Month: December 2022

The appeal of true crime has long endured on TV, yet the genre kicked into high gear on streaming with services carving out their space. Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, and Apple TV+ each made strong showings this year with several entries making our Top 50 list of all time. Below, you’ll find our Top 10 (11, actually) picks for 2022, and the criteria happens to be simple. First, these shows (and one film) all entertained, and second, they all scared the bejesus out of us. Hopefully, they terrified the hell out of you, too.

10. TIE: Black Bird (Apple TV+ series)

This limited series brings us one of Ray Liotta’s final onscreen appearances, and yes, you’ll soon see him in the flat-out crazy Cocaine Bear, but first, prepare yourself for six hours of flat-out intensity. Liotta portrays Big Jim Keene, a veteran cop and dad to Taron Egerton’s Jimmy in this Dennis Lehane-produced adaptation of Jimmy’s In With The Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption memoir. The drug-dealing Jimmy does end up in hell, meaning that he takes an FBI deal to go undercover at a max-security prison, where he ends up tangling with Larry Hall, a serial killer played by Paul Walter Hauser. Surely, you’ve seen his work before, and he’s at his unsettling best in this unyieldingly tense series that never takes its foot off the gas.

10. TIE. Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields (Netflix series)

Not too many bread-and-butter true crime series rose to the top of the crop this year, but the latest entry in Joe Berlinger’s Crime Scene made the grade. Berlinger’s anthology series revolves around settings as central characters that (arguably) aid and abet the flourishing of violent crimes. And as with the Cecil Hotel, there’s definitely a vibe that helps one understand why the so-called “Texas Killing Fields” were plenty spooky enough before bodies were discovered. In this case, Calder Road (part of the marshy surroundings between Galveston and Houston) turned into a focal point connected to the disappearance of four young women, whose murders remain cold cases to this day. This series traces decades of history tied to Calder Road’s ominous vibe, led by one grieving father who’s still searching for the truth.

9. The Dropout (Hulu series)

It was a tough call to leave Inventing Anna off this list (especially since Julia Garner remained fantastic even while delivering Anna Delvey’s cryptic accent). Yet that series bore such a strong (thematic) resemblance to The Dropout with smaller stakes, so the Elizabeth Holmes-tracking series made the cut. Amanda Seyfried picks up the role of an enigma wrapped in a Steve Jobs-style black turtleneck, an image that launched “the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire.” As the world now knows, Holmes pulled the blood-testing wool over the entire biotech industry’s eyes. This series dove into that phenomenon while Holmes’ real-life trial played out amid similar fates for several other grifters. Yet what was it, exactly, that made both that industry and our culture want to believe in Holmes’ deep-throated lies? That’s the scariest part, and Seyfried’s performance goes a long way to inform us of the “why.”

8. Candy (Hulu series)

Actors sure do appear to target “unrecognizable” as the true mark of a fine performance, but Jessica Biel delivers the theatrical goods through her bewigged Candy Montgomery, whose neighbor (Betty Gore) somehow ended up being on the receiving end of dozens of fatal ax wounds. Betty is, of course, portrayed by Melanie Lynskey, who’s had a hell of a year between this series and Yellowjackets success. The attraction of this series is not so much about suspense or the crime itself but more about the dynamic between Candy and Betty (and various third parties) as their dynamic devolves.

7. Tinder Swindler (Netflix film)

If you ever needed the motivation to stay away from online dating apps, this 94-minute case study is for you. Simon Leviev is actually still out there hunting (after serving time on fraud and forgery charges), and this series reveals how he methodically scammed the hell out of a series of unsuspecting women. Before they knew what was happening, they’d been wined and dined on another woman’s dime before Leviev — who masqueraded as a diamond-empire heir — also defrauded them while claiming to be in fear for his life. This is a heartbreaking series to watch for several reasons, but it’s also a cautionary tale that can make a real impact upon audiences. After all, the stranger-danger sixth sense exists for a reason.

6. Pam & Tommy (Hulu series)

I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie did it again. He helmed a project that was a freaking blast but also revolved around a central crime (the theft and leaking of a sex tape) that paved the way for a sh*t ton of emotional devastation. Gillespie delivered the goods through a sleight of hand that managed to balance the rock-and-roll spirit of this project with fallout that plagues Pamela Anderson to this day. It’s also not lost on anyone that Pamela’s humiliation ultimately sourced from a beef between two dudes, and Lily James delivered an anchoring performance that humanized the whole project amid theatrical flourishes from Sebastian Stan. In the end, this show went to dark places but also made plenty of time for spectacle, including tossing around mullets (atop Seth Rogen and Nick Offerman) like it ain’t no thing.

5. The Watcher (Netflix series)

Few people would argue that this is an objectively good show. In fact, this series made a lot of people angry due to the lack of a definitive ending, but that’s also true to the real-life inspiration (an investigative report from The Cut) for this story. Hell, that might be one of the only parts of this tale that matches up to what actually happened, but this was a compelling series that allowed its actors (including Margo Martindale, Mia Farrow, and yes, Bobby Cannavale) to have a ball with alternately dodging and claiming responsibility for the terrorizing letters that arrived when a family moved into a dream home. What transpired was a nightmare full of red herrings that batted around the subject matter like a sweet little bunny, and the fact that all of this is forgivable is a testament to Ryan Murphy’s producing skills. He knows exactly what makes the streaming audience tune in, and a devilish Jennifer Coolidge capped off a delightful mess. Somehow, a second season is coming, so that’ll be fun.

4. Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. (Netflix series)

Hoo boy. I recently rewatched this 4-part series and caught plenty of previously missed cues, which is a sure sign of a successful (and triggering) true-crime story. Celebrity NYC restauranteur Sarma Melngailis, wasn’t too happy with this show’s ending, which she called “misleading,” but the series as a whole is mesmerizing for the level of control that she progressively yielded to the dastardly Anthony Strangis (who previously operated as “Shane Fox”). The sunk-cost fallacy is strong with Sarma, and she actually did hard time at Riker’s Island. This leaves one to wonder exactly how she let her entire business go down the tubes for the promise of dog immortality, but that’s only the beginning. You might grow exasperated with Sarma’s behavior, but there’s a huge mic drop in the middle of Episode 3 that proves how people can present greater horrors than the supernatural.

3. Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix series)

Ryan Murphy can’t stop, and although I didn’t particularly enjoy this grody series (you are no doubt aware of the nature of Dahmer’s crimes), there’s no denying that people couldn’t stop clicking. The show swiftly racked up a billion hours of streaming time, and it’s no wonder why. Evan Peters truly unsettled as a predator who carried out ungodly crimes from within his Wisconsin apartment, even while remarks about “that smell” didn’t seem to deter him. If you’re one of the few Internet souls who didn’t catch this show, make sure that you don’t eat too much before settling down to binge. Soon enough, Monster will return in anthologized form while focusing upon a different serial killer.

2. The Staircase (HBO Max series)

This dramatization of the Michael Peterson story — which follows Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s instant-classic docuseries, also called The Staircase — set out to do a few impossible things. Yes, it succeeded at justifying its own existence, and yes, it went to graphic lengths to reenact speculative theories on how Kathleen Peterson could have died, and it managed to do so without cheapening the subject matter. In fact, Toni Collette’s performance went miles to respectfully wrap its hands around Kathleen’s memory, and Colin Firth deftly kept everyone guessing about Michael’s motives and actions. The show skillfully dances around some of the more extraordinary (and somehow plausible) explanations for Kathleen’s fate without reducing her to an autopsy report. It’s not the easiest watch, but you won’t be able to turn it off, either.

1. Under The Banner Of Heaven (FX on Hulu series)

Now for something completely different. This series will hit the spot for who’s still salty about how True Detective‘s second season shook out. The story is based upon Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction bestseller, for which A Story of Violent Faith is a subtitle, so you can accurately guess that things don’t go well for the character played by Daisy Edgar-Jones (who also had quite an ordeal in this year’s Fresh). The story presents a husband-as-suspect to a double murder, but it swiftly becomes apparent that there’s much more going on, and Andrew Garfield shines as a detective who’s also a devout Latter Day Saints member. Those lingering Spidey senses do still come in handy for him, as well as for this show’s audience. Cue some swirling conspiracies that the Mormon church hasn’t enjoyed IRL, which means that this one strikes a chord on multiple levels. That’s a hallmark of an enduring true-crime show, for sure.

In what seems to be a week (or year) revolving around contract renewals and artists parting ways with their agencies, YG Entertainment closes it off with some surprising news: A new girl group.

Randomly dropping a promo poster early this morning, YG Entertainment is set to unveil the YG Next Movement project right when South Korea rings in the new year at midnight (January 1 at 12 a.m. KST). The poster features seven silhouettes in front of a red-lit backdrop — which one can assume is the fourth generation girl group to debut from the South Korean music giant.

Just hours after the surprise announcement, and Twitter claiming it to be noise marketing, YG ties the knot on their contract discussions and rumors by denying the reports regarding Blackpink’s move to its subsidiary label, THEBLACKLABEL.

In the midst of boy group iKON and actor Kang Dong Won’s departure from the label yesterday, a report from The Korean Herald’s K-Pop Herald stated the K-pop quartet may potentially move to the label once contracts are done.

A representative of YG Entertainment responded in return, stating members of Blackpink still have time on their contracts before they make a decision. The girl group is currently on the European leg of their Born Pink World Tour, and will soon embark on the Asian leg next month.

I love tea. White tea, green tea, black tea, mate, rooibos, gossip, psychedelic tea, herbal tea… if you can steep it in boiling water and turn it into a beverage, I’ve probably drunk it and loved it. Give it to me hot, give it to me iced, sweetened, unsweetened, I’ll drink it down. So when I set out to blind taste test every bottled and canned tea beverage we could find I knew it would be a good time.

And then I remembered something — tea is best enjoyed right after being brewed. After it has chilled in a bottle for who knows how long, it loses that special essence that makes tea such a delicious drink. Which is why bottled tea is usually packed with sugar. When you brew tea for the proper amount of time (3 minutes for green, 5 for black, 7+ for anything herbal) the leaves and flowers evolve into a complex expression that can taste grassy, floral, vegetal, rich, malty, toasted, chocolaty, savory, bitter, and sweet — no sugar or artificial flavors required.

If you’re a true die-hard tea drinker like me, you’ve probably been offered tea before and immediately asked “what kind?” Only to be told “we have black and green,” to which you asked once again, “but what kind?” It’s an annoying line of questioning but there is a whole lot of difference between something like a pearl jasmine green tea and a gunpowder Genmaicha, or a Darjeeling and an English Breakfast. And don’t even get me started on Chai and Matcha! Once you know all of that, it’s impossible to go back to being fine with “black or green” as a descriptor. That’s like saying “we have clear alcohol and dark.”

Unfortunately, this test revealed that bottled tea doesn’t really have that level of complexity — so if you like tea but have no f*cking clue what I’m talking about, fear not. This article is still for you. Here are the best bottled and canned teas, blind taste tested and ranked.

PART I — Methodology

For this blind taste test, I tasted 16 different varieties of bottled and canned tea from local gas station convenience stores as well as 7-Elevens in my area. I had each tea served chilled (as that is how they are sold) and randomly poured for me. I didn’t differentiate between sweetened, unsweetened, black, green, or herbal varieties. If it contained tea or some sort of steeped herb extract, I considered it fair game.

Here is our class:

• 7-Eleven — Green Tea Flavored With Ginseng And Honey
• 7-Eleven — Sweet Tea
• Arizona — Green Tea With Ginseng and Honey
• Arizona — Iced Tea with Lemon
• Arizona — RX Energy Herbal Tonic
• Gold Peak — Sweet Tea
• Gold Peak — Unsweetened Tea
• Guayaki Organic Yerba Mate — BluePhoria
• Guayaki Organic Yerba Mate — Enlighten Mint
• Pure Leaf — Extra Sweet Tea
• Pure Leaf — Lemon Tea
• Pure Leaf — Raspberry Tea
• Pure Leaf — Sweetened Tea
• Pure Leaf— Unsweetened Tea
• Snapple — Lemon Tea
• Snapple — Peach Iced Tea

PART II — The Tasting

Taste 1:

This tea is unsweetened. Earlier I wrote about how complex and nuanced the flavors of unsweetened tea can be, but this doesn’t really have any of that. It hits your palate with an initial sourness and then has a flat and bitter flavor that sticks to the tongue.

Taste 2:

This tea goes in the opposite direction of the last tasting, it’s intensely sweet to the point of making me wince. The dominant flavor here is some sort of artificial citrus, it tastes just like dirty lemon water.

There is a schoolyard legend that pink lemonade was invented after some circus lemonade vendor ran out of water and had to use the water from a bucket where the trapeze artists soaked their tights, which gave the lemonade a faint pink color. I don’t believe that story, but this is what I imagine that water tasted like.

Taste 3:

After two genuinely awful experiences, I’m liking this one a lot. It’s sweetened, but not overwhelmingly so, it has a nice round sugar-forward flavor with just a touch of bitterness and a lightly toasted flavor. It tastes like a classic southern sweet black tea, I can see this working excellently in an Arnold Palmer.

Taste 4:

Another pleasant experience, this beautiful green tea offers a lot of complexity and sweetness. As it hits the palate I’m getting a nice leafy and light taste with a distinct floral sweetness courtesy of what I’m guessing is honey.

Just really all-around tasty with a nice balance between sweet and natural.

Taste 5:

A way better balance of toasted black tea and lemon flavors, not nearly as artificial or sweet as Taste 2. It actually tastes like someone squeezed a fresh lemon in a glass of black tea.

Taste 6:

What the f*ck is this, punch? This stuff tastes kind of interesting, it’s slightly malty with a tart fizzy kick and a pleasantly bitter aftertaste. I like it but I can’t imagine drinking more than a few sips… it’s a bit overwhelming.

Taste 7:

This tastes… bad. It has a weird sour sweetness to it with a plastic overtone that hovers against each sip. It tastes cheap.

Taste 8:

Another weird one, this tastes like some sort of slightly sweet citrus soda, I’m not getting any tea flavors aside from a bitter aftertaste. I want to say that maybe there is a hint of pineapple in there. There is a lot going on here.

And it’s not good.

Taste 9:

The last few tastings have been gone heavy on the fruit flavors, but this one is in another class. With a focus on earthy and nutty flavors, this tea uses just a touch of fruit flavor for a wonderfully complex expression that ends with a subtle berry tart finish.

I love it.

Taste 10:

Nothing subtle or complex about this one, it just hits you with an intense bitterness that comes across like dirty water. There is a sort of soft and round mouthfeel to it, but its ruined by that bitter bite. I truly do love unsweetened teas, but when they’re bottled straight up taste nasty.

Taste 11:

Interesting, complex, and refreshing. This tea goes a little bit heavy on the peppermint, but it has a nice and inviting malty quality to it that I wouldn’t expect from something this light in color.

Taste 12:

This is another citrus tea but the lemon notes are drowned out by the intense sweetness, only expressing itself as a weird sour aftertaste. I also can barely taste the black tea in here, the dominant flavor is pure sugar, and it’s not a good thing.

Taste 13:

If Taste 12 tasted like pure sugar, I don’t even know what to call this. It’s overwhelmingly sweet to the point of being undrinkable. I had to take several sips of sparkling water just to get the taste off my tongue from this one. Awful.

Taste 14:

A very interesting balance between herbal flavors, honey, and vegetal green tea. There is a touch too much sweetness that lingers on the backend, but the initial taste is very pleasant. It seems like a new flavor reveals itself with every sip, sometimes it’s sweet and grassy, other times floral. Definitely the most interesting tea I’ve tasted in the lineup.

Taste 15:

Fruity and round with a pleasant toasted finish. There is a sour component here, but not in an off-putting spoiled way like some of the other tastings, in here it’s pleasant. It really activated my tastebuds in a mouthwatering way. I like this one a lot.

Taste 16:

And what a way to end. This is another tea that has been sweetened to death. Sugary, with an awful blunt finish.

Part 2: The Ranking

16. Snapple — Lemon Tea (Taste 2)

The Tea:

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. There was a time when Snapple was the good tea, its biggest and most present competitor was Lipton Brisk and now that Lipton Brisk is only available in bulk, this is the new “big brand” on the scene. And it turns out, it’s not very good.

Snapple recently transitioned from glass bottles to plastic and it sounds ridiculous to say that the quality dropped along with the packaging, but it really has. This just taste like bottom-of-the-barrel basic shit.

The Bottom Line:

There are a good amount of lemon-flavored teas on the market, this one is the worst.

15. 7-Eleven — Sweet Tea (Taste 16)

The Tea:

It wasn’t until this tasting that I discovered that 7-Eleven has its own branded products, from teas to snacks, to fruit juices. One of their teas, you’ll find, I thought was absolutely delicious, but this particular flavor is just bad.

The label shows some sugar cubes and tea leaves, and that’s exactly what this stuff tastes like. Sugar cubes, melted down into a brown liquid of death. Avoid at all costs.

The Bottom Line:

7-Eleven makes two varieties of bottled tea, this is the bad one.

14. Pure Leaf — Extra Sweet Tea (Taste 13)

The Tea:

Who is this for? Seriously, “extra sweet tea” is something that nobody needs considering your typical sweetened variety of black tea has as much sugar in it as a can of coke.

I’m not even sure this can legally be considered tea, it tastes more like sugar than anything else. There are plenty of other sweetened black teas on the market, including one by this same brand, that taste a lot better than this. Even if you have a giant sweet tooth, trust me, you aren’t expecting this.

The Bottom Line:

Pure Leaf? More like Pure Sugar.

13. Pure Leaf — Sweet Tea (Taste 7)

The Tea:

I guess I just don’t like this brand! Pure Leaf has some sort of weird relationship with sugar because despite this being a whole 100 calories and 20 grams of sugar less than the Extra Sweet variety, it still ends up tasting like sweetened trash.

This one has a slightly sour taste to it which I guess makes it more complex so that’s…something.

The Bottom Line:

Pure Leaf? More like Pure Garbage.

12. Pure Leaf Unsweetened (Taste 10)

The Tea:

I’ve been hard on this brand in this ranking but… they kind of suck. Turns out that when the brand lives up to its name “Pure Leaf” it tastes better. Slightly. This taste like a basic black tea, it’s not complex, or interesting, and doesn’t have the depth of flavor that I’ve come to expect from black tea, but it’s not totally gross either.

And that’s something right?

The Bottom Line:

“Not gross” is the best I can say about this.

11. Gold Peak Unsweetened (Taste 1)

The Tea:

I love freshly brewed unsweetened tea, it’s my preference, so having to rank an unsweetened tea this low again just feels wrong, but I have to call it as I see it, or in this case, taste it, and this just isn’t doing anything for me.

In fact, I think it gives unsweetened tea a bad name. If you think you dislike unsweetened tea because all you’ve had is the bottled stuff, I beg you, please try the freshly brewed stuff! Unlike the Pure Leaf, this taste better brewed. It’s not as bitter and dull tasting, it has a lighter touch to it with a slight natural sourness.

I’d still rather drink puddle water though.

The Bottom Line:

Giving unsweetened tea everywhere a bad reputation. Skip this stuff or at the very least, cut it with lemonade.

10. Guayaki Organic Yerba Mate — BluePhoria (Taste 6)

The Tea:

It’s hard to believe this weird fruit punch is a tea, but it has Yerba Mate in it so it definitely counts. As a tea drinker, I think it’s pretty awful and will leave tea drinkers disappointed, but as a drink in itself, it’s interesting. Malty, fruity, tart, it has all of these weird flavor sensations that you don’t expect out of a tea drink that come together nicely.

The Bottom Line:

Drink it if you’re looking for something interesting, it’s fruity and malty, two flavors that shouldn’t be in the same drink, but here they are! It doesn’t really taste like tea though.

10. Arizona — Iced Tea With Lemon Flavor (Taste 12)

The Tea:

Don’t let the famous can fool you, this stuff isn’t that great. Arizona is a brand that understands marketing. 99¢ for a giant beautifully designed can, what more can a person want?

A good flavor perhaps? Again, there are other lemon teas on the market, and they taste better than this one. I desperately wanted this brand to come out on top because it looks so damn cool, but that is what makes blind taste tests so fun, we betray our biases and get down to the truth. And the truth is, this shit is mid.

The Bottom Line:

Sour and too lemon-forward to register as tea.

This brand has a lot of flavor variations, but the most famous one (you know what I’m talking about) is still the best. Go with that one instead.

8. Arizona RX Energy Herbal Tonic (Taste 8)

The Tea:

I wasn’t entirely convinced that Arizona’s RX Energy Herbal Tonic was tea considering tea isn’t in the name, but it’s right there in the ingredients list. This is a mix of citrus flavors and green tea and while I can’t taste any tea whatsoever, it still tastes pretty damn good.

It’s fruity, with a subtle hint of pineapple and apparently, it gives you a boost of energy. I couldn’t tell you if that was true or not because I drank 16 teas in a single hour so I was pretty wired on caffeine anyway.

The Bottom Line:

It’s great... if you want something that doesn’t taste anything like tea!

7. Pure Leaf — Lemon (Taste 5)

The Tea:

This. Brand. Has. Too. Many. Fucking. Flavors.

Seriously Pure Leaf, figure out how to make something good and stick with that! Having said that, this is the best lemon tea on the market.

I could hardly believe it considering how much I hated the other Pure Leaf flavors, but this lemon tea strikes the perfect balance between zesty citrus and toasty black tea notes.

The Bottom Line:

The best-tasting lemon black tea your money can buy. Bottled.

6. Guayaki Yerba Mate — Enlighten Mint (Taste 11)

The Tea:

If you’re unfamiliar with Yerba Mate, it’s a malty-tasting herbal tea from South America that has more caffeine in it than your average tea, but less than coffee. It strikes a nice middle ground between the two, it offers a lot of energy but doesn’t make you feel wiry and drained the way a cup of Joe can.

Guayaki’s take on yerba mate takes out the distinct bitter vegetal flavor that is characteristic of the drink, which in my opinion takes out a lot of the fun of drinking it, but what they’ve created tastes pretty damn good. This peppermint-infused flavor is very refreshing, I can see a whole can becoming overwhelming but the small cup I had was a pleasant experience from the first sip to the last.

The Bottom Line:

A great introduction to the world of Yerba mate.

5. Snapple Peach Tea (Taste 15)

The Tea:

I grew up drinking this stuff and it still tastes pretty good to me. Maybe that’s nostalgia, so take its high ranking with a grain of salt. Unlike a lot of other fruity teas, this one doesn’t rely on citrus for its sweetness, instead using the round and complex flavors of peach, which gives it a different form of sourness.

I still think it tasted better out of a glass bottle though.

The Bottom Line:

A fruit tea that offers something a little different than everything else on the market.

4. Pure Leaf — Raspberry (Taste 9)

The Tea:

I can’t believe my eyes! The fact that I’m ranking a Pure Leaf product this highly after hating on the brand as much as I have made me go back and taste all the other flavors just to see if I had somehow missed something. I didn’t, those flavors suck, but this raspberry tea is pretty damn delicious and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

What a lot of bottled teas lack that the freshly brewed stuff has is complexity, and while I’d hardly call this complex it has a good variety of flavor components that at the very least make it interesting.

The Bottom Line:

This is the only Raspberry Black Tea on the market I could find and it’s representing the flavor well. Way better than that Lipton stuff you find in the soda fountain.

3. 7-Eleven — Green Tea Flavored with Honey and Ginseng (Taste 4)

The Tea:

I’m as surprised as you are! 7-Eleven apparently knows its shit when it comes to green tea because this has a subtle and shifting flavor that never gets boring on the palate.

My only major gripe is that it’s a bit too heavy on the sweet side. The use of honey here drowns out some of the grassy elements of the tea and makes the herbal notes of ginseng completely disappear. If they’d dial it back just a bit it would taste as good as the tea brand it’s obviously modeled itself after.

The Bottom Line:

Don’t let the 7-Eleven branding dissuade you, this stuff is delicious!

2. Gold Peak — Sweet Tea (Taste 3)

The Tea:

I’m actually taken aback by how much I enjoyed this one. I liked it so much that after I finished the tasting I said to my girlfriend — who was pouring and serving the tea for me — “Save me taste 3! I want to finish the bottle!”

This is a perfect iteration of sweet black tea, it’s not so overwhelmingly sweet that it masks the flavors of black tea, but it’s indulgent enough to feel like a treat and satisfy in a way that the unsweetened stuff can’t match.

I can actually taste some complexity here, the tea is toasty, bitter, and a bit nutty with a nice finish that is elevated with some pure can sugar.

The Bottom Line:

The ideal bottled black tea for an Arnold Palmer. Mix this with some Simply Lemonade and you’ve got yourself a truly great drink. On its own, it’s still damn good.

1. Arizona — Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey (Taste 14)

The Tea:

Many of you probably saw this coming and it feels like an entirely basic choice, but I can’t deny that Arizona’s famous green tea easily offered the best experience. This tea is a bit sweeter than I want it to be (I think sweet tea works better with the deeper flavors of black tea than the light tones of green) but it actually has a lot of complexity to it, and that’s just what I look for and expect in tea.

It’s herbal, floral, grassy, and vegetal, and has a silky smooth mouthfeel that feels great flowing across the palate and down your throat. There is a reason this can of tea is so damn famous and it’s not just the great design — it’s the way it manages to taste the way it looks.

When you pick up this can from the refrigerated section you have an expectation on what it’s going to taste like based on the way it looks, and it manages to live up to that expectation. That’s no easy feat and while I’d love a less sweetened version, until they make one this is the best tea your money can buy. Hands down.

The Bottom Line:

It truly is as good as it looks.

Despite underperforming at the box office and delivering the first official “flop” for the franchise, Solo: A Star Wars Story is still well regarded by fans who have been clamoring for another sequel with Alden Ehrenreich as the lovable space rogue. The movie’s just darn fun, and it set up an intriguing story in its final moments that would’ve put Han on a collision course with another fan-favorite character, Darth Maul.

However, in the four years since Solo stumbled, taking movies about Boba Fett and Obi-Wan down with it, there have been rumors that the franchise could be revived either in theaters or on Disney+ as has been the trend. Unfortunately, Solo director Ron Howard is here with a bucket of cold hard reality about the nature of those talks.

“The only discussion that I’m aware of about a sequel for Solo is coming from the fans at this point,” Howard told NME. “I don’t think it’s a Lucasfilm priority, as I understand it.”

Oof. Presumably realizing he just crushed the hopes of Solo fans, Howard tried to soften the blow a bit with the old “anything is possible” bit.

“But there’s some great characters launched, and the folks from Lucasfilm love the fans and really do listen so I would never say never,” Howard added. “But I’m not aware of any concrete plans right now to extend the story or deal with that particular set of characters.”

To Howard’s point, Solo has been referenced in not one, but two recent Star Wars series. The Pike Syndicate, which appeared in the film, had a strong presence in The Book of Boba Fett. More surprisingly, Andor actually dropped a solid Solo reference by revealing that Cassian Andor and Han Solo were both at the Battle of Mimban featured in the film. That might not be much, but it is a sign that Lucasfilm does have love for the seemingly forgotten prequel film.

(Via NME)

The Last of Us is one of the most highly-anticipated new shows of 2023, and you won’t have to wait much longer for it, since it premieres on HBO Sunday, January 15. But you will have to wait a long time for the first episode to end. The Last of Us season one premiere has a run-time of one hour and 25 minutes, according to YouTuber DomtheBomb via Twitter. On December 26, the account tweeted the confirmed runtime with a screenshot of an HBO Latino schedule. That’s like a whole movie, or at least it was back in the day when the average movie was not nearly three hours long.

The first season of The Last of Us will consist of nine episodes that air week to week. One hour and 25 minutes is a bit long for episodes other than finales or premieres, so you can probably expect most episodes of the drama series to run at the standard HBO runtime, which is about 52 minutes, since this isn’t the final season of Game of Thrones.

The Last of Us, which stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey with appearances from Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, and Melanie Lynskey, among others, is expected to follow the storyline from the first video game, which came out in 2013, but will more than likely expand on the characters and the universe from the game. The series will follow two survivors of a pandemic that decimated the United States 20 years earlier. This “virus” was a species of fungi that turned humans into feral zombie-like creatures known collectively as “the Infected.” Joel (Pascal) plays a smuggler who agrees to the dangerous job of transporting a girl named Ellie (Ramsey) across the country. Ellie is immune to the fungi and may be the best chance at finding a cure.

Game of Thrones was the most pirated television show of 2012… and 2013… and 2014… and 2015… and… you get the idea. It fell out of the top 10 in 2020, a year after the series finale that everyone famously loves, and failed to show up in 2021 as well. But dragons and incest are back in a big way in 2022, thanks to House of the Dragon.

The Thrones prequel series topped TorrentFreak‘s “most downloaded TV-shows on BitTorrent, 2022” list, followed by The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Boys, and Moon Knight. Stranger Things is down at #8, because more people have access to Netflix (for now) than Paramount+, which explains why Halo is #5.

Here’s the top-10 list:

1. House of the Dragon (HBO)
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Amazon Prime)
3. The Boys (Amazon Prime)
4. Moon Knight (Disney+)
5. Halo (Paramount+)
6. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+)
7. The Book of Boba Fett (Disney+)
8. Stranger Things (Netflix)
9. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Disney+)
10. Andor (Disney+)

TorrentFreak notes that the list is “entirely made up of newcomers. This also means that Rick and Morty, a regular on the list for several years, has dropped off.” All 10 shows are also what you might call “nerd shows.” I choose to believe this means everyone is watching Reservation Dogs through legal means instead of what’s actually going on, which is nerd culture dominating the entertainment industry. But a sh*tass can hope!

(Via TorrentFreak)

New Year’s Eve is upon us, which means you need to have a few things on hand if you want that NYE house party you’re throwing (or going to) to end with a real bang. A great bottle of bourbon, a killer playlist with all your favorite songs of 2022 (and perhaps an old favorite to lead you into the new year), and, of course, some great top-shelf herb.

We’re not just talking about something to get you high, that’s easy. We need that transcendent bud that melts your face, expands your mind, and makes you marvel at the very wonder of life itself. Something you can smoke that’ll make you look up at those NYE fireworks with true, eye-watering, awe.

Entering the new year the right way is all about vibes and if you want to start the next chapter of your life with a good one, you’re going to need something that helps set the scene. So we’re shouting out some of our favorite weed products to help get you there. From pre-rolls to one-hitters to flower, here are the cannabis products you need on hand to kick off 2023 and toast to a year well spent.

Let’s dive in.

Island — Banana Jealousy

Price: $37

The Experience:

If you’re looking for a quality jar of flower to entertain the whole party, look no further than Island’s Banana Jealousy. This hand-trimmed, 100% pesticide-free indica strain sports a powerful 28.21% THC content with a sweet fruity scent and sticky deep green buds.

Each milky hit of this stuff has a lot of natural sweetness, with notes of banana, sweet cherry, and pine. The high is heavy so you should only need a few hits of this stuff to get a nice body buzz and a blissful euphoric feeling going, just make sure you don’t overdo it because it can knock you on your ass.

If you’re worried about couch lock, save this one for the end of the night after the ball has dropped.

The Botton Line:

Fruity, sweet, and powerful, Banana Jealousy will provide you with the ultimate chill, whether you take just a few hits or a large cough-inducing rip.

A Golden State — Honey Flower

Price: $69

The Experience:

This isn’t the first time I’ve sung the praises of A Golden State, but I can’t think of a better premium top-shelf brand to recommend for toasting to the new year. The sativa strain Honey Flower features a heavy pine flavor with some floral notes of honey sweetness with a touch of lavender that provide an energetic high that makes you feel blissfully idiotic.

That might sound like a bad thing, but the way this strain melts anxiety and instills you with a sense of well-being is perfect if you want to turn off a busy mind that is still dealing with all the baggage of 2022. It also gives you a focused high that allows you to appreciate the sensory beauty around you, whether that’s the people you’re with, the music you’re listening to, or the fireworks in the night sky.

The Bottom Line:

An anxiety melter that allows you to focus in on the beauty of the moment.

HVGC — Chillums Diamond Infused Flower

Price: $13.60

The Experience:

If you’re looking for a quick hitter that you can smoke on the sneak without the need for any tools, you can’t go wrong with HVGC’s Chillums. This diamond-infused flower packs a powerful high with a half gram of Blue Dream and a THC content of 33.5%, giving you a buzz that is euphoric and stress-relieving, while still remaining energetic and ready to party.

The Chillums has everything you need, the weed comes packed in a one-hitter style glass pipe (you’ll get at least 7 rips out of this) that you can light and inhale, without the need for rolling papers, stinky pipes, delicate bongs, or chargeable devices. Grab a few of your friends, head to the backyard, and pass this around for a quick head change, or smoke it in the car alone before the function to get in the right head space.

The Bottom Line:

Everything you need to get high in a small travel-friendly package.

The Smoker’s Club x Holy Smokes — Volcano JobStopper Pre-Roll

Price: $50

The Experience:

If you want to get absolutely blitzed out of your mind, we’re talking so high that you forget the entire night, look no further than The Smoker’s Club’s Volcano JobStopper Pre-Roll. This is called the “Jobstopper” for a reason — if you smoke this thing alone you will become completely unable to function.

Maybe that’s what you want, maybe you have a high tolerance, or maybe you want to share this in a circle of your closest friends (we suggest this route) but one thing is for certain, this thing packs a powerful, nearly psychedelic high that’ll make you feel as good as the first time you ever smoked.

This pre-roll has 2 grams of flower and is infused with .5 grams of Holy Water live rosin wrapped in rice paper delivering 60.4% THC. Each time you inhale you’ll be getting deliciously sweet drag after deliciously sweet drag with a high that’ll make you feel like you’re straight-up floating.

The Botton Line:

You’ve never been this high. Seriously.

Viola — Iverson Rosin Infused Pre-Roll

Price: $45

The Experience:

If you’re looking for something a bit more chill than the Volcano that will still get you absolutely ripped, Viola’s Iverson ’96 Rosin Infused Pre-Roll is your perfect party companion. A mix between Wedding Cake and Runtz, this weed has a delicious taste to it as notes of vanilla and sweet candy dance across the palate with every hit.

Like the Volcano, this pre-roll is infused with rosin, packing an extra punch that’ll provide you with an uplifting, giddy, laugh-inducing high that doesn’t feel heavy so much as it feels relaxing. At 55% THC, the pre-roll is still incredibly powerful, but the high is a lot more chill and way less psychedelic.

The Botton Line:

This rosin-infused pre-roll will get your body in a relaxed state but keep your mind sharp and witty enough to crack, and more importantly, laugh at whatever jokes the night brings.

Dua Lipa is a bona fide pop star at 27 years old, from speculation about her love life — is it Trevor Noah or Jack Harlow? — to performing with Elton John and teasing a highly anticipated album. It’s objectively an unpredictable life trajectory, but we have proof that Lipa did not envision this level of success for herself.

This morning, December 29, someone going by @drunkgrindr on Twitter shared a page from what appears to be a Parliament Hill School yearbook, a secondary school in London, featuring a young Lipa at the top of the page. (Fittingly, she was still top billing back then.)

Lipa was asked to answer four prompts. She said her favorite television show was Misfits, and when asked how she had changed over the previous five years, she said, “Even though Parli girls haven’t seen the change, I have become more confident in the things I love to do and I believe in myself a lot more.” Those Parli girls probably feel real silly for overlooking the now-three-time Grammy winner.

Perhaps most interestingly, Lipa projected that in 10 years time, she would be “hopefully working — something to do with TV or radio… media I suppose.” She was right, in a roundabout way, considering “Levitating” and “Don’t Start Now” dominated airwaves, each going four-times platinum and topping Billboard‘s Radio Songs chart. Plus, Lipa may or may not be involved with a 2023 production much bigger than Misfits.

Dua Lipa and Jack Harlow are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Here we are, friends, in the final stretch to the 2022 finish line. What a year it has been!

Every week this year, we’ve shared a roundup of 10 things that made us smile, and you have told us time and time again that you love it. (Who wouldn’t love a regular collection of joy all in one place?)

To close out the year, we’re doing this week’s roundup a little differently. Millions of you follow us on Instagram, where we curate and share delightful, uplifting things we find around the interwebs. It’s always fun to look back at the end of the year and see what resonated most with people, so we’ve gathered together our 10 most beloved Instagram posts of 2022 for your enjoyment.

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From sweet big brothers to bird and queso lovers, this top 10 countdown is a delightful reminder of the things that made us smile the most this year.

Enjoy!

10. ‘Living statue’ broke character when a toddler insisted on giving him a hug.

See on Instagram

Who can resist a wholesome toddler hug? Nobody can. (And nobody should.)

9. A pilot brought an airplane-obsessed 2-year-old into the cockpit to be his co-pilot.

See on Instagram

Representation matters and this kiddo got to see firsthand that dreams can come true.

8. Bird researcher became a human bird feeder and her silent excitement was adorable.

See on Instagram

First of all, brrr. Second of all, what a fun idea. Third of all, her face after the bird ate from her face feeder was everything.

7. Boy met his baby brother for the first time and his reaction melted everyone’s hearts.

See on Instagram

Oh, what a little feeler! Hudson is a very lucky little brother.

6. Kids named ‘Internet’ and ‘Ordinary’? So, so close.

See on Instagram

Shout out to our social media team for the caption on the first one here (“She wins the Antionette.” LOL), but click through for more hilarious kids-getting-names-wrong stories.

5. Little girl’s reaction to her ‘silly Popsy’ shaving his beard was priceless.

See on Instagram

Classic toddler, from “I don’t like it, take it off!” to “Hey, why did you take it off?” She sure loves her silly Popsy, though. Too cute.

4. Kiddo’s sweet reaction to holding his newborn baby sister was just pure love.

See on Instagram

We have a bit of a theme here, with two new big brothers on our list. But come on. It doesn’t get any purer than this.

3. Baby ate queso for the first time and his face said it all.

See on Instagram

Queso baby is all of us.

2. Neighborhood kids run to greet man with Alzheimer’s every day after school.

 ✨”

See on Instagram

Tissue warning was definitely in order for this one. What a beautiful example of community.

1. Hector the hummingbird—and the human who hand-feeds him—were the favorites of 2022.

See on Instagram

Hector loves his nectar and everyone loves Hector. And that resonant voice from Hector’s human friend makes his visit all the better.

Thanks for a year full of smiles, everyone. If you’d like our weekly 10 things roundups delivered to your inbox in 2023, sign up for our free newsletter, The Upworthiest, here. Have a safe and happy new year!

The regular season is winding down in the NFL, with only two weeks of action remaining. Week 18 is almost always a disaster when it comes to handicapping, simply because of all the uncertainty with motivation and player deployment. A bit of that is creeping in with Week 17 this time around, but Week 16 was relatively kind to us with a 3-2 mark that even withstood an objectively bad beat with the Eagles (+4.5) against the Cowboys.

Before we get into the Week 17 picks, let’s take stock of the first 80 (!) selections of the season.

• Week 16: 3-2
• 2022 Season: 41-37-2

Come get these winners.

Miami Dolphins (+3) over New England Patriots

I’m definitely lower on the Patriots than consensus, which informs this selection. Also, grabbing the full three is important. In addition, Teddy Bridgewater is money against the spread historically, and I don’t think the gap between him and Tua is as big as you might think. Bridgewater is 42-22 against the spread in his career, including 24-8 as an underdog and an absurd 19-4 mark as a road underdog. Give me the points.

New Orleans Saints (+6.5) over Philadelphia Eagles

The Saints aren’t exactly a public side here, and the Eagles don’t have overwhelming urgency in this spot. It isn’t pretty, but this is too many points with New Orleans still alive in the NFC South race.

TEASER: Pittsburgh Steelers (+8.5) over Baltimore Ravens and Seattle Seahawks (+8) over New York Jets

I like this one. Pittsburgh going through two key numbers against a Ravens team that could be without Lamar Jackson is enticing, especially with a total in the mid-30’s. New York is obviously much better with Mike White than Zach Wilson, but Seattle getting eight at home is valuable as well.

TEASER: Cleveland Browns (+8.5) over Washington Commanders and Los Angeles Chargers (-0.5) over Los Angeles Rams

Two teasers!? Yes, two teasers. I couldn’t choose between four legs that I really like, so why not give them all? Cleveland isn’t playing for anything, which is mildly scary, but Washington’s offense is anything but scary. Also, the Browns clearly want to establish some offensive chemistry and the total is 4o.5 as of Thursday evening. The battle of Los Angeles should lean in the direction of the Chargers, and I think this line is a point or two short after what happened last week with the Rams blasting the Broncos.

Las Vegas Raiders (+10) over San Francisco 49ers

This is absolutely disgusting. Suffice to say I take no pleasure in backing Jarrett Stidham against a great defense, but this line is just too much for Brock Purdy and company on the road. Prayers appreciated.