Month: October 2021

A newborn baby saving an entire animated film production from unprecedented disaster? Sounds a bit like the plot of a Pixar short, doesn’t it?

Something (sort of) like that actually did happen during the making of “Toy Story 2.” (There are a several retellings of the story out there, from an in-depth interview on The Next Web to the simplified, animated version in the “Toy Story 2” extras shown below.)

Here’s a basic rundown of what happened:

The film was well underway when an unnamed Pixar employee who was trying to delete unneeded files accidentally applied the “remove” command to the root files of the film. Suddenly, things started disappearing. Woody’s hat. Then his boots. Then Woody himself.

Pixar folks watched characters and sequences disappear in front of their eyes. Obviously, this was … not good.

Oren Jacob, the associate technical director of the film, got on the horn to the systems crew with a panicked “Pull the plug!” They did. Were they able to stop the bleed? Nope, 90% of the movie was gone. Surely there was a backup system, though, right?

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Yes! But unfortunately, no one had been checking to make sure the backups were actually working. Oopsie. And as luck would have it, the backups were not working, and hadn’t been for a month. Nearly all of “Toy Story 2” had gone bye-bye. Big honking oops.

Jacob called the film’s supervising technical director, Galyn Susman, to deliver the bad news. Imagine making that phone call. No, thank you.

But this is where the story gets good.

Susman just happened to have been working from home because she’d recently had a baby. (That’s right, she was directing one of the most iconic animated films to date while also creating and birthing human life. Respect.) And it just so happened that she had backed up the film on her home computer so she could work on it while taking care of her newborn, Eli.

“As a mother who wanted to see her children, I needed to have a computer at home,” Susman says in the animated recreation of the mishap. “And so I would copy the entire film onto my computer.”

Jacob and Susman wrapped the computer in blankets to protect it, seatbelted it in to the backseat of Susman’s Volvo and drove it to the Pixar studios. (Remember, this was 1998—clearly this process would look much different today.)

“Eight people met us with a plywood sheet out in the parking lot and, like a sedan carrying the Pharaoh, walked it into the machine room,” Jacob told The Next Web.

It worked. The film was recovered. (The simplified version makes it sound like this was an instant fix; however, the in-depth version clarifies that there were tens of thousands of technical files that employees had to pore through one by one in a lengthy, arduous process. But still, their bacon was saved.)

Babies and work-from-home moms for the win, am I right?

How Toy Story 2 Almost Got Deleted: Stories From Pixar Animation: ENTV

www.youtube.com

However, this story has a perfectly ironic ending, as the version of the film recovered from Susman’s computer ended up being almost completely scrapped anyway. When the Pixar bigwigs took a look at the movie, they decided it simply wasn’t good. The film ended up being rewritten and remade into the delightful movie we know and love today.

Bless the Pixar people for their dedication to greatness—and for learning their lesson about routinely checking backups the hard way.

An anonymous Twitter user with the handle BusinessmanLego is getting a lot of love for pointing out a sad fact of American life: The phone call has been nearly killed by scammers.

We can all remember a time when getting a phone call from a number you didn’t know would be exciting. A long-lost friend could be getting in touch. It could be a new opportunity. You may have won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes.

But now, a call from an unknown number is most likely from a scammer or an autodialer. They’re distracting, annoying and feel like harassment. The fact that they’ve become so common seems like another example of how so many of our institutions have stopped working in the best interests of the public and have kowtowed to special interests.

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I love that there was a period of time when it was like ‘grrr someone should fix these robocalls’ and then they nev… https://t.co/yadzeW6zOl

— Lord Businessman (@BusinessmanLego)
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A lot of people feel that robocalls have basically ruined the concept of the phone call.

Our leaders have failed.

Nobody wants to pick up the phone anymore.

People never used to ignore phone calls.

@behaviorben @BusinessmanLego Ignoring a ringing phone was like ignoring a knock at the door. Hard to believe, now.

— Mortal Trash (@trashymortal)
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It seems like we’ve all sacrificed a great mode of communication and our sanity for a few opportunists to make a buck.

It’s not just calls.

OK, now this was funny.

@JennyBwood @BusinessmanLego Jenny I know your number. It’s 867-5309.

— Jamison Malkovich 🇺🇦🇮🇹🇺🇲🌊🌊🏖️🍺 (@redhorse6531)
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Now, here’s a solution: We could charge people for unsolicited calls.

@google_result @BusinessmanLego This is a great idea and would solve the problem. Wouldn’t even need to be 20c, cou… https://t.co/LDOdHJDWvM

— Jason Harris 💉💉 (@LMCBoy)
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America has been plagued by robocalls over the past few years. The Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission identified them as the No. 1 complaint in 2020 and Americans are on track to receive 48 billion this year.

How does this happen?

Robocalls usually begin abroad in counties such as India, the Philippines and Mexico. Scammers route their calls to smaller U.S.-based telecom carriers who are happy to pocket their fees. The calls are then funneled to the largest carriers who send them directly to your phone.

In 2019, Congress passed the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (or TRACED) Act but the shadowy audio-dialing industry has been able to keep ahead of the law. Fortune says that blame can also be placed on big businesses for their “tacit support for robocalling” and federal agencies whose “foot-dragging” has allowed scammers to get off scot-free.

What can you do to stop auto-dialers?

1. Talk to your phone company. Most major telecom companies have call-blocking tools that can help shut down scammers on their end.

2. Register your number on the Do Not Call Registry. This won’t stop illegal scammers but it will save you from hearing from bothersome legitimate telemarketers.

3. Block spam calls from your smartphone:

iPhone—iOS 13 has an app called Silence Unknown Callers, which blocks any callers that aren’t in your contact list, you haven’t been in contact with or haven’t texted, and sends them straight to voicemail. Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers

Android—To turn on Block Calls From Unidentified Callers, tap the phone icon on the bottom of your screen. Tap the three dots on the top right of the screen, then: Settings > Blocked Numbers. Enable Block Calls From Unidentified Callers by tapping the toggle switch on the right.

Google Pixel—When you receive a call from any number, tap Screen Call on your home screen and Google Assistant will answer it for you. If the caller responds, you’ll receive a transcript of their response.

Matt Amodio’s time on Jeopardy! (for now) is done. At least until the next Tournament of Champions. But the Ph. D student still has plenty of people talking about his $1.5 million, 388-day run on the show as Jeopardy! champion. Given just how consistent he was in cruising past contestants to build up that historic run, many were shocked when he ran into trouble during Monday’s episode.

Some, in fact, went as far as to speculate that Amodio intentionally lost, especially when he didn’t come up with the correct answer to Final Jeopardy! But in writing for Newsweek, Amodio made it clear that he wasn’t tanking, and gave new details about his very successful run on the show and what it meant to him.

“I wasn’t being fed the answers when I was winning and I didn’t throw the game when I lost. It’s just a competition, I was doing well and then I lost. There’s nothing more to it,” Amodio said. “My buzzer was working fine. The only thing that wasn’t working was my brain at full capacity. The theories don’t upset me, people think all sorts of crazy things. But I do have the power not to acknowledge them.”

Other past Jeopardy! contestants have stuck up for Amodio in the days since he lost his 39th appearance on the show, dismissing the conspiracy theories in the process.

Many who have appeared on the show in the past had the same take on the performance: sometimes you just have a bad day. And Amodio admitted he felt “off” when he filmed game 39, and that was certainly a factor in the result.

“I gradually saw that I wasn’t remembering things that I really should have been able to remember, and I was mis-reading clues in front of me. As that was happening, I began to see where the path ahead of me was leading,” he said, recalling the performance where another player found all three Daily Doubles and ended up with the victory. “I’m quite pleased with how I kept steady throughout. I don’t think my emotions or confidence played that much into it, what I did feel was that there was evidence that my mind wasn’t working at full capacity.”

He was also very complimentary of his opponents, though, both on Twitter and in the Newsweek piece about his experience.

“I didn’t lose a game of Jeopardy!” he said. “There were two people who fought hard to win, and one of them won. It was a poorly timed downturn for me, because I was up against two of the best and they did a great job capitalizing on that.”

Amodio said he has very boring plans for his winnings, but many fans are already eager to see him return to the tournament and see what he can do against some serious competition in the next few months.

[via Newsweek]

Adele let fans know that her new album, 30, would be dropping in mid-November. And as listeners eagerly awaited the first single, she previewed a track on Instagram Live that sounded like it might be kicking things off. Now we know that to be true, “Easy On Me” is out now and officially the lead single for her new era. Check out the song and video above and expect a lot more Adele coming your way in the next few weeks. As rumors initially began to mount that new Adele was coming at the end of 2020, fans eventually learned that the album wouldn’t be coming until 2021.

But, Adele seemed happy to take her sweet time this year, too. It wasn’t until October that billboards began to pop up, indicating that the album might, in fact, finally be here. Since she last released music back in 2015, with the gargantuan album 25, six years have passed. In that time, Adele ended her marriage and also lost a significant amount of weight, two massive life changes. Since she usually gives us plenty of epic heartbreak material, it seems likely that going through one of the biggest kinds of romantic pain will yield more material than ever before. So stay tuned and check out “Easy On Me” above.

If you’ve read any of our beer-related articles over the past month, you’ve seen a ton of references to fall and what this season means for beer drinkers. Autumn is a time for dark lagers, pumpkin beers, brown ales, and (as the weeks go on) strong ales, barleywines, stouts, and porters.

Of course, there are still plenty of seasonal IPAs on the shelf, too. It’s a style that never really has a fallow period. After all, citrus, tropical fruits, and spice are key elements of many fall and winter flavor profiles.

For this craft beer blind taste test we picked eight well-known, fruit-forward IPAs. They’re hoppy, slightly bitter, and loaded with notes of mango, lime, and even grapefruit. Keep reading to see which beers were our favorites and which crashed and burned.

Our lineup includes:

• Saint Archer Tropical IPA
• Hop Valley Stash Panda
• Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin
• Ska Modus Mandarina
• Terrapin Luau Krunkles
• Anchor San Franpsycho
• Dogfish Head Flesh and Blood
• Belching Beaver Here Comes Mango

Let’s dig in!

Part 1: The Taste

Taste #1:

Tasting Notes:

While many fruit-based IPAs rely too heavily on the fruit flavor up front, this beer starts with resinous pine needles before moving on to grapefruit and lemon zest. The flavor is complex with caramel malts, more ripe grapefruit, and a subtly bitter, very earthy hops kick.

Taste #2:

Tasting Notes:

Nosing this beer, I found a bold citrus aroma. This was followed by a heavy pine scent. That’s about it. Sipping it revealed a wallop of orange peel, some tropical fruit flavors, dank pine, and some malt presence. The finish was fairly bitter, with some fruit as well.

All in all, a beer that will most appeal to citrus fans. It’s a bit overwhelming for me.

Taste #3:

Tasting Notes:

Aromas of grapefruit, mango, lemon zest, and a nice helping of dank, resinous, pine needles. Sipping it reveals notes of pineapple, grapefruit, lime, tropical fruits, light malt presence, and just the right amount of bitter, spicy, floral hops at the finish.

Taste #4:

Tasting Notes:

This beer’s nose is really fruity. There are a ton of aromas including grapefruit, mango, and some floral hops scents. Even with the hops presence, the nose is almost too fruity. The palate is loaded with guava, passionfruit, and lots of citrus.

It ends with a bit of resin, but not as much as I’d hoped.

Taste #5:

Tasting Notes:

Taking a moment to nose this beer, I found aromas of tangerine, grapefruit, mango, and guava, as well as dank pine. The palate is loaded with more tropical fruit flavors, citrus zest, bready malts, and a nice, piney, slightly bitter finish that only seems to heighten the fruity flavors.

Taste #6:

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, I found hints of wet grass, pine resin, orange peel, and lemon zest. The palate is more of the same with lemon, orange, some tropical fruits, an earthy flavor, as well as a nice floral, bitter hops presence that brings everything together.

Taste #7:

Tasting Notes:

Complex aromas of sweet malts, floral hops, lemongrass, dank pine, and tropical fruits are prevalent on the nose. Sipping it revealed mango, guava, tangerine, caramel malts, and a gentle, dank, resinous pine. The finish is sweet, loaded with citrus, and ends with more floral, slightly bitter hops.

Taste #8:

Tasting Notes:

This beer has a bit of a strange aroma. It’s overly citrus-scented, overpower any other potential scents. The palate is sugary sweet with hints of lemon, lime, and tropical fruits. It’s very juicy but doesn’t have remotely enough hop or malt presence to go back to for another sip.

Part 2: The Ranking

8) Anchor San Franpsycho (Taste #8)

ABV: 6.3%

Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

San Francisco’s Anchor is one of the most well-known, oldest breweries in the U.S. It’s known for its classic beers, but it also makes a slew of great contemporary brews. This includes its fruit-forward San Franpsycho. This hazy, juicy beer gets its tropical fruit flavor from the addition of apricot and peach puree during the second fermentation.

Bottom Line:

This beer is juicy, hazy, and loaded with fruit flavor. But it’s too sweet for me to enjoy it very often. It’s almost like someone made Fruity Pebbles cereal into a beer.

7) Saint Archer Tropical IPA (Taste 4)

ABV: 7%

Average Price: $10 for a six-pack

The Beer:

San Diego’s Saint Archer makes a wide variety of beers including a handful of IPAs. The brewery makes a fruity West Coast IPA called Saint Archer Tropical IPA brewed with Simcoe, Mosaic, and Citra hops. It gets its tropical fruit flavor from the addition of real passionfruit and mango.

Bottom Line:

I understand I’m taste testing fruit-forward IPAs. But I’d still like to taste beer. This IPA was a little too fruity for my liking. I could use more balance.

6) Ska Modus Mandarina (Taste #2)

ABV: 6.8%

Average Price: $10 for a six-pack

The Beer:

One of Ska’s best beers for fruit fans is its Modus Mandarina IPA. This bold brew is dry-hopped with Mandarina hops and brewed with orange peels to turn the citrus up to eleven.

Bottom Line:

This is a pretty good beer. The only problem is that it’s a little too heavy in the citrus zest department. It overpowers the rest of the flavors.

5) Stone Tangerine Express (Taste #6)

ABV: 6.7%

Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Stone is one of the biggest names in the IPA game. It’s won numerous awards over the year for its beers. Fans of fruity IPAs love Tangerine Express, a citrus-fueled IPA that gets its cloudy, hazy appearance and bright, citrus flavor from the addition of tangerine and pineapple purée.

Bottom Line:

This is a great example of a great fruit IPA. It plays on the flavors already associated with IPAs with complementary citrus and herbal flavors paired with slightly bitter hops.

4) Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin (Taste #1)

ABV: 7%

Average Price: $15 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Ballast Point is well-known for its Sculpin IPA. One of the highest-rated IPAs of all time, the beer comes in other versions including the popular Grapefruit Sculpin. This seven percent ABV IPA that’s flavored with grapefruit is available year-round. It’s known for its bitter, hoppy, slightly tart flavor.

Bottom Line:

This is obviously a citrus-based beer. But while that flavor note is obvious, it isn’t overwhelming. The other IPA flavors work in unison with the citrus fruits included.

3) Belching Beaver Here Comes Mango (Taste #7)

ABV: 6.5%

Average Price: $11 for a six-pack

The Beer:

With a name like Belching Beaver, you might not want to take this brewery seriously. You should. This brewery is consistently dropping bangers including Here Comes Mango. This 6.5 percent ABV IPA was brewed with Simcoe and Amarillo hops as well as natural mango flavors.

Bottom Line:

This is a very well-balanced IPA. It has a nice, tropical fruit flavor that pairs well with the pine and malt flavors. This is a beer I’ll definitely try again.

2) Terrapin Luau Krunkles (Taste #5)

ABV: 6.5%

Average Price: $11 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Athens, Georgia’s Terrapin Brewing makes a handful of memorable IPAs. One of its best is its Luau Krunkles. It’s called a POG IPA because on top of being brewed with Mosaic, Zythos, Citra, Galaxy, and Amarillo hops, and is dry-hopped with Simcoe, Citra, and Amarillo hops it gets its flavors from the addition of passion fruit, orange, and guava.

Bottom Line:

This is a truly two-dimensional beer. First is the tropical and citrus fruit base that’s subtle in its complexity. Add in the malt and pine and you have an extremely well-balanced IPA.

1) Hop Valley Stash Panda (Taste #3)

ABV: 6.5%

Average Price: $11 for a six-pack

The Beer:

It’s right there in the name. Eugene, Oregon’s Hop Valley is a brewery for fans of the floral, slightly bitter beer ingredient. While the brewery makes a ton of great IPAs, one of our favorites is Stash Panda. Brewed with Cryo and Citra hops as well as grapefruit peel, this is truly a beer for pine and citrus fans.

Bottom Line:

This hazy, juicy, crisp beer is a great example of the best of both worlds. It’s filled with floral hops as well as juicy citrus. It’s a great beer to toast to the end of warm weather for a few months.

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As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.

In 2019, San Francisco’s Outside Lands became the first major US festival to allow on-site sale and consumption of cannabis. The Grass Lands area (which debuted the year before) is nothing short of a weed wonderland. Now in 2021, the full-on experience is set to feature cannabis-themed demos, canna-convos, performances from artists like Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem and Salami Rose Joe Louis, and of course, on-site sales and trippily decorated places to toke up.

A description of the area in a release feels like something out of a Haight-Ashbury-heyday Grateful Dead show: “Once inside Grass Lands, visitors can stroll down Eighth Avenue, skip up to High Street and check out the Arts District, Farmers’ Market, and Consumption Areas.” This year, attendees can even pre-order their cannabis products using the Outside Lands mobile app, so you can pop in and pop out and not miss a set at another part of the festival in Golden Gate Park.

Some of the cannabis programming that stands out include a cooking demo called “Brigadeiro It On! with Vanessa Lavorato: How To Make Brazilian Chocolate Brigadeiro Truffles With That Kief You Just Made” and “How Many Weed Jokes Can I Fit Into 30 Minutes?” with comedian Ngaio Bealum.

Check out all Grass Lands details here. Outside Lands Festival goes down in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park From October 29-31.

The premise of this story is flawed. You don’t have to drink one bourbon forever. In fact, the bourbon world is literally overflowing with options. If you enjoy wheated bourbons, we can list a dozen for you to try at a moment’s notice. Are spicy, higher-rye bourbons your jam? There are countless expressions on the market. Looking for a sweet, high corn option? Your local liquor store surely has a few.

In fact, you could probably drink a new bourbon expression every day of your life, if you had the means.

But as humans, we like hypotheticals. So what if — in this sea of amazing, high-quality, nuanced bourbons — you could only select one bottle to drink until the end of your days? What would you pick? Would you go for a hard-to-find unicorn? A steady bargain sipper? How about a craft bourbon? It isn’t an easy series of questions for bourbon drinkers to answer.

Luckily, a few of our drinks industry pals were willing to try. We asked a handful of our favorite bartenders to tell us the one bourbon they’d drink for the rest of their days and their answers didn’t disappoint. Check out all of their bourbon picks below and click on the prices if you want to try them too.

Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of 2021

• The Best Bottles Of Bourbon Whiskey For Under $20, Ranked
• Our Favorite Bourbon Whiskey From Every Price Point Between $10-$200
• All 19 Brands From The Buffalo Trace Distillery, Ranked
• Here’s Who Won Our Big Barrel Proof Bourbon Whiskey Blind Taste Test
• The Best Bourbon Whiskeys To Drink Neat, From $50 On Up

Michter’s Toasted Barrel

Joan Percival, bartender at Proof Whiskey Bar in Omaha, Nebraska

ABV: 45.7%

Average Price: $125

Why This Bourbon?

Michter’s Toasted Barrel is such a pleasure to drink, I’d have no problem being married to it forever. It’s easy to drink, but not boring. It’s got all the characteristics you want in a good bourbon: vanilla, oak, and a touch of cinnamon, but it also has an unexpected marshmallow-like butterscotch note, with a long warm finish.

Basil Hayden’s

Christopher Rodriguez, lead bartender at Lucy Bar at the Bardessono Hotel in Yountville, California

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $45

Why This Bourbon?

If I could choose one bourbon to drink for the rest of my life, I would choose Basil Hayden’s. It has so much versatility because it can be an ingredient in a cocktail, or it can be enjoyed on its own. It is extremely smooth and, at first, has a little kick to it but at the end of each sip, there is an almost caramel-like finish that completes it.

Michter’s 10-Year

Eric Heinel, certified sommelier and beverage director for David Burke in New York City

ABV: 47.2%

Average Price: $199

Why This Bourbon?

This is actually a very easy answer for me. My pick is Michter’s 10 Year. This is a bottle that is quickly becoming more expensive every day — so buy it up now, if you can. Even at $200, this bourbon over-delivers on flavor and structure. A true sipping bourbon meant to be enjoyed neat or with one large ice cube. This bourbon is on the heavier side with a maple syrup-like mouthfeel, the sweetness is very well balanced and makes for an incredibly smooth experience.

Buffalo Trace

Hayden Miller, head bartender of Bodega Taqueria y Tequila in Miami

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $33

Why This Bourbon?

Buffalo Trace is an incredible stand-by that is becoming harder to find with good reason. There are killer notes of vanilla and subtle oak to remind you where it came from.

Old Grand-Dad Bonded

Robert Kidd, head bartender at Le Cavalier in Wilmington, Delaware

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $15

Why This Bourbon?

The high rye mash bill and the extra proof make for an excellent bourbon. It’s a bourbon that you don’t have to worry about getting lost in your cocktail. A lot of people think to use soft wheat bourbon in their cocktail to make it “smooth”.

Smooth is terrible. Smooth is boring. Give me a complex cocktail that makes me taste everything that went in the glass.

Laws Four Grain

Joshua Duncan, beverage manager at Adrift Tiki Bar in Denver, Colorado

ABV: 47.5%

Average Price: $60

Why This Bourbon?

I would absolutely pick Laws Bourbon time after time. I love Laws because they don’t take shortcuts, and it shows in their end product. Their Four Grain Straight Bourbon is a blend of corn, barley, wheat, and rye, which are locally grown in Colorado and carefully blended into a delicious and unique bourbon. The added grains add a layer of depth and complexity to this bourbon that you won’t find from other more traditional Kentucky or Tennessee Bourbons.

Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel

Jessica King, master mixologist at Brother Wolf in Knoxville, Tennessee

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $119

Why This Bourbon?

My desert island bourbon bottle is hands down, Elmer T. Lee. Although it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to drink any, due to allocation, Elmer T. was my well whiskey at Peter Kern Library some years ago. And I would have to convince people to try it, which is hilarious to think of now. With a slightly higher rye content, it’s soft vanilla honey to start and finishes with a crack of black pepper and tobacco. It’s great for mixing too, I made many a cocktail with it.

I would drink it all the time if I could get my hands on a bottle.

Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 15

Emily Lawson, bartender and owner of Foxhole Public House in Bentonville, Arkansas

ABV: 53.5%

Average Price: $1,500

Why This Bourbon?

If I could curl up with a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve Bourbon 15 Year Old for the rest of my life, all will be right with the world. It’s full of classic-aged bourbon flavors like nutmeg, stewed cherry, and tobacco.

Weller 12

Stephen George, director of outlets and bartender at 20 | Twenty Grill in Carlsbad, California

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $200

Why This Bourbon?

If I’m only allowed one bourbon for the rest of my life, I’m going to get greedy and go with the Weller 12-year Bourbon. Very tough to get your hands on right now, but the “Reserve” and “Antique 107” also over-deliver. The sweeter profile of the wheat does add a distinct layer of complexity to go with the depth of flavor that you can only get from the 12 years of aging in barrel.

Baker’s 7-Year

Evan Hosaka, lead bartender of The Dorsey at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas

ABV: 53.5%

Average Price: $60

Why This Bourbon?

Baker’s Single Barrel from the Jim Beam small batch collection is bottled at 107 proof, with a minimum of seven years of aging. It’s great neat but also really nice on the rocks. Because it is a single barrel, there will always be different nuances and flavors that change from barrel to barrel, allowing a different drinking experience through the rest of your life.

Blanton’s Single Barrel

Darron Foy, bartender at The Flatiron Room in New York City

ABV: 46.5%

Average Price: $110

Why This Bourbon?

I’m a big fan of Blanton’s Single Barrel bourbon. ‘The world’s first single barrel bourbon offers premium flavor with a higher rye content to boot, my favorite kind of Bourbon. I could happily sip this spice-laden bourbon all day every day. Vanilla, nutmeg, and baking spice with that kick of rye.

Maker’s Mark

Rachel Stidham, bartender at Paul’s Landing in St. Petersburg, Florida

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $30

Why This Bourbon?

I would choose Maker’s Mark, hands down. It’s smooth and easy to sip straight, whether neat or on the rocks. It has sweet yet bold flavors of vanilla and caramel with hints of oak and spice, and is also super versatile, making it the perfect whiskey for a cocktail.

Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond

Jeremy Williams, head mixologist at MDRD atop the Amway Grand Plaza in Grand Rapids, Michigan

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $65

Why This Bourbon?

It would be Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond from Heaven Hill. It’s such a solid example of the “bottled in bond” style — all of the bourbon flavors we know and love turned up to eleven. At 100 proof, this delivers a long, complex finish when enjoyed neat.

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As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.

Shake Shack is a bit of an anomaly in the fast-casual space. On one hand, they make what is hands-down the best beef patty in all of fast food, with meat sourced from well-respected butchers with years of experience. Then they top that shit with American cheese and serve it alongside frozen French fries and a milkshake that tastes like birthday cake. Rather than doubling down on the gourmet preparation like most fast-casual joints, Shake Shack plays to the fast food crowd.

They include American cheese because it melts fast and better than any fancy aged cheese out there can. The frozen fries crisp up better. The milkshake tastes like birthday cake because who doesn’t love birthday cake? But we’d be lying if we weren’t at least curious about what Shake Shack could create if they went full gourmet. If they treated each component of their menu with the same craft and care they put into their delicious beef patties, how deep can Shake Shack’s flavor get?

The new Black Truffle Burger answers those questions for us. After a successful pilot launch at a few shacks in New York and California last December, Shake Shack’s new Black Truffle Burger and Parmesan Garlic Fries with Black Truffle sauce will be added to the menu at Shake Shack locations nationwide, from October 15th through January 10th. We gave each a taste to see if the new treats are enough of an excuse to make your next meal Shake Shack.

Let’s dive in, starting with the fries.

Parmesan Garlic Fries With Black Truffle Sauce

Price:$4.79

If you’ve caught our fast food French fry ranking you’d know that I’m no fan of Shake Shack’s crinkle cut fries. It’s not because they’re crinkle cut (though crinkle-cut is the worst French fry form factor) and it’s not because they’re frozen before frying. It’s just because they’re boring. They don’t even really taste like French fries to me, they just taste like a fried texture in desperate need of sauce and seasoning.

So anytime Shake Shack does anything to their fries, I’m intrigued. But they really knocked it out of the park with his one. The Parmesan Garlic Fries with Black Truffle Sauce consists of a basket of crinkle cut fries dusted in a fragrant sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and chopped garlic and served with a cup of Shake Shack’s new black truffle sauce for dipping, which comes sourced from Regalis Foods and is made using USDA Organic Black Truffle Arbequina Oil.

Predictably, the oil is well-sourced and flavored with real truffles, making it apparently the only truly natural truffle product on the fast food market. According to Shake Shack, 98% of truffle products sold globally are actually artificially flavored with synthetic essences and aromas — a point with media outlets and independent research have also made.

Cool. But how does it taste? Well, in a word — delicious.

So delicious in fact that I wish Shake Shack took the liberty to put it on the fries! The sharp, nutty, and spicy qualities of the parmesan garlic combo — which is already packing lots of flavor — comes alive when paired with the deep umami complexity of the sauce, igniting your taste buds in the sort of way that makes you literally go “mmm!” like an idiot in the middle of Shake Shack.

Yes, they’re that good.

The Bottom Line On The Fries:

They’re a must order but I have a message to Shake Shack: Be Brave! Toss that sauce on the fries and add bacon and you’ve got a dressed fry that beats any chili cheese fry order out there as well as In-N-Out’s legendary Animal-Style fries.

Black Truffle Burger

Price: $8.79

As if the fries weren’t good enough, we come to the real star of the show, the Black Truffle Burger. Featuring a burger patty (or two, if you get the double) topped with melty gruyere and a serving of crispy shallots sandwiched between a toasted potato bun brushed with the same black truffle sauce served with the fries, this burger is a straight-up grenade of flavors.

Different flavors hit your taste buds at all angles like shrapnel — creamy salty Gruyere elevates the savory juiciness of the beef, while the crispy fried shallots add a remarkable crunchy mouthfeel that induces a counterbalance of delicate sweetness to the salty meat and cheese mix. The contrasting flavors then meld together in harmony, thanks to the deep umami qualities of the sauce.

The whole thing takes you on a wonderful ride. The toppings feel like the gourmet ingredients that Shake Shack’s exceptional burger meat deserves. Is it better than the Shack Burger? From a purely flavor perspective, I want to say yes. But the flavor is delivered with such decadent intensity that I can’t quite see myself ordering this as my new standard order at Shake Shack.

A burger featuring classic toppings, including American cheese, is just so damn hard to beat, which is probably why it’s Shake Shack’s standard in the first place. But now we know how beautiful it is to fly this close to the sun!

The Bottom Line

Drop what you’re doing, head to Shake Shack and order the Black Truffle Burger if you feel like getting your mind (and taste buds) blown for less than $10.

Find your nearest Shake Shack here.

As the NBA season approaches and training camps get underway, we’ll be taking a look at the player on each team that holds the key to unlocking their full potential.

In Chicago, which overhauled the roster this offseason, there are plenty of options to choose from. But here, we’ll focus on their new point guard, Lonzo Ball. The Bulls gave Ball a handsome new contract and expect him to be the point guard they’ve been seeking for years, as Bulls fans now have hopes of a new star backcourt tandem between he and Zach LaVine. There are plenty of other new players that Billy Donovan will have to sort out in terms of scheme and rotations, but we know, mostly, what to expect from veterans like Nikola Vucevic and new addition DeMar DeRozan.

For the Bulls to make the leap not just into playoff contention but into the tier above the play-in in the East, a lot falls on the shoulders of Lonzo. He has long carried a reputation as a strong defender, but his best work comes off the ball rather than as a point of attack stopper — you can read in detail about that here. It is this conundrum that presents some real questions in Chicago, where it seems the expectation that he will be leading the defense at the point of attack at times given the construction of the roster around him — although Alex Caruso can alleviate that pressure when on the court. Figuring out how to maximize his defensive gifts, which tend to be his ability to anticipate and jump into passing lanes and make the right reads on when to send help from the perimeter, while understanding the Bulls need of an on-ball defender will be the most difficult task for Donovan.

Offensively, the fit seems much more snug. With LaVine on board (and DeRozan and Vucevic), they don’t need a primary creator, but someone who can finish plays as a shooter or a secondary creator, which is where Ball excels. He’s become a terrific spot-up shooter, something that will please LaVine who has all too often faced collapsing defenses in his time in Chicago, and should defenses rotate too aggressively, Ball can put the ball on the floor and make the right read to take full advantage of a team suddenly caught in rotation. On top of that, Ball and LaVine will immediately become one of the best fastbreak combos in the league, turning opponent mistakes on offense into quick, highlight worthy buckets on the other end.

Given his reputation, it’s odd that I feel far more confident in Ball’s fit in Chicago offensively, but considering the personnel, he’s a terrific fit there. Defense is going to be where the Bulls have the most work to do and how the pieces to that puzzle fall into place is going to be the most challenging task for Billy Donovan. If he can figure that out, or if Lonzo can tap into more as a point-of-attack defender and negate those questions on that end, then the Bulls might just be back.

Chances are, you might be one of the many people who have driven the raunchy and flat-out awesome video for Lil Nas X’s “Industry Baby” featuring Jack Harlow to 160 million views on YouTube (and counting). You know, the one where Nas dances naked in a prison shower along with an army of equally naked and totally ripped backup dancers? In the clip, he breaks out of his prison cell in a metaphorical nod to removing the handcuffs placed on him by the music industry and now we know a heckuva lot more about the inspiration for the video thanks to the latest behind-the-scenes look in the Vevo Footnotes series.

The new clip has Pop-Up Video-style notes to every hidden reference and then some. “I wanted to go to a place people would least expect me to go in a music video,” Nas says early in the clip. “An overly masculine place and make it gay asf. I also wanted to visualize the theme of breaking free from the shackles society places on you.”

We learn that the Grammy statues in his jail cell are indeed his actual awards and that the security guard that he punches out while he makes his escape is played by Teen Wolf star Colton Haynes. Nas also confirms that while the video itself wasn’t inspired by The Shawshank Redemption, the escape through a hole in the wall with a pickaxe that Jack Harlow sneaks him was indeed inspired by the film.

Director Christian Breslauer chimes in at one point to explain the underlying point of the video:

“This visual is essentially a giant metaphor to represent Nas’s unwillingness to conform to the industry standards or be caged in because of his beliefs. No matter the scenario he will be who he is and no prison is strong enough to contain him.”

But the best part comes towards the end, when Nas admits that, “the hardest part of making this music video? Honestly? Twerking in front of Jack Harlow. Very uncomfortable.”

Watch the “Industry Baby” Vevo Footnotes clip above and listen to Lil Nas X’s latest album, Montero, out now via Columbia.

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.