It appears that ASAP Rocky and Nas’ next move will take place on the big screen. The two rappers appeared in a a trailer for the upcoming Netflix film, Monster. In addition to starring in the movie, Nas is also one of its executive producers and in a post to his Instagram page, he revealed Monster would premiere on the streaming platform on May 7.
As for ASAP Rocky, the size of his role in the film is unknown at the moment, but based on the trailer, one could assume he gives a decent contribution to the movie’s entire plot.
Monster is based on Walter Dean Myer’s 1993 novel of the same title. Viewers will follow a 17-year-old honor student from Harlem, Steve Harmon, who is played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. Harmon is eventually convicted of murder is left to fight the case with the support of family and friends. Nas plays a prison inmate and Rocky takes on the role of Harmon’s co-defendant, William King. The Monster cast also features Jennifer Hudson, Jeffrey Wright, John David Washington (who recently appeared in Netflix’s Malcolm & Marie), and more. John Legend also serves as another of the film’s executive producers.
The trailer arrives after Nas’ classic debut album, Illmatic, was recently honored by The Library Of Congress. ASAP Rocky, on the other hand, is slowly returning to the music world as he previewed a bunch of new music as this year’s Yams Day Festival and later dropped his “G-Unit Rice” track.
The difference between a politician and a public servant may be a matter of semantics, but when it comes to getting legislation passed that actually helps people, the contrast is stark.
Texas Representative James Talarico is on a mission to get his constituents the life-saving medicine they need. The 31-year-old lawmaker has just introduced legislation that would cap the price of insulin—a medicine people with type 1 diabetes need to live, which has become unaffordable for many—at $50 a month.
The mission is personal for Talarico, as he nearly died three years ago when he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
3 years ago I almost slipped into a coma and died. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
“In May 2018, I was a healthy 28-year-old running for the Texas House. I decided to walk the entire length of my district and hold town halls along the way. I hike Big Bend every year, so I wasn’t concerned about a 25 mile walk…
But halfway through the walk, I began feeling nauseous and fatigued. Before the town hall in Hutto, I vomited in the bathroom.”
Taralico assumed he was dehydrated, so he changed his shirt, drank some water, and kept walking. He threw up four more times in the last 12 miles of the walk, but finished it.
“After the walk, I went to bed thinking I needed a good night’s sleep,” he wrote. “But I slept for 36 hours.”
“My parents rushed me to the hospital where nurses checked my blood sugar. A normal blood glucose level is below 100. Mine was 900. I was immediately diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.”
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease with an unknown cause. It can come on at any time but is usually diagnosed before age 40. (Most type 1 diabetics are diagnosed between ages 4 and 14.) Unlike type 2 diabetes, which can generally be controlled with dietary changes, type 1 diabetics must inject themselves with insulin because their pancreas can’t produce it.
Talarico was in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), which will lead to a coma and death unless the person is given insulin. He spent five days in the ICU.
“Now I have a glucose monitor on my arm & take shots of insulin every day,” he wrote. “As long as I take care of myself, I’ll live a long life.”
However, he discovered firsthand how the cost of insulin can be life-threatening for people. He pointed out that in the last 20 years, insulin prices have shot up 1200% while manufacturing costs have stayed relatively constant.
“Even with health insurance, I paid $684 for my first 30-day supply of insulin—the medicine I need to live,” he wrote. “I had to put it on a credit card.
Now that I’m a legislator, I have excellent state health insurance to cover my insulin. Every Texan should be entitled to the same.”
As Talarico explains it, there are three primary reasons for the price hike:
1) The $27 billion global insulin market is a monopoly controlled by three companies: Sanofi, Eli Lilly, and Novo Nordisk. They can fix their prices, and appear to increase them in lockstep with one another.
2) There’s no generic option. Because insulin is a biological product and not a chemical one, it’s harder to produce a generic version. “The big three companies enter into ‘pay for delay’ schemes where they pay potential biosimilar manufacturers not to enter the market,” he wrote.
3) These companies have no competition. “The big three companies surround their insulin patent with lots of other patents to make the original patent last longer (known as ‘evergreening’),” he wrote. “Then they spend millions in lobbying to prevent policymakers from closing any of these loopholes.”
“Putting profits over people has deadly consequences,” Taralico added, pointing out that Texans with diabetes fund their necessary medicines with GoFundMe pages or resorting to the black market. “And in the richest country in the world, 1 in 4 diabetics risk their lives by rationing insulin.”
Taralico’s legislation would cap out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $50 per month, in addition to requiring the Attorney General to investigate rising prices. His bill in the House and a complementary bill in the Senate make up “a bipartisan, bicameral effort” Talarico says. If passed, the legislation would make Texas the 16th state—and the largest one—to put a cap on insulin prices.
“Insulin should be free, because insulin is a human right,” Talarico wrote. “This is an idea that’s time has come.”
Here’s hoping that the Texas legislature supports Talarico’s efforts and makes this life-saving medicine affordable for all diabetics. And here’s hoping that more states follow suit.
Even for those of us who roll our eyes at Kardashian drama, the struggle is real. Even when we know that the images on Instagram are filtered and edited to unrealistic perfection. Even when we understand that societal beauty standards are arbitrary and stupid. Even with the proliferation of body-positive messages that encourage us to love the skin we’re in, most women I know wage some kind of internal daily battle over beauty.
If only it were as simple as embracing what we look like in our natural state. If we truly and fully did that, though, we’d be smelly and unkempt, hair matted, nails scraggly, and teeth rotting. There’s a certain amount of grooming that’s reasonable to expect in civilized society, but what’s enough and what’s too much? At what point does beautification become problematic? There’s no definitive line.
Then there’s “health and fitness,” which is good on the one hand, but toxic on the other. I could write an entire book on the social politics of fat on women’s bodies. Follow that up with the make-up, the hair coloring/curling/straightening/styling, the wrinkle creams, the injections, and gracious, I’m already feeling mixed up inside barely 200 words into talking about women and beauty.
Writer and video blogger Mary Katherine Backstrom described these internal struggles women experience perfectly in a Facebook post. Sharing a photo of herself biting into a bologna sandwich, Backstrom wrote:
“You want to understand a woman?
Let’s start right here: smack dab in the middle of a romantic moment I shared with a fried bologna sandwich. This was five minutes ago, y’all.
It was, in a word: intense.
Soft white bread, a generous schmear of mayo, and more than a couple slices of homegrown tomatoes. My word. I felt like confessing to my husband, which is why you have this picture.
I texted it to Ian, with a joke that I might actually be cheating, because nothing satisfies a woman quite like a solid sammy, hot tots, and a little bit of dippin sauce.
You can argue all you want, but you’d be wrong.
Sandwich. Tots. Dipping Sauce.
That’s all we need.
I was fully in the moment when I got a little *ping* from my Optavia coach. She wanted to know how I was doing on the program. “The program” being a thing I signed up for a few months ago when couldn’t fit in my skinny jeans and was suddenly motivated to shed a few bologna sandwiches.
So, now I’m invested to the tune of hundreds of dollars, with two full boxes of powdered astronaut food sitting in my entryway closet because I don’t care how delicious a powder brownie mix is, NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, competes with fried tots and dipping sauce.
Anyways, back to understanding a woman.
You need to understand:
I am fiercely committed to enjoying bologna sandwiches.
I am 100% committed to becoming the next Brooklyn Decker via overpriced crash diet space food.
And I am ALSO anti-diet culture and will probably post a picture of myself weighing 200 pounds telling everyone on this page to LOVE THEMSELVES AS THEY ARE because, DAMMIT you are beautiful!
And you know what the crazy part is?
I am 100%, full-hearted, unabashedly all three opposing people at once.
The woman eating the bologna sandwich.
The woman who says “screw diet culture”.
And the woman who signs up for random crash diets when I want to fit into a fashionable dress for a family wedding.
If you want to understand a woman, you have to understand this conflict.
I want to love myself as I am.
I want to enjoy life without reservation.
And I want to be beautiful by society’s standards.
And I understand that none of these things agree or make any damn sense, and it drives me crazy, and makes me feel like a hypocrite, and makes me rage at the system, and makes me order overpriced powdered brownies, and makes me binge on bologna sandwiches, and makes me go to bed feeling like I should’ve done it better because if I was just
a little more disciplined
a little bit thinner
a little more consistent
a little more wild
a little more free
a little more original
but also a little more like the standard
then…maybe THEN, I would be an ideal woman.
And maybe I already am. I certainly believe that my friends are, and they enjoy bologna sandwiches.
But I wouldn’t know. Because I look to the right and look to the left and all I see are things society thinks I should improve.
And it messes me up and confuses my brain and it drives me to space food and fried bologna sandwiches.
And that, my friends, is what it is to be a woman.”
Seriously. She nails it.
It’s not that men can’t have this same kind of internal conflict; I’m sure some men are torn between wanting a burger and fries and embracing their dad bod, while also coveting Lenny Kravitz’s abs. But for women, there are just so many elements for us to grapple with. We want to feel beautiful, but we don’t want to conform to stupid societal beauty standards. We want to be in shape, but we want to love our bodies just as they are. We want to feel sexy, but we don’t want to be sexualized. We slip down beauty standard rabbit holes—from hair to skin to weight to eyebrows—and we roll our eyes all the way down while also taking notes.
It’s a confusing struggle, but for so many women, it’s very real. Thank you, Mary Katherine, for keeping it real.
Christopher Osburn has spent the past fifteen years in search of “the best” — or at least his very favorite — sips of whisk(e)y on earth. He’s enjoyed more drams than his doctor would dare feel comfortable with, traveled to over 20 countries testing local spirits, visited more than 50 distilleries around the globe, and amassed a collection of bottles that occupies his entire basement (and infuriates his wife).
In this series, he cracks open his worn “tasting diary” and shares its contents with the masses.
As you wander the whiskey aisle at your local liquor store, you’ve surely encountered the term “small batch” printed on the labels of various bottles. It seems straightforward enough, but the term itself is a tad mysterious. All it technically means is that the bottle in question came from a “small” bottling run. But parsing what it actually means is where things get a little dicey.
When it comes down to it, there’s no official designation of how many barrels can be produced to maintain the moniker “small batch.” Meaning there’s nothing stopping distilleries from using the term when they make a whiskey using 10 barrels, 25 barrels, or even 300 barrels.
What the term has become instead is a sort of general shorthand for brands to announce “this is more limited than our main expressions.” Exactly how limited simply depends on the distillery. If you grab a bottle from giants like Russell’s Reserve or Elijah Craig, it probably came batched with a lot more barrels than a similarly titled offering from indies like Wyoming Whiskey or Noble Oak.
To celebrate the semi-deceptive but often delicious designation for whiskey, I decided to list 25 of my favorite small batch bourbon expressions ever. Check them out, with tasting notes, below. Prices are linked, in case any of these piques your curiosity.
This Nevada-based small batch bourbon was first released in 2016. Barrels of high-rye bourbon were hand-picked for their rich, complex flavor. This expression is a blend of older, mellower high-rye bourbons and younger, spicier, high-rye variations. The result is the perfect combination of caramel sweetness and peppery spice.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll be greeted with aromas of dried cherries, charred oak, and toasted vanilla beans. The palate is filled with sweet corn, buttery caramel, raisins, and a nice hit of peppery rye. The finish is long, subtly warming, and exceedingly smooth.
Bottom Line:
This is the perfect sipper for any rye whiskey fan looking to get into bourbon. It offers a great bridge between sweet corn flavor and peppery rye spice.
This award-winning bourbon doesn’t come from Kentucky, it comes from Fairport, New York — a small town situated along the Erie Canal. Every spirit made at the distillery is small-batch, and its bourbon is its best. This four-grain straight bourbon is distilled in small batches using only locally sourced grains. It gets its unique, subtly smoky flavor from the addition of Applewood smoked wheat.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is heavy with the scents of caramel corn, vanilla beans, and wood char. The palate has notable flavors of buttery caramel, molasses, charred oak, and just a hint of sour apple. The finish is dry and filled with notes of dried cherries and subtle, smoky Applewood.
Bottom Line:
If you’re a fan of smoky whiskeys from Islay, this isn’t the whiskey for you. But if you’re on board with a light kiss of smoke, this expression should suit you just fine.
Wilderness Trail’s idea of small-batch means that its bottled in bond bourbon consists of no more than 12 barrels per batch. This high-rye bourbon has a mash bill of 64% corn, 24% rye, and 12% malted barley. It’s aged in toasted and charred American oak barrels.
Tasting Notes:
You’re greeted by aromas of caramel apples, almonds, sweet corns, and charred oak. On the palate, look for dried cherries, toasted marshmallows, vanilla beans, and a lingering nutty sweetness. The finish is a lovely mix of caramel sweetness and cinnamon spice.
Bottom Line:
A sip of Wilderness Trail Bottled in Bond is far from one-dimensional. It features a great combination of fruit and spice that will keep your senses on their toes.
Founded in 2010, Kings County was the first whiskey distillery founded in New York City after Prohibition. Its award-winning straight bourbon is made with 80% organically-grown New York State corn and 20% English malted barley. It’s distilled twice using copper pot stills before being aged in new, charred American oak casks.
Tasting Notes:
Give this whiskey a proper nosing and you’ll find scents of maraschino cherries, vanilla beans, freshly-brewed coffee, and toffee. On the palate, you’re sure to pick up notes of raisins, maple syrup, spicy cinnamon, and brown sugar. It ends with a warming, final kick of cinnamon sugar and caramel.
Bottom Line:
Kings County makes a handful of high-quality whiskeys, including its peated bourbon. But if you want a creamy, caramel-filled, corn-centric whiskey, this is your jam.
First released in 2014, this award-winning bourbon is made using (you guessed it) four grains. The mash bill consists of 60% corn, 20% wheat, 11% malted barley, and 9% rye. Every grain used in the process was grown in New York State. It’s aged in new, charred American oak barrels.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find bold aromas of pipe tobacco, charred oak, and vanilla beans. The palate swirls with sweet treacle, candied pecans, spicy cinnamon, and butterscotch candy. It all ends with a long, mellow, warming, caramel finish.
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for a whiskey that’s truly specific to the area it was produced, this is the dram for you. Everything was sourced locally. It’s like New York State in a glass.
Tennessee is definitely more than simply George Dickel and Jack Daniel’s. Bib & Tucker’s 6-year-old offering is a great example of small-batch bourbons coming out of the Volunteer State. The mash bill is 70% corn, 26% rye, and 4% malted barley. It’s aged in new, charred American oak casks for a minimum of six years.
Tasting Notes:
The nose rolls deep in aromas of a musty barrelhouse, toasted vanilla beans, and maple syrup, accented by a hint of pepper. The palate is all about the candied pecans, dried cherries, buttery caramel, and sweet cream, plus a nice kick of cinnamon sugar. The finish is long, mellow, and filled with a pleasant nutty sweetness.
Bottom Line:
Grab a bottle of Bib & Tucker and branch out from your usual Tennessee whiskeys. This is a spicy, sweet bourbon that will make you forget all about the Jack Daniel’s guy for a little while.
This award-winning whiskey paved the way for a new frontier of bourbon. This pot still distilled whiskey is made using Texas-sourced grains (corn, rye, barley, and wheat). It’s aged for a minimum of two years in new, charred American oak casks to guarantee a rich, robust, flavor experience.
Tasting Notes:
Breathe in the aromas of charred oak, maple syrup, toasted marshmallows, and sweet corn. The palate is filled with buttercream frosting, cracked leather, almond cookies, and buttered caramel. The finish is dry, warming, and ends with a final kick of peppery spice.
Bottom Line:
The Lonestar State is now home to a handful of award-winning, highly-regarded whiskey distilleries. But Balcones is the OG and this is its flagship whiskey — that has to be worth something.
The folks at Hye, Texas’ Garrison Brothers refer to the ingredients in this whiskey being “corn-to-cork.” This means that not only is the corn, red winter wheat, and two-row barley sourced locally, but it’s distilled and aged right on site.
Tasting Notes:
Give this whiskey a good nosing and you’ll be treated to candy apples, clover honey, spicy cinnamon, and charred oak. The palate is filled with the flavors of orange zest, buttery caramel, vanilla beans, and almond cookies dusted with cinnamon sugar. The finish is dotted with caramel, dried leather, and subtle spice.
Bottom Line:
This bold, brash, flavorful whiskey tastes the way you’d expect an outlaw whiskey to taste. Best enjoyed while wearing a ten-gallon hat and a pair of wrangler jeans.
Heaven’s Door might be a collaboration with famed folk singer Bob Dylan, but it’s much more than a celebrity cash grab. Its Tennessee Bourbon is made using the charcoal filtering process known as the “Lincoln County Process” that Jack Daniel’s is known for. After filtration, this low rye, high corn bourbon was aged to perfection in charred oak barrels for a decade.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find rich toffee, spicy cinnamon sugar, charred oak, and a hint of melted Snickers bars. Take a sip to bask in buttery pecan sandies, caramelized sugar, dried fruits, and sweet corn. It all ends in a cacophony of pipe tobacco, fresh leather, and vanilla beans.
Bottom Line:
Don’t think twice, it’s alright. The best way to enjoy a sip of this small-batch bourbon is to make like a rolling stone and sip on it slowly, because it’s not dark yet.
With a name like Very Small Batch, you know this is a limited-edition whiskey and a highly coveted bottle. The bourbon itself is a blend that begins with a base of the brand’s award-winning Jefferson’s Bourbon. Three more hand-picked bourbons with different mash bills and ages are blended to complete this mellow, highly sippable expression.
Tasting Notes:
Breathe in the aromas of candied orange peels, spicy cinnamon, wood char, and butterscotch candy. When you sip it you’ll find flavors of toasted vanilla beans, caramel apples, and subtle spice. The finish is tremendously sweet, smooth, and warming.
Bottom Line:
The “Very Small Batch” name might be a bit silly, but that doesn’t stop this from being masterfully blended, extremely indulgent, and oh so easy to drink bourbon.
Widow Jane is well known for its sourcing and masterful blending of aged whiskeys. Its ten-year-old expression is its signature bourbon. It’s made up of rare, bold, delicious bourbons in 5 -barrel batches. It’s non-chill filtered and proofed down using locally sourced mineral water.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find scents of buttercream frosting, caramelized sugar, spicy cinnamon, and rich oak. The palate swirls with notes of candied walnuts, citrus zest, toasted marshmallows, and maple syrup. It all ends in a nice combination of subtle spice and warming caramel.
Bottom Line:
Widow Jane doesn’t hide the fact that it sources its small-batch whiskeys. It doesn’t need to. They’re blended so well you won’t even care that they were matured somewhere else.
Kentucky Owl is shrouded in mystery. A brand with origins in the 1800s, it was revived in 2014. This particular release was first launched in 2019. The mash bill and origins of the whiskey are unknown, but the name is a reference to the government seizure of whiskey from the current owner’s great-grandfather right before Prohibition began.
Tasting Notes:
Take a moment to give this whiskey an indulgent nosing and you’re gonna get big notes of freshly baked bread, stewed apples, sweet cinnamon, and pure caramel. On the sip, you’ll find hints of candied orange peels, nougat, toasted marshmallow, and a spicy backbone. The ending is complex, rich, and ends with a nice bit of spicy cinnamon heat.
This award-winning three-grain bourbon is made with sweet corn, northern rye, and malted barley. It’s aged for less than four years (although the age statement isn’t disclosed). Rye as the second ingredient in the mash bill gives this whiskey a nice combination of sweet corn, mellow malts, and peppery rye spice.
Tasting Notes:
Give this whiskey a nice, long nosing and you’ll find aromatic cooking spices, caramel apples, toasted vanilla beans, and rich, charred oak. On the palate, you’ll be greeted by a nice kick of spice from cloves and nutmeg as well as buttery caramel, sugar cookies, and an overall nutty sweetness. The finish is medium, filled with warmth, and ends with a soli hit of cracked black pepper.
Bottom Line:
This is an extremely well-balanced whisky. The mix of rye and corn makes this a highly sippable, nuanced, memorable dram.
To be considered a bourbon, the mash bill must be made up of a minimum of 50% corn. The rest of the ingredients are open to interpretation. Most distilleries use rye, wheat, or barley. But, FEW’s award-winning bourbon has a mash bill of 51% corn and 49% millet (a quick-growing cereal plant popular in Africa and Asia).
Tasting Notes:
The addition of millet gives this bourbon a truly unique flavor and aroma. On the nose, it imparts notes of fruity sweetness that work well with the hints of toasted vanilla beans and sweet treacle. On the palate, you’ll find notable flavors of buttercream, brown sugar, tropical fruits, and subtle peppery spice at the finish.
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for a unique flavor profile that still fits the bill of bourbon, this expression from Koval is for you. When else will you find a bourbon with millet in it? (Not many places– trust me, I’ve checked!)
We’ve written often about the wealth of bourbons from places outside of Kentucky, but you still might not immediately think of Wyoming when it comes to high-quality, flavorful bourbon. I’m here to tell you that maybe you should. Wyoming Whiskey’s small batch bourbon’s ingredients are sourced from nearby farms and it’s distilled and aged right there in Kirby, Wyoming. It’s
Tasting Notes:
Breathe in the aromas of wildflowers, toasted vanilla beans, honey, and spicy cinnamon before taking your first sip. On the palate, you’ll be treated to buttery almond cookies, buttercream frosting, caramel, and just a wisp of cinnamon. It all ends with a mouthful of brown sugar and spice.
Bottom Line:
To many of us, places like Wyoming still seem like the untamed, wild frontier. This small-batch bourbon gives you a taste of that life — conjuring fresh air and wide-open spaces.
Like many small-batch brands, Noble Oak sources its whiskey from MGP in Indiana. That whiskey has been matured in charred, American white oak casks for at least a year (likely longer) before it arrives at Noble Oak. It then gets finished using a proprietary technique referred to as “Compression Finishing,” which involves finishing with sherry oak staves selected by Edrington’s Master of Wood.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’re greeted with scents of dried apricots, toffee candy, charred oak, and just a hint of sherry sweetness. The sip features buttery caramel, sugar cookies, maraschino cherries, and cooking spices. The finish is long, warming, and ends with a great one-two punch of spice and vanilla.
Bottom Line:
Not only is this bourbon a great choice for fans of sherry-centric whiskeys, but it also helps the environment. Noble Oak plants a tree for every bottle sold.
Pinhook Bohemian Bourbon was the first whiskey to be distilled, aged, and bottled in 50 years at the former Old Taylor Distillery (now Castle & Key) in Kentucky. Using a mash bill of 70% corn, 15% rye, and 10% malted barley, this limited expression whiskey is drawn from 100 barrels that are aged over 34 months in charred, American oak casks.
Tasting Notes:
Give this whiskey the nosing it deserves, and you’ll find notes of lemon zest, freshly baked bread, toasted vanilla, and wood char. The palate is heavy on almond cookies, sticky toffee pudding, dried fruits, and spicy cinnamon. It all ends in a nice, warming wave of dark chocolate and caramel.
Bottom Line:
Every year, the distillery drops a new release of their flagship expression. The vintages and corn to rye to barley ratios are different in each one. That way, you’re guaranteed a new flavor experience every time you crack open a bottle.
This small-batch whiskey is touted as the world’s first solera-aged bourbon. If you’re unaware of that term, it means this whiskey is aged using a technique that revolves around stacking barrels and removing small amounts at various levels and stages in the process and adding new whiskey at others.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a symphony of ripe fruit, charred oak, sweet cinnamon sugar, and vanilla beans. The palate is complex and begins with notes of sweet raisins and candied pecans before moving on to baking spices touched with a nice hint of sherry. The last few sips will leave you with memorable flavors of brown sugar and caramel and the finish is pleasant, longish, and warming.
Bottom Line:
The solera method is used to mature sherry. Using it to age bourbon (for six years) creates a very unique, multi-dimensional flavor profile.
First released in 2016, this award-winning bourbon comes from Alabama. The corn-centric mash bill is made up of 78% corn, 12% rye, and 10% barley. It’s matured in 53-gallon, new, charred American oak barrels for 4 to 5 years.
Tasting Notes:
Your nostrils will fill with the scents of baking spices, caramelized sugar, dried fruits, and cinnamon. On the palate, you’ll find flavors of pipe tobacco, dried cherries, wood char, and toffee. The finish is long, filled with pleasing heat, and ends with a mix of cinnamon and sugar.
Bottom Line:
If you’re a bourbon purist, you might be averse to the idea of drinking a bourbon made in Alabama. But this corn-centric whiskey tastes like juice from the Bluegrass State through and through.
Named after the Town Branch Waterway, which Lexington (KY) was founded along, this heavily awarded bourbon begins with a mash bill of 72% corn, 15% malted barley, and 13% rye. It’s aged for a minimum of seven years in new, charred American oak casks.
Tasting Notes:
Give this whiskey a nice, long nosing and you’ll find aromas of sweet corn, charred oak, and toasted marshmallows. The flavors are those of buttery caramel, fresh leather, wood spice, and toffee candy — all accented by just a hint of peppery spice. The ending is mellow, warming, and dry.
Bottom Line:
Town Branch’s flagship whiskey has a complex flavor profile. It’s well suited to be enjoyed slowly with a single ice cube to allow the various flavors to expand and reveal themselves.
This award-winning bourbon comes from the acclaimed Heaven Hill Distillery. It’s the flagship expression from Elijah Craig and has a mash bill of 78% Corn, 12% Malted Barley, and 10% Rye. It’s aged in level 3 charred American oak barrels (that’s a medium char). The result is a spicy, sweet, subtly smoky bourbon that retails for way less than it should.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find aromas of toasted vanilla beans, charred oak, caramelized sugar, and subtle herbs. The palate is heavy on the char, pipe tobacco, dried fruit, and buttery caramel. It all ends with a nice combo of subtle wood smoke and cinnamon.
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason this is a go-to small batch bourbon from bartenders and whiskey fans. It’s rich, decadent, and bargain-priced.
Michter’s is a big name in the bourbon world. But it’s independently owned and will use any opportunity to point out that its flagship bourbon is made in small batches. The mash bill isn’t listed, but it’s assumed that the corn content is around 80% (with rye and malted barley making up the rest of the ingredients). It’s aged in new, charred oak barrels for more than eight years.
Tasting Notes:
The nose offers up a whirlwind of raisins, caramelized sugar, toasted marshmallows, and charred oak. The palate is filled with flavors of vanilla, toffee, spicy cinnamon, and fresh leather. It all ends with a mellow hit of lingering cherries and spicy white pepper.
Bottom Line:
This is a sublime sip of bourbon heaven. It’s filled with corn sweetness, char, and mouth-watering vanilla flavors.
Baker’s is the unsung hero in Jim Beam’s Small Batch Collection. It doesn’t get the press of the likes of Basil Hayden’s, Bookers, and Knob Creek, but it might be the best of the bunch. Named for Baker Beam, the great-grandson of Jim Beam, each release is a different and unique flavor experience.
That’s because there is no batching or blending with Baker’s. Every bottle comes from literally one single barrel.
Tasting Notes:
These are all going to vary, but, generally speaking, expect a nose filled with rich, dark oak, heady holiday spices, vanilla beans, and toffee. Sipping this whiskey will take you on a journey of butterscotch, fresh leather, spicy cinnamon, and buttery caramel. The finish is pleasingly hot with a nice brown sugar and cinnamon finish.
Bottom Line:
Take a tour around Jim Beam’s Small Batch Collection and you’ll want to stop at Baker’s again and again. This bottle should find a permanent spot on your home bar cart. Seriously.
This award-winning, 90 proof bourbon is a blend of four different recipes. Four Roses uses two mash bills when making its bourbon. The first is 75% Corn, 20% Rye, 5% Malted Barley, and the second is 60% Corn, 35% Rye, 5% Malted Barley. They also employ five separate strains of yeast. This creates 10 recipes, in total. Small batch uses four of those.
Confused yet? Well, all you need to know is that this whiskey is smooth, rich, and filled with caramel and toffee flavors.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find candied orange peels, caramel, toasted vanilla beans, and subtle dried wood. The palate gaudy with buttercream, sticky toffee, cinnamon sugar, and wood char. The finish is long, warming, and tremendously mellow.
Bottom Line:
The recipe to create this whiskey might seem complex, but drinking it isn’t. Pour some in a glass over a single ice cube and enjoy.
Blanton’s is one of the most coveted small-batch bourbons on the market. Depending on where you live, you might never spot it in the store. It’s the first-ever single barrel bourbon ever created and while the mash bill hasn’t been made public, we know that it’s a high-rye bourbon known for its mix of spice, heat, and caramel sweetness.
Tasting Notes:
This highly sought-after bottle deserves a proper nosing. You’ll be greeted with scents of toasted vanilla beans, charred wood, cloves, and spicy cinnamon. Take a drink and you’ll find notes of clover honey, caramel apples, nutmeg, and subtle, peppery rye. It all ends in a gentle cacophony of caramel and cracked black pepper — odd bedfellows that work beautifully here.
Bottom Line:
This is a bottle to be cherished. Crack it open and share it with only your closest friends. You might not be able to find another bottle (for as reasonable a price) for quite some time.
As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.
Powerful testimony in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd makes it clear that he died from a “low level of oxygen.”
Chauvin’s defenders have alleged Floyd’s death could have been caused by heart disease or drug use. They’ve also claimed that Floyd must have been able to breathe because he audibly called out for his mother while Chauvin’s knee was on his neck.
However, Dr. Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist who has studied the human respiratory for over 46 years, strongly refuted those claims from the stand.
“Mr. Floyd died from a low level of oxygen,” Dr. Tobin, author of the 1,500-page textbook “Principles and Practice of Mechanical Ventilation,” said in Hennepin County Court in downtown Minneapolis Thursday.
Dr. Martin Tobin: “Mr. Floyd died from a low level of oxygen. And this caused damage to his brain that we see, and… https://t.co/87eiUvxTLv
“It was almost to the effect as if a surgeon had gone in and removed a lung,” Dr. Tobin said. “There was virtually very little opportunity for him to be able to get any air to move into the left side of his chest.”
Tobin said the way police restrained Floyd meant he could not take in enough oxygen, which led his heart to stop beating. “The cause of the low level of oxygen was shallow breathing,” Tobin said.
Floyd’s breathing was lethally shallow due to a combination of three forces. Floyd was laid prone on the street, an officer was kneeling on his neck, and his hands were cuffed behind his back.
The doctor presented a visual during the trial that estimated Chauvin placed 91.5 pounds, or half his body weight, on Floyd’s neck.
State of Minneota
The doctor presented another visual in court identifying a small detail most would dismiss as inconsequential, but stood out to the pulmonologist.
“The finger on the street, and on the right image you see his knuckle against the tire—to most people, this doesn’t look significant, but to a physiologist, this is extraordinarily significant,” Tobin said. “This tells you that he has used up his resources and he is now literally trying to breathe with his fingers and knuckles.”
“He’s using his fingers and his knuckles against the street to try to crank up the right side of his chest,” Tobin said. “This is his only way to try and get air to get into the right lung.”
State of Minnesota
Tobin also dismissed the notion that Floyd could breathe because he was able to cry out for his mother while Chauvin’s knee was on his neck. He explained that even if someone’s airway is reduced by 85%, the vocal cords can still function.
“It tells you how dangerous it is to think, ‘Well, if he can speak, he is doing OK,'” Tobin said.
In the video of Floyd’s arrest, Chauvin can be heard saying, “It takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to say things.”
“It’s a true statement, but it gives you an enormous false sense of security,” Tobin said. “Certainly at the moment you’re speaking you are breathing, but it doesn’t tell you if you’re going to be breathing five seconds later.”
Tobin also dismissed claims that Floyd’s death was attributed to his use of fentanyl and heart disease. The drug use would have decreased his heart rate which would have been increased by his heart condition. But neither was the case.
People who overdose on fentanyl usually have a respiratory rate of around ten. “Instead, we find that his respiratory rate is normal at 22,” Tobin said.
“Basically it tells you that there isn’t fentanyl on board that is affecting his respiratory centers. It’s not having an effect on his respiratory centers,” Tobin said.
While no one is certain what the verdict will be in the Chauvin case, today’s testimony means it’s likely to hinge on the former police officer’s behavior, not Floyd’s underlying health conditions or behavior.
Floyd’s death came at a cultural flashpoint when millions of Americans came to realize how Black people have been brutalized by police in America. If the jury found that Floyd was responsible for his own death, it could have had a chilling effect on the ongoing fight against social injustice.
Dr. Tobin’s testimony squarely places the onus on abuse of state power by the police, not on the behavior of a Black man.
Chauvin has been charged with second and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death. If convicted, he faces up to 65 years in prison.
There’s no way the internet gods could have known that its creation would begin an era in which humans value convenience over literally everything else. But nevertheless, here we are. Need new clothes? Looking for a job? A babysitter? A vintage record player? Oysters from Massachusetts when you live in Indiana? You can do it all with a click.
Don’t want to interrupt your Rick and Morty marathon to run to the store when you’re all out of booze? One click brings you to online stores like Caskers, Reserve Bar, and Drizly. And over the past year, people have been clicking like crazy.
Wine is no different. In the first few weeks of the pandemic, online wine sales in the U.S. literally soared. Over the course of the year, they increased a total of three percent — which doesn’t sound insane but is three times as much as 2019’s increase. Obviously, those aforementioned delivery platforms have reaped the benefits.
We checked in with Drizly this week to find the app’s top 12 best-selling red wines over the past 12 months. Then we drank them, ranked them all, and dished out tasting notes for each bottle. Price wasn’t a factor here — the ranking order of this list was purely based on taste and character. If you end up wanting a bottle yourself, the prices are linked for direct purchase.
ABV: 13.5% Average Price: $25 Drizly Sales Rank: 7
The Wine:
I know what you’re thinking: “Boxed wine?!” But hear me out (and the thousands of Drizly shoppers who are shelling out coins for this stuff): This is not the yucky purple Welch’s concord grapes-and-cardboard-tasting cheap stuff like the boxed wines of yore. This is really good boxed wine. It’s even better than some stuff that comes in actual bottles.
I’m saying it now: Drizly shoppers are on to something with this one.
Tasting Notes:
This nearly-purple wine smells of black cherries and violets. The sip is big and bold thanks to jammy notes of blackberry preserves, black currants, and chewy tannins—the naturally occurring polyphenol found in plants, leaves, and fruit skins that influence a wine’s pucker power. The finish is long and dry and sprinkled with hints of fresh ground peppercorns.
Bottom Line:
The beauty of boxed wine is that there’s so much of it. Going to picnic in the park? Hosting a cute little gathering with friends? This is the wine to keep everyone’s glasses full.
11. Apothic Red
Drizly
ABV: 13.5% Average Price: $12 Drizly Sales Rank: 6
The Wine:
You’ve likely seen a bottle of this ruby-red blend a thousand times. The wine — comprised of zinfandel, syrah, merlot, and cabernet sauvignon — is available at grocery chains alllllllllll over the country. It’s no surprise why it’s so popular. It’s as easy to drink as it is to find and with a price you can’t beat for decent red wine.
Tasting Notes:
Is that you’re grandmother’s rhubarb pie you’re smelling? Nope, that’s just the fruit and baking spice aromas of Apothic Red permeating from the bottle! This red wine is rich with blackberry, black cherry, blueberry, and purple plum notes on the palate. About mid-sip you’ll get a pleasant hit of mocha and vanilla that extends well into the medium-length finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a great starter wine if you’re just now beginning your journey into reds. It has depth and character that you’ll feel in the sip but it’s not overbearingly dry like some of the bigger bottles featured on this list.
The grapes for this pinot noir hail from areas of Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Sonoma, California. Garnet colored with a shining bit of ruby, this wine is a straight-up easy sipper full of fruity character.
Tasting Notes:
The aroma of this wine is bursting with juicy cherries, strawberries, and a dash of vanilla. On the palate, the wine is silky and sweet with more notes of strawberry while flavors of raspberry and blueberry play in the background. A hint of oak appears in the smooth finish to wrap up the sip with a bit of complexity.
Bottom Line:
Looking for something light and fruit-forward? This is your new go-to.
With such stunning views of the Andes Mountains surrounding the Argentinian vineyards in Mendoza, it’s no wonder this wine is just downright beautiful. High altitudes, lots of sunlight, and weather patterns that switch from hot to cold from day to night result in a grand red wine that is not only enjoyable but easy to drink.
Tasting Notes:
This wine has an intense fragrance of washed leather drying in the sun. Its deep reddish-purplish hue is indicative of the dark fruits coating the palate — think black cherry, blueberry, and raisin. As its silky texture glides down the throat you’ll notice a slight vegetal note that gets a lift from velvety tannins. The overall mouthfeel is pillowy soft and the finish is long and lingering.
Bottom Line:
Sop up all your meats and hearty vegetables with this medium-bodied red wine.
8. 19 Crimes Cabernet Sauvignon
Drizly
ABV: 13.5% Average Price:$13 Drizly Sales Rank: 10
The Wine:
When people talk about big wine, this is what they mean. Produced by one of Australia’s most notable wineries, this cab is not for the faint of heart. It’s bold, firm, and full of body.
Tasting Notes:
Richly scented with red berries, vanilla, and mulberry, this full-bodied crimson red wine is oozing with flavors of brandied cherries, currants, and bittersweet dark chocolate. There are some black fruits noticeable on the palate too that blend with soft tannins on the long finish.
Bottom Line:
This wine is structured and heavy, and it’s meant to be paired with some food. Throw some lamb chops on the barbie (or steak or burgers) and wash it all down with a bottle of this cab.
Grown on the Sonoma Coast, this pinot noir only sits in the barrels for nine months before it’s bottled and shipped out for consumers to enjoy. That short stretch of time results in a wine that’s youthful in taste. But don’t get it twisted, this pinot’s got the complex profile to stand up to any one of your older vintage favorites.
Tasting Notes:
You may feel as though you’ve been running in tobacco fields upon opening a bottle of this wine, but I assure you that you have not (or probably not, I don’t know your life). That’s merely the sweet aroma of this juice and a sure sign that you’re in store for a fine pinot noir that has some character and complexity.
On the sip, this wine loaded with berry flavors — Red berries! Blueberries! Blackberries! All the berries! — but there’s some plum mixed in there as well, as subtle hints of toasted oak and smooth tannins that really give the wine a fleshy structure. The wine finishes quickly and cleanly, with an unexpected yet delightful splash of bright acidity.
Bottom Line:
Buy this wine when you feel like drinking something that is light but isn’t just straight-up fruit juice. It’s a picture-perfect fruit-forward-yet-slightly-earthy example of what pinot noir can be.
6. Josh Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon
Drizly
ABV: 13.9% Average Price: $17 Drizly Sales Rank: 1
The Wine:
Not shocking at all that Josh Cellars’ Cabernet Sauvignon is Drizly shoppers’ most-purchased cab. It’s a damn good Napa cab for the price, and it’s particularly easy to drink alongside a good meal.
Tasting Notes:
You won’t miss the fragrances of black fruit and baking spices jumping out of this bottle. This cab is ripe with blackberry, black currant, and black plums that get a spicy, nutty boost from notes of cinnamon and toasted hazelnut. There’s a faint hint of vanilla and a little toasted oak in the finish, but that gets muddled by some pretty big tannins in the incredibly long finish.
Bottom Line:
Listen, this is good cab sauv. Seriously, it is. The only reason why it doesn’t have a higher ranking is that there are some bottles shoppers are buying on this list that are simply more dynamic, albeit pricier.
But for what this costs, this is a steal and worth every penny.
The first JUSTIN Vineyard grapes were planted back in 1981. The winery’s owners had one thought in mind — to make delectable red wine from their fossilized limestone-rich property in the Paso Robles wine country region of California that would prove comparable to the world-class, structured, and full-bodied wines of Bordeaux, France.
Simply put, they succeeded.
Tasting Notes:
This cabernet sauvignon is as dynamic in smell as it is in taste. Key aromas include black currant, fig, red and black cherry, tobacco, black licorice, oak, and baking spices. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied and dry with notes of black cherry, cassis, a forest full of trees, and cocoa. The finish is memorable and long-lasting with speckles of oak, nutmeg, and clove.
Bottom Line:
Making a fancy dinner? What about roast beef or roasted chicken? Duck? Ooh! I know, beef bourguignon! This wine will go nicely with almost any hearty meat dish, and it’s a nice one to use as an ingredient while cooking, too.
4. 19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Red Blend
Drizly
ABV: 14.1% Average Price:$12 Drizly Sales Rank: 12
The Wine:
The folks are buying up Snoop Dogg and 19 Crimes’ blend of petite sirah and zinfandel, and who could blame them? Clearly not me.
Made from grapes grown in Lodi, California, this wine is banging with flavor. And it’s a bang for your buck.
Tasting Notes:
This wine is loud with dark fruit aromas but on the palate, candied cherries and sun-dried raisins stand out the most. This is a medium-bodied wine that has a wee bit of dryness to it, but it’s as smooth and silky on the palate as the headwraps Snoop Dogg uses to cover his locs.
The finish is long with a hint of smoke.
Bottom Line:
This is the wine to drink when you don’t want to put too much thought into what you’re drinking. Whether you’re enjoying it as a stand-alone or over a meal, it’s always going to be worth pouring.
3. Caymus Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Drizly
ABV: 14.5
Average Price: $100
Drizly Sales Rank: 5
The Wine:
The family-owned winery has produced top-tier vino since their first cabernet vintage in 1972. And they continue to make the wine just as they did back then — with a technique that requires grapes to hang from the vines longer than usual, which increases colors, impacts suppleness, and develops velvety soft tannins.
Tasting Notes:
The wine is deep dark red in color and possesses ripe red fruit aromas. Take a sip and you’ll taste a melody of dark fruits like black currant, blackberry, and huckleberry that harmonize with notes of cassis, cocoa, vanilla. The finish is looonnngggg and jumping with supple tannins.
Bottom Line:
This is the special occasion bottle you need in the center of the table at your next party, birthday gathering, holiday event, fiesta, whatever.
If it’s a cause for celebration, it’s a cause for Caymus.
Produced by Duckhorn Vineyards in Sonoma, California, this wine is predominately crafted with cabernet sauvignon. However, it features tiny splashes of merlot, zinfandel, petite Sirah, syrah, and petit Verdot that give the medium-bodied wine a rich depth and smoothness on the palate.
Tasting Notes:
This wine features enticing aromas of black cherry, blackberry, and blueberry, but on the palate all that fruit is layered with notes of dark chocolate, barrel spice, and a twinge of spearmint — adding some much-appreciated freshness. You’ll feel the tannins in the back end of the sip and throughout the long and smooth finish.
Bottom Line:
This wine taste like it should be a lot more expensive than it is. Like, a lot.
1. The Prisoner Red Blend
Drizly
ABV: 15.2% Average Price: $50 Drizly Sales Rank: 11
The Wine:
Let me get this out of the way: I. CANNOT. GET. ENOUGH. OF. THIS. FRIGGIN. WINE! Seriously. Inject it into my veins, drown me in it — this wine is that good!!
Okay, now on to the important deets:
Produced by Oakville, California’s The Prisoner Wine Company, the winery’s signature red is zinfandel-based. It’s blended with juice from cabernet sauvignon, petite Sirah, syrah, and charbono grapes, which makes for a wine that is completely luscious and smooth.
Tasting Notes:
This wine is swirling with fragrances of Bing cherry, roasted fig, and spices like clove and star anise. But on the palate, man oh man, is it a fruit punch to the face. Notes of ripe raspberry, pomegranate, and boysenberry are front and center while a whirl of vanilla and a bit of oak lingers in the background. The wine is soft and supple with a lush and completely mouthwatering finish.
Turst us, you’re going to want another glass.
Bottom Line:
Drink this wine at room temperature or give it a chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving. Enjoy it with grilled meats or pastas topped with umami-forward tomato sauces (pour a splash in the tomato sauce!) or completely on its own.
Just don’t be shocked when you drink the whole bottle in one sitting. Pricy? A little. But very worth it.
As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.
Draymond Green has never been shy about speaking his mind, but he’s recently put his foot in his mouth on a couple of occasions when speaking about the push for fair and equitable pay in women’s sports. Green was first taken to task by Megan Rapinoe and others on Twitter after a lengthy thread in which he showed how he’s clearly missed the mark with his comments. Green later double down, saying women need to stop “complaining” and put together a plan, which once again showed his ignorance on the issue as women like Rapinoe have long presented ideas, facts, and paths forward to provide more equity to women’s sports.
On Thursday, Green faced criticism for those comments from a somewhat unlikely source. Stephen A. Smith became the latest to call out Green for being uninformed on the topic, but also pointed to himself, ESPN, and just generally men in the sports world as the biggest part of the problem, rattling off facts and numbers to show where the interest in women’s sports really is.
As Smith notes, even during the pandemic when sports TV ratings as a whole have dropped, women’s sports, and particularly the WNBA, have seen them jump. He notes that all of us who are men in the sports space have a responsibility to step up and be advocates, not just passive observers, in bringing women’s sports more to the forefront. He points out how ESPN holds fault as well, noting that they were more likely to show women’s sports highlights for games where Kobe Bryant was in attendance, and that he likewise needs to do better in shining light on women’s sports with his massive platform.
Hopefully he does that, and it was nice to hear him shout out his women colleagues at ESPN who helped him with the research and pointed out a lot of these things for the segment. That he’s listening to them is a good step, and hopefully one that he’ll follow through on. For now, it’s an important message and one that hopefully will land with a wider audience given who it’s coming from.
While it’s only become popular in the US over the past ten years, gose is a classic, northern German-style that’s been made for centuries. The first reference to the brew comes from the year 1000, but it truly gained in popularity (like many well-known beer styles) in the 1700s. That’s some serious history.
To put it into the simplest terms, a gose is an unfiltered wheat beer. But it’s also so much more than that, because it’s brewed with lactic acid, spices (like coriander), and sea salt. These beers are also often made with fruit like raspberry, grapefruit, or blood oranges — adding to the spring-y-ness of it all.
These mouth-puckering, refreshing, dry, and crushable beers are such a natural fit for early April that we asked a handful of our favorite bartenders to name their favorites. Check them out below!
Sierra Nevada Otra Vez. I first got to try this beer up in Chico, California, home of the Sierra Nevada brewery, a couple of years ago. I love citrus flavors in the spring. Otra Vez has the citrus grapefruit and lime I’m looking for while being balanced by the sweet agave notes.
Chris Hennessy, bartender at Dylan Whisky Bar in Kilkenny, Ireland
For gose beer, I always aim for bright and refreshing — with a good dollop of salted citrus tang. This is nailed down by the folks at Lough Gill with their Wild Irish Gose. Your lips will pucker, and the saline dryness will go on and on into infinity.
Destihl Brewery’s Here Gose Nothin’ tastes amazing. The name is great in itself and the beer truly does have a lot of fantastic flavors. It’s fermented from wild yeasts but also goes through lactic fermentation, giving it a good texture. There is a little salinity to the beer which balances the tart citrus flavors that exist in traditional goses.
Austin Zimmer, bartender at Le Privé in New York City
The Hibiscus Gose from Boulevard due to the crisps and dry flavors along with a slightly lingering sourness, tempered by the sea salt. Also the slight salty character adds a refreshing balance to the residual sweetness and lemony taste.
Maren Nazera Erickson, bartender in San Antonio, Texas
Dogfish Head SuperEIGHT or Sea Quench are my two go-to’s when looking for a gose beer.
SuperEIGHT is made with prickly pear, mango, boysenberry, blackberry, raspberry, elderberry, kiwi juices, toasted quinoa, and Hawaiian red salt — giving it a distinctive red color and a palate that’s perfect for spring sipping.
Sea Quench is a little lighter and less fruity, for those who don’t want a full gose. It’s a mix of Kölsch, gose, and Berlinerweiss brewed using blackened limes, sea salt, and sour lime juice — for a very margarita-like feel. Refreshing and crushable.
For a sour, gose beer, I recommend W4 from Transmitter Brewery. It’s bright and full of citrus flavor, especially from the lime. It’s also dry and tart.
This is awesome with oysters and seafood. Plus, there’s a super cool label on the can.
Kent Falls’ Alternate World takes the classic style and dry hops it to add subtle grapefruit, honeysuckle, passion fruit, and pine accents to the expected grassy, lemony, funky, and briny flavors. The result is a great beer for the springtime months.
Joseph Fredrickson, bartender at Society Lounge in Cleveland
Goses are a great warm-weather go-to. I love the Anderson Valley Blood Orange Gose. This gose is tart but approachable, with notes of saline, citrus, and baking spices. The acidity and saline make it great with refreshing foods and, surprisingly, with many desserts.
This 4.4% gose is tart, salty, thirst-quenching. It’s brewed with raspberries, lemon, and sea salt. The result is a tangy, sweet, citrus, and berry-filled sipper that ends with a subtle, pleasing salinity.
Thankfully, there’s rum, which is 1) delicious and 2) a wonderful way to both conjure and learn about the tropics (where most brands are made). In fact, some rums carry such a clear sense of place in their flavor profiles that we find ourselves inspired to add their countries of origin to our travel wish lists.
Consider the list below a tasting guide and a travel assistant — letting you know what to sip now and where to visit later.
This dark rum is a blend of eight-year-old Barbados and Dominican column still rums, combined with Jamaican pot still rum, plus Trinidadian rum. This multi-island spirit is then matured in American white oak ex-bourbon casks.
Tasting Notes:
With a swirl of scents ranging from banana to leather, your palate is immediately locked in for a taste. The bright and divine sip is features hints of baking spices, spicy cinnamon, and brown sugar. There’s also the presence of vanilla and candied apple notes hiding below the surface. The finish is long-lasting and drizzled with heat.
Appleton Estate rums mature quicker in the tropical Jamaican weather than spirits aged in cooler climates, allowing fuller flavors to develop in a shorter span of time. Crafted by renowned Master Blender Joy Spence, this rum has been aged for a minimum of eight years.
Tasting Notes:
Do you know the person that dominates the conversation but is legit good at it? That’s the orange peel aroma that overtakes the nose here. It’s powerful, but also cheery and welcome. That same orange peel that greeted you at the beginning of the experience is met with flavors of clove, banana, and oak on the palate. The finish is longish — those flavor notes stay to play long after you enjoy a mouthful.
Bottom Line:
Come for the beautiful Jamaican landscape, stay for the Appleton Estate rum. It’s just that simple.
This 15-year-old rum is aged in American oak barrels before being finished in Spanish Oloroso sherry casks. It was crafted by expert distillers at Varela Hermanos, a family-owned company that dates back to 1908, when Don José Varela established the first sugar mill in Pesé, Panama.
Tasting Notes:
Smoky oak coupled with the aroma of ripe oranges lures you in for the beginning of a delightful tasting experience. Dark cherry shares the glory alongside vanilla bean notes on the palate, contributing to the complexity of the rum. The slightly heated finish quickly dissipates, leaving you with the taste of toasted almonds at the back of the palate.
Bottom Line:
I’ve never been to Panama. This rum has single-handedly made it a travel priority of mine.
Made by Boston’s first craft distillery, Bully Boy Distillers, The Rum Cooperative Volume Two, is comprised of premium rums sourced from five prominent rum-making regions: Martinique, Panama, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Colombia. It is crafted with a blend of eight to 12-year-old pot-stilled and column-distilled rums.
Tasting Notes:
The faint scent of vanilla and oak doesn’t build much anticipation for the first sip, but once the rum hits your palate, you’re in for an unexpected ride. The creamy, flavor-rich sip is riddled with coconut, sugar cane, and dark cherry. The blend of flavors coupled with the subtle spicy finish demands you to savor your pour.
Bottom Line:
Unconventional but also just flat-out delicious. Take me to all the tropical locations this rum is crafted from!
This aged Guatemalan rum is distilled with sugarcane molasses before its barreled and aged for up to 12 years in new, charred American white oak barrels. Using fresh, locally sourced coconut water, the distillery then proofs the rum blend from cask strength down to bottle strength (40% abv).
Tasting Notes:
It’s not called Coconut Cartel Special without reason. The aroma’s main star is — you guessed it — coconut. But don’t let that prevent you from indulging in the drink itself. Rich caramel and coconut complement each other, while a slight hint of banana completes the tasting experience. There’s hardly any heat on the finish and that’s okay, because the delectable flavors remain on the palate.
Bottom Line:
If you’re loco for coconuts (I couldn’t resist), then you’ll *really* enjoy this rum…and a trip to Miami. Because when would you not want to go to Miami.
From a fifth-generation family estate, this 12-year old naturally aged rum is distilled with 100 percent renewable energy and is Kosher certified, plus sugar-free. Especially noteworthy is the fact that this rum is also sustainably produced (Carbon Neutral & Fair Trade certified).
Tasting Notes:
There’s depth to this rum that you can grasp from the honey and oak aroma. It has a velvety mouthfeel that’s beaming with character in the form of baked green apples, vanilla, and peppery spice. The finish is a quick kiss of heat coupled with a delicate sweetness.
Bottom Line:
I’ve been to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, and enjoyed this rum chilled while watching the sunset. You should do the same.
In the late 1700s, a sugar mill crushed cane at the site of the current Cruzan Rum distillery in St. Croix. Inspired by the name of this old sugar mill estate, this dark rum was born. It’s a blend of five to 12-year-old rums aged in American oak barrels.
Tasting Notes:
Beautiful amber hue, and a tantalizing nose comprised of hints of cinnamon alongside vanilla. The palate is as equally pleasing, with subtle sweet vanilla and oak, thanks to the barrel-aging process. Slight heat on the finish.
Bottom Line:
This rum is just as tasty neat as it is in a spirit-forward cocktail. Plus, anything that puts me in the mood to visit the US Vigin Islands is a winner.
The Major League Baseball season is only a week old and we’ve already had some all-time baseball weirdness. On Opening Day, Dodgers star Cody Bellinger hit a home run and got called out on the same play because Justin Turner thought the outfielder caught the ball and ran all the way back to first base as Bellinger continued rounding the bases, which by rule you can’t pass the baserunner in front of you and as such Bellinger was out with the world’s longest RBI single.
On Thursday, the Mets maybe managed to one-up that moment for the weirdest play of the early season, as they won in dubious fashion on a walkoff hit by pitch. Michael Conforto, down 1-2 in the count with the bases loaded and one out, leaned dramatically into the strike zone to let a pitch that the umpire was calling strike three hit him on the elbow. Somehow, the umpire allowed it to be a hit by pitch to walk it off for the Mets in a 3-2 victory. Even the Mets announce crew thought it was a ridiculous call.
It is a miserable way to lose for a Marlins team that doesn’t exactly need the assistance of the umpires to drop games, and it will be the source of plenty of controversy around baseball. It’s an absolutely atrocious call, especially considering the ump was ringing Conforto up before recognizing it grazed his elbow pad. How you don’t recognize something is amiss in a situation where you go from calling strike three to calling a hit by pitch is unfathomable, but the Marlins have plenty of reason to be upset after that ending.
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State of Minneota
State of Minnesota
