaaaaaand,” Faison added, “I never got invited back.”

“Yeah, you got to be not too good. That’s the trick to playing with fancy celebrities,” Braff said.

“Right,” Faison agreed. “You got to make it feel that they can compete on their level. You have to bring them up to your level. You have to be the LeBron James. You have to score buckets, but you have to make them feel like they’re doing their thing.”

And that was Faison’s brief flirtation at a friendship with the biggest A-list stars of the time.

Meanwhile, Faison did concede that he has been outplayed by a number of other celebrities on the basketball court, as well. When asked to name the best celebrities he’s played against, Faison name checks Michael B. Jordon, Brian McKnight, Jesse Williams, and James Lesure, the Good Girls star Faison believes may be the best he’s every played.

Source: Fake Doctors, Real Friends

Netflix drops a prestige drama and a new twist on the action-comic-book genre this week. Charlize Theron stars in a different kind of superhero story with The Old Guard, a movie that follows a supernatural group of mercenaries as they take on a dangerous new threat. And Cate Blanchett plays a cult leader in Stateless, which might be one of the better drama offerings from the streamer in recent years.

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix this week of July 10.

The Old Guard (Netflix film streaming 7/10)

Charlize Theron heads up this inventive action flick based on a best-selling graphic novel. Theron plays Andy, the leader of a covert group of immortal mercenaries who’ve lived centuries in the shadows, fighting off the worst of humankind. When they’re group is exposed, and their abilities come to light, Theron and her team face a new threat, one hoping to weaponize their powers for their own gain.

Stateless (Netflix original streaming 7/8)

Cate Blanchett plays a cult leader in this prestige drama from Netflix. Based on a true story, the show follows the story of a white woman named Sofie (The Handmaid’s Tale star Yvonne Strahovski), who finds herself drawn to a group of fanatics, betrayed, and then tossed in an Australian immigration detention center. The story of how she escapes touches on everything from mental health to anti-immigrant sentiment and the plight of refugees, and it’s a thrilling watch.

Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:

Avail. 7/5
ONLY

Avail. 7/6
A Kid From Coney Island

Avail. 7/7
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax

Avail. 7/8
The Long Dumb Road
Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado (Netflix Documentary)
Stateless: Season 1 (Netflix Original)
What Is Love? (Netflix Original)
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Season 1

Avail. 7/9
Japan Sinks: 2020 *Netflix Anime
The Protector: Season 4 *Netflix Original

Avail. 7/10
The Claudia Kishi Club (Netflix Documentary)
Down to Earth with Zac Efron (Netflix Original)
The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants in Space (Netflix Family)
Dating Around: Brazil (Netflix Original)
The Old Guard (Netflix Film)
The Twelve (Netflix Original)

And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:

Leaving 7/11
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III
The Adderall Diaries
Enemy
Ginger & Rosa
Locke
The Spectacular Now
Under the Skin

Leaving 7/12
Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain

Leaving 7/15
Forks Over Knives

Dua Lipa’s 2020 has been propelled by fans and critics praising her sophomore album Future Nostalgia. The album arrive nearly three years after her self-titled debut album and landed on numerous 2020 mid-year best-of lists. Unfortunately, following the success of the album, Lipa was unable to tour as the world was under quarantine following the rapid spread of the coronavirus.

In lieu of performing, Lipa has now unleashed a new single from her hit album, “Hallucinate.” The animated video, styled after early cartoons from a century ago, begins with Lipa performing in a mostly black-and-white club. After smelling a flower, though, the proceedings get colorful and more psychedelic.

Lipa recently revealed in an interview on the UK radio show Official Big Top 40 Sunday that the quarantine could push her closer to her third album, saying, “I probably will start thinking about my new album sooner rather than later. Just because I’ll probably have a bit of time to maybe go to the studio at some point and, kind of, get back in.”

Lipa also recently joined over 1,500 artists to call on the UK government to help save live music. Writing to Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the artists insisted that “government support will be crucial to prevent mass insolvencies, and the end of this great world-leading industry.”

Watch the “Hallucinate” video above.

Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Texas whiskey scene is one of the most fun whiskey microcosms outside of Kentucky and Tennessee. The warmer climates allow the juice to age (and take on oak notes) a bit more quickly than they would in cooler environments and the local agriculture adds a unique dimension to the various whiskey expressions. One of the shining examples of Texas’s whiskey output is found in Waco, at Balcones Distilling.

Full disclosure, I ride for Balcones pretty hard. I found them when I was searching for blue corn whiskeys. As a food writer covering (and cooking) Indigenous food, I find that blue corn tortillas and cornbread have a much richer flavor than standard yellow or white corn varieties. So I figured whiskey made with blue corn must also be intrinsically better. That’s how I stumbled upon Balcones and the outstanding work head distiller Jared Himstedt is doing with the cereal grain.

After years of testing their various expressions, I traveled from my home in Berlin to the Balcones headquarters in Waco. It was a dream trip — with lots of roadside barbecue, a fair number of Dr. Peppers, and some excellent drams of Lone Star State whiskey. My love of the brand only deepened on that (pre-quarantine) adventure, so I was only too happy to run a taste-through of their core line last week, along with food writer and influencer Caitlin Sakdalan.

Check out our tasting notes below!

Baby Blue Blue Corn Whisky

ABV: 46%
Average Price: $45

The Whisky:

This is a great intro bottle to the distillery. The juice is made with 100 percent Hopi Blue Corn that’s grown sustainably in western Texas, along the New Mexico border. The mash is twice distilled and then aged in small-format, five-gallon oak barrels in Balcones’ rickhouse. Finally, mineral water from Texas’ Hill Country is used to cut the whisky down to a manageable 46 percent ABV.

Tasting Notes:

Clear notes of browned butter mingle with a sense of cinnamon spice, toffee, and vanilla. More butter mixes with a wave of bright fruits (carrying a sweet edge). Brown sugar, worn leather, and a hint of dark chocolate pop with the addition of a little water. The finish is short and full of spice, fruit, leather, and buttery goodness.

Value Per Dollar %: $45 may feel high, but this is a well-crafted with a sustainable and unique cereal grain base. 100%

True Blue 100 Proof Blue Corn Whisky

ABV: 50%
Average Price: $57

The Whisky:

This is the same juice as the Baby Blue. The difference is simply that less of that mineral-heavy Texas Hill Country water is added, leaving a higher ABV.

Tasting Notes:

The fruit is more front-and-center on the nose but is still supported by a bit of spice and sugar. There’s a real leatheriness and a serious sense of oak char next to hints of salted caramel and bitter black tea. Dark berries and chocolate whisper in the background as the sip slowly fades away.

Value Per Dollar %: Again, this seems reasonably priced for a high-ABV expression of something truly unique. 100%

True Blue Cask Strength Straight Corn Whisky

ABV: 65.7%
Average Price: $65

The Whisky:

This, again, is the same juice as the Baby Blue and 100 Proof but is from barrels that hit just the right spot to be bottled directly.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a lot going on here — from notes of pecans to buttered crusty toast to grapefruit. The sip leans into a maple syrup sweetness with a dried fruit underbelly. A little water helps the more fragrant florals release. The dram takes its time on the senses and fades through those florals, sweet notes, and ends on a clear sense of barrel warmth and bitterness.

Value Per Dollar %: One dollar per ABV feels like a fair price to drink something made from blue corn. 100%

Texas Single Malt Classic Edition

ABV: 53%
Average Price: $75

The Whisky:

Jared Himstedt has one of the best collections of Scotch single malts I’ve seen outside of Scotland. This expression is his salute to the classic style. The juice is made from 100 percent malted barley in copper pot stills before aging in variously sized barrels before getting finished in a single, large barrel. The final product is a single malt unlike any other that’ll help you fall in love with the style.

Tasting Notes:

Hints of pears and bananas greet you with a sense of rose water and citrus. The sip shines with a feel of rich, sweet, and bitter marmalade with a base of sourdough toast dripping with rich, creamy butter. This sip is like a warm hug that you didn’t know you needed.

The dram fades slowly through the senses as burnt sugar, cedar, and honey notes linger on the palate.

Value Per Dollar %: Single malts are not cheap. $75 is the price of a decent one from Scotland. Still, this could easily be a $100 bottle. 125%

Brimstone A Smoked Whisky

ABV: 53%
Average Price: $57

The Whisky:

This is the perfect backyard BBQ summer sipper. The juice is the same as Baby Blue. But, before the juice goes into the barrel, it’s smoked with Texas Scrub Oak. So, instead of smoking the corn before mashing, they’re actually smoking the liquid before aging. That process makes for one hell of a unique and delicious dram.

Tasting Notes:

Graham crackers pop upfront with hints of peaches. There’s a sense of an old smoker that’s held a lot of fatty smoked meats. More smoked meat and even smoky butter (fat really) with a clear note of dry tobacco leaves and a hint of dried chili peppers mingle on the palate. There’s a wisp of orange underneath the smokiness and the most fleeting whisper of fresh mint.

Value Per Dollar %: Again, the uniqueness of this juice and the extra steps in the process make this very affordable at the $50 mark. 150%

Check out the whole tasting below: