Month: February 2021

Evan Williams bourbon is one of those whiskeys that feels like it’s everywhere. The line of budget bourbons from Heaven Hill is a rail standard, thanks to its accessible price point, availability, and taste. But there’s more than just one Evan Williams out there.

There are actually five core bottles in the Evan Williams line (plus a lot of flavored bourbons and 12 and 23-year-old bourbon limited edition expressions). The line starts with the very affordable Green Label which is a standard 80 proof bourbon. That expression will set you back $10 or less (depending on what liquor store you’re in). From there, Evan Williams touches on bottled-in-bond, small-batch, and single barrel expressions — but the prices never reach above $30.

That’s pretty incredible in a bourbon world where prices continue to soar.

The five bottles below are ranked very simply: By taste. There was no reason to factor in price when ranking these. Let’s get to it!

5. Evan Williams Green Label

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $10

The Whiskey:

This is Heaven Hill’s signature bourbon mash bill with a touch of rye: 78 percent corn, 12 percent malted barley, and ten percent rye. That mash is the same for their much-beloved Elijah Craig and Henry McKenna labels. This juice is aged for four years before it’s proofed all the way down to 40 proof with soft limestone water.

Tasting Notes:

This is very run-of-the-mill bourbon with clear notes of caramel, vanilla, and oak on the nose with a hint of citrus. That citrus starts to feel like orange candy wrappers and maybe a touch of Hawaiian Punch sweetness/fruitiness. The caramel and oak slightly pop back in on the super short finish.

Bottom Line:

This is 100 percent a mixing whiskey for hefty cocktails. And for this price, that makes it the perfect bourbon to practice with as you experiment with whiskey cocktails.

4. Evan Williams Black Label

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $15

The Whiskey:

This is more of an entry-point for Evan Williams. The juice is a mix of four to seven-year-old barrels of the standard Heaven Hill bourbon. The difference in this bottle is that it’s proofed at a slightly higher 43 proof, giving it a slight edge against the Green Label.

Tasting Notes:

There’s still a bit of that fruit candy feel to this sip next to vanilla, dry corn, and a hint of caramel apples next to oak. The body of the sip is very light, with a slight spice burn. The end is very short, sweet, and full of vanilla and oak.

Bottom Line:

This is another solid mixer. It’s also a fine beer back as a shooter. But really, this is a hallmark entry point bourbon overall. The classic notes are there but very simple and accessible.

3. Evan Williams 1783 Small Batch

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $18

The Whiskey:

So this is a “small batch” in theory and name more than practice. The expression is a marrying of 200 barrels of bourbon from Heaven Hill’s warehouses. That juice is then proofed down to 45 proof and bottled as is.

Tasting Notes:

The whiskey pulls you in with a touch of cornbread dripping with butter next to bourbon vanilla and hints of oak. The taste adds a drop of honey to that buttery cornbread as fruitiness takes on a tart caramel apple edge. The end is short, sweet, full of corn, and a little oaky.

Bottom Line:

Okay, if you’re looking for a really solid cheap bottle of bourbon to introduce someone to bourbon for the first time, you really can’t go wrong with this bottle. It’s also a workhorse and is perfectly serviceable in a highball, in a cocktail, or on the rocks in a pinch.

1. (tie) Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $18

The Whiskey:

The juice is standard Evan Williams that’s barreled in a federally overseen warehouse. Then, after those barrels are blended, the juice is just brought down to 100 proof, allowing a bit more of that Heaven Hill craft to shine in the bottle.

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a dry cornmeal base next to salted caramel, rich vanilla, and a touch of that oak. The palate adds in whiffs of black pepper next to musty cellar wood and a hint of spicy chewy tobacco. The end is short-ish while highlighting the sweet cornmeal, spicy tobacco, and rich vanilla.

Bottom Line:

This is one of those bottles that doesn’t last long on the shelf after you buy it. It’s really solid as a workhorse in cocktails, highballs, etc., but it’s a solid on the rocks candidate too. It really is smooth or easy-drinking or crushable — hence, it’s tied for first place.

1. (tie) Evan Williams Single Barrel

ABV: 43.3%

Average Price: $30

The Whiskey:

This is Heaven Hill’s hand-selected single barrel Evan Williams expression. The juice is from a single barrel, labeled with its distillation year, proofed just above 43 proof, and bottled as is.

Tasting Notes:

The nose has notes of soft woods next to a dark caramel apple vibe with a touch of a vanilla pod. The taste builds on that by adding in hints of orange tobacco next to a dusting of Christmas spice. The end is medium-length and sweetens with a whisper of honey next to the tobacco, oak, and vanilla.

Bottom Line:

This is almost criminally under-priced for a single barrel. It makes great cocktails and highballs. You can drink it on the rocks easily. Still, that 50 percent ABV on the White Label above brings the same feel. So, we have to rank these two tied. They’re both really solid whiskeys that are amazingly well-priced and pretty easy to find.

We live in a society with a seemingly unquenchable thirst for both Marvel content and violence, and so it’s perhaps surprising that the combination of those two things was beat out by a celebration of just violence. Lots and lots of violence.

Last week’s Mortak Kombat trailer was a red band phenomenon, and now we know that it’s a record-breaking hit months before the actual film hits theaters or streaming services. The trailer, which you can watch above, features a lot of brutal gore that the gaming franchise quite literally built its reputation on. Film adaptations of the game haven’t always been a hit, but according to Deadline the new Mortal Kombat red-band trailer has already smashed viewership records.

The viewership for New Line’s red band trailer of Mortal Kombat has clocked 116M views in its first week, becoming the biggest red band trailer of all-time, besting the 4-day mark of Logan and Deadpool 2 and continuing to do so.

The trailer for the Simon McQuoid directed feature trended in 52 total markets on YouTube and 28 total markets on Twitter, registering a 98% Positive-to-Neutral social sentiment rating.

The story details some of the indications that the trailer really struck viewers, starting with the fact that it looks surprisingly good for a video game-to-film adaptation. And while it didn’t beat the overall record for trailer viewership, it does now have the record for age-restricted red band views.

We’ll have to see if all that interest in the trailer translates to folks actually showing up in theaters. Mortal Kombat will be released both in theaters and on HBO Max on April 16.

It’s time you learned how to make an old fashioned. It’s easy, tasty, and would make Donny Drapes proud. A classic cocktail made of bitters, bourbon, sugar, and water.

Yet it’s often mediocre. Mostly due to corners being cut.

We’re not cutting corners today. There are no simple syrups in play. We’re mixing an old-school version of the drink with demerara sugar that’s stirred until it’s fully dissolved into the bitters and whiskey. This method takes a little longer, yes. But it provides a balance and depth that you’ll never get with a bar syrup.

That being said, this recipe is still pretty easy. It’s a build-in-the-glass cocktail, after all. You just need a spoon, glass, and pairing knife or fruit peeler (and a little patience). Let’s get mixing!

Classic Old Fashioned

Ingredients:

• 3-oz. bourbon
• 1 barspoon demerara sugar
• 1 barspoon tap water
• 4 dashes Angostura Bitters
• Luxardo cherry
• Orange peel
• Ice

I like to use a high-proof bourbon for my old fashioned. You don’t have to. Use what you have on hand and experiment. But a nice barrel-proof will hold onto the bolder notes of the whiskey as it mixes with the water, sugar, and bitters. In this case, I’m using Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, which has this nice, earthy berry patch note the works in this cocktail.

Lastly, you can also use raw or white sugar if that’s what you have on hand. I like to use demerara because it tends to dissolve more easily in booze and carries a bit more of a toffee note, thanks to the residual molasses leftover on the crystals. That note really marries with the bourbon nicely.

What You’ll Need:

• Rocks or old fashioned glass
• Barspoon
• Cutting board
• Pairing knife or peeler
• Cocktail stick

Method:

• Add the sugar, water, and bitters to the glass and stir until the sugar starts to dissolve, creating a base (five to ten seconds).
• Add the bourbon and stir until the sugar is dissolved (30 to 60 seconds).
• Fill the glass with ice and stir until the glass is ice cold to touch (about 60 seconds).
• Top up the glass with ice.
• Spritz the orange oils from the peel onto the glass and rub them around the rim of the glass. Drop the peel in the cocktail.
• Spear one cherry and drop it in the glass.
• Serve.

Bottom Line:

Yeah, I’ve made a lot of these and they’re always pleasantly surprising. The Elijah Craig really stands out in the cocktail. You get that sense of green berry vines with hints of blueberry next to the herbal essence of the bitters and mellowing orange oils.

This sounds like it takes a long time with a lot of stirring and, I guess, it kind of does. But, we’re really only talking about two to three minutes max from start to finish. The result is a deeply satisfying old fashioned that’ll hold up as you sip at the layered notes of spice, herbs, orange, and bourbon.

Don’t forget to top it with fresh ice after the stir!

Kevin Garnett spent his career tormenting opponents with his play and with his words as one of the NBA’s most ruthless trash talkers, but he learned early in the league there are some guys you leave alone.

Garnett has often recalled the time as a rookie that he wouldn’t stop barking at Michael Jordan during the first half of a Wolves-Bulls game in which he and Isaiah Rider were having hot starts, and Jordan responded by torching the Wolves en route to a Chicago win. So, when Jimmy Kimmel asked Garnett about his trash talking he brought this story up once again, but we learned something new at the end, which is Jordan, to this day, will bring it up just to troll KG every time he sees him.

“It’s definitely burned into my brain, but whenever I see Jordan, he always does the same thing every time,” Garnett said. “He always palms my head and says, ‘you remember when I gave you 40 in three quarters?!’ And I’m always like, ‘man, go ‘head.’ And then he has like this sidekick of people around him and he’s like, ‘Go pull that up.’ And this guy goes and pulls it up [on his phone], and I’m like, ‘What is this?! Who walks around with content like, teed up.’ But it was an experience where, I quit talking trash to Michael Jordan.”

I do love the idea of Michael Jordan palming KG’s head to pull him down to his level just so he can still sh*t talk about a game from 25 years ago, while having someone from his team pull up highlights, just in case Garnett has somehow forgotten about the night that, as he says, is burned into his brain. The lesson, of course, from everything we’ve learned about Michael Jordan over the past…forever, is to never, ever cross him because he will exact his revenge, never forget about it, and make sure you also never forget about it.

When Disney+ first launched, it left a significant amount of merchandising money on the table by keeping Baby Yoda tightly under wraps before his big debut in The Mandalorian. That’s definitely not the case for WandaVision. Less than a week after the show revealed that Kathryn Hahn’s Agnes is — spoilers ahead — secretly the mischievous witch Agatha Harkness, the official Marvel website is now loaded with merchandise for Hahn’s catchy, confessional theme song “Agatha All Along.”

As part of its weekly “Marvel Must Haves” drop, the new “Agatha All Along” merch includes an insane amount of items festooned with the hit song. Here’s the full list:

• “Agatha All Along” socks
• “Agatha All Along” water bottles
• “Agatha All Along” T-shirts
• “Agatha All Along” coffee mugs
• “Agatha All Along” phone case
• “Agatha All Along” poster
• “Agatha All Along” tote bag
• “Agatha All Along” trucker hat
• “Agatha All Along” hoodie
• “Agatha All Along” mousepad
• “Agatha All Along” tumblers
• “Agatha All Along” drinking glasses
• “Agatha All Along” headband

Like we said, it’s a whole lot of Agatha merch. But it also shows how much faith Marvel had in Kathryn Hahn‘s performance. Her character has been a fan-favorite from the very first episode, and her “Agatha All Along” theme song went viral shortly after its big reveal in Episode 7. Agatha might also be tied to larger events happening in the MCU. WandaVision director Mat Shakman recently opened up about how Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige gave specific notes on Wanda learning Agatha’s true identity for the first time. There’s clearly a lot riding on the Marvel witch, and we’re not just talking about selling trucker hats.

(Via Marvel)

Middle school has to be the most insecure time in a person’s life. Kids in their early teens are incredibly cruel and will make fun of each other for not having the right shoes, listening to the right music, or having the right hairstyle.

As if the social pressure wasn’t enough, a child that age has to deal with the intensely awkward psychological and biological changes of puberty at the same time.

Jason Smith, the principal of Stonybrook Intermediate and Middle School in Warren Township, Indiana, had an insecure child sent to his office recently, and his ability to understand his feelings made all the difference.

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The child was sent to the office for refusing to remove his hat in class. “So, I sat down with him and asked him why, what was going on,” Smith told WRTV. “He said he just got his haircut, he didn’t like the way it looked, and he thought his hairline look a little funny.”

Having a haircut that’s a little off is like waving a red flag at middle school bullies. So Smith decided to fix the situation by offering the child a haircut.

“I’ve been cutting hair most of my life. I played college basketball and I cut my teammates’ hair before games and I’ve been cutting my son’s hair for 17 years so I had professional clippers and edgers at home, so I said, ‘If I go home and get my clippers and line you up, will you go back to class,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I will,'” Smith said.

A photo of the cut was posted to Facebook where it’s been seen over 21,000 times.

After Smith fixed the child’s hairline, the student kept up his end of the bargain and returned to class.

“You know that age is a time for peer acceptance. It’s huge. And So a young man, especially an African-American young man the barbershop is a big deal in the community. Looking good a representing and presenting yourself is huge for kids,” Smith said.

A few days later, Smith posted a photo on Facebook of some memorable cuts he’s given in the past. “Who knew a skill that helped me survive in college would be useful 20 years later?” he captioned the post.

via Jason Smith / Facebook

Smith saw the situation as a way to help the child in the moment instead of having to resort to disciplinary actions. From the child’s perspective, what’s worse? Being ridiculed in front of your peers or having a parent get angry?

“We’re not disciplining with a hard fist. You could call and have the parent pick up the kid up for defiance. Or you can sit and get to the root of the problem and see what can I do to help you? What do you need right now?” said Smith.

Imagine what the world would be like if more people simply asked each other, “What do you need now?”

“He really was not trying to get out of class. He just thought that he would be laughed at. So, we took the time and did what we could to help him,” said Smith.

Smith recently posted a quote by professor Brené Brown on Facebook that serves as a great reminder of the practical power of solving problems at the root through compassion and direct action. “Leaders must either invest a reasonable amount of time attending to fears and feelings, or squander an unreasonable amount of time trying to manage ineffective and unproductive behavior.”

Capitol Hill has been ground central for developments regarding LGBTQ rights over the past few days. Late Thursday afternoon, the House voted to pass the Equality Act, which still faces a battle in the Senate, and given that only three house Republicans voted for the bill, yep, there’s still plenty of struggle left in that fight. Also on the same subject, a few members of Congress have been extremely vocal about their anti-trans views. On Wednesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor posted an offending statement outside her office to troll a colleague, Rep. Marie Newman, who has a trans child.

Greene’s perspective is that the Equality Act will “destroy women’s rights and religious freedoms,” and people were disgusted by such behavior by an elected official. Well, on Thursday, Rand Paul compared transition surgery to “genital mutilation” on the Senate floor. He did so while while questioning Dr. Rachel Levine, a trans woman, during her confirmation hearing in a quest to become Joe Biden’s assistant health secretary. If successful, she’ll be the first openly transgender federal official to receive Senate confirmation, but Rand Paul doesn’t seem to be here for Levine.

Shortly after Paul’s transphobic rhetoric, that’s where Oreo comes in. There’s no telling to whom the social media account of the delicious cookie was speaking, but it seems rather clear: “Trans people exist.”

Simple. Effective. Truth. Congrats to the House for passing the Equality Act, and fingers crossed for less opposition in the Senate.

A fun fact about Stephen A. Smith is that, prior to his decision to become sports media’s most readily available takesman, he was a college basketball player at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. A number of people learned this fact this week, though, as a Twitter account that posts images of random ex-college athletes posted a picture of Smith from his college days.

This made the rounds on social media, to the point that Smith ended up seeing it and had a very simple (and, quite frankly, accurate) response to the image.

Smith wasn’t the only prominent person to opine on the image. Dwyane Wade, who wasn’t all that bad of a hooper in his own right, saw the pic as it went around and let it be known that he would not have taken it easy on Stephen A. if they ever met up on the hardwood.

Now, there aren’t many college players who could stop Wade from getting a 50 piece and taking off the fourth quarter to relax after a job well done, so this is less trash talk and more Wade stating an objective fact. Still, Smith decided to take it in stride and say that, well, yeah this is exactly what would have happened.

Just to be safe, Dwyane Wade and Stephen A. Smith should play 1-on-1 against each other on television. You know, so we can know for sure if this is what would happen.

Activision has found lots of success with Call of Duty and Warzone, but that success has come at a huge cost for gamers who want the full COD package on their consoles. And apparently fans playing on PlayStation 4s may have to make a choice when it comes to what games get to stay on their consoles. A pair of new update for the latest Call of Duty title and its Warzone mode comes with a download size so big it may push basically everything else off of the last-gen console if you only have a 500 GB hard drive.

Word came in an Activision blog post, specifically about file size, that prepared gamers for big updates on the way for both Cold War and Warzone that would take up even more space on a players’ console hard drive. In the post, Activision acknowledged that the update may be so big that gamers playing on a 500GB PlayStation 4 console may “need to make room” for the updates to fully install.

Those who own a standard PlayStation 4 with a default hard drive of 500 GB may need to make room if they have the full versions of Modern Warfare®/Warzone and Black Ops Cold War with all modes and packs installed. Should you have both games installed and have kept up to date with updates, you may need to delete some unused Game Content to have a successful download and install of the [latest] Warzone patch.

Call of Duty has long been known to have huge file sizes for its games, but it now seems we’re at the point where a single game’s “full” experience, with Cold War and Warzone‘s battle royale elements, may make it impossible for players to have any other games on their consoles. And in a gaming world where physical discs are increasingly being phased out, hard drive storage space is an even bigger issue for console gamers.

The news that a 500 GB PlayStation 4 may only be a Warzone machine quickly trended online, with 500 GB trending on Twitter by Thursday afternoon.

Regardless of why the files are so big, it stands to reason that the game and its updates are only going to get bigger. Which means the biggest of the series’ fans may want to invest in a bigger hard drive.

Bobby Shmurda was barely out of his teens when he was locked up for six years on conspiracy charges by New York prosecutors eager to connect him and fellow rapper Rowdy Rebel with a series of crimes supposedly committed by a Brooklyn-based gang. Now, he’s out and wants to be a better role model to young fans, citing one fan letter he received in prison that impressed on him the power of his position as a famous rapper.

In a new profile in GQ by veteran journalist Frazier Tharpe, Bobby explains how receiving the letter convinced him to change his mindset. “It was 2016, I was in the box,” he recalls. “A six-year-old girl wrote to me; she said I was her favorite rapper… That just let me know the kids are watching me, and I have to be a role model.” The experience, he says, prompted him to take music more seriously and commit to his career once he got out. “I didn’t really care too much for it until I went to jail and I seen how the fans were loyal,” he enthuses. “I can’t name a week that I didn’t see at least 10 [pieces] of fan mail, throughout the whole bid.”

After all, he says, the prisons are full of talented Black men from similar environments who weren’t given much to look forward to. “The streets are talented. I saw that shit in jail, all day. There’s basketball players, smart-ass motherf*ckers, n****s who know this or that but just don’t know how to apply their sh*t, or have behavior problems. But n****s not taught to apply their shit where we come from.”

Bobby counts the late, great Nipsey Hussle as one of the examples he intends to follow in the future. “His mind was different. He was saying all the things we were going to do when I got out.”

You can read the full story here.