Month: November 2023

If you’re not a seasoned vodka drinker, you probably assume that most vodkas taste the same. Sure, there’s a general feeling that if it’s more expensive it will be less harsh, but the even larger perception is that good vodka doesn’t really have a flavor at all. That’s not exactly true, though. While there are vodkas that make a point of being flavorless — Skyy comes to mind — the various base ingredients (corn, potatoes, rye, and various other grains are all commonly used) and distinct distillation and filtration processes give the spirit a real profile worth exploring.

To generalize a little more, higher-end or premium vodkas will have fewer congeners and harsh flavors and aromas because of the distillation process. High-end vodkas tend to be smooth and have more viscosity in the mouthfeel, less harsh burning (those ethanol flavor notes), and are often more flavorful. Low-end vodkas are harsh and are sometimes even watery with little to no aroma or flavor besides rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer. This is why committed vodka drinkers are more willing to pay for premium products.

But with a marketplace drenched in premium vodkas, how can you possibly find the best one? I selected eight of the most well-known, high-end vodkas and blindly nose and tasted each. I rated them on overall mouthfeel, aromas, and flavors, and how sippable each is. Keep reading to see how it all turned out.

Today’s Lineup:

• Absolut Elyx
• Grey Goose
• Belvedere
• CÎROC
• Stolichnaya Elit
• Ketel One
• Chopin Potato
• Crystal Head

Part 1: Premium Vodka Blind Tasting

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

The nose is surprisingly light on aromas. There is some vanilla and maybe some wheat, but not much else. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. That’s because the palate is creamy, soft, and filled with wheat, vanilla, caramel, licorice, and cracked black pepper. The finish is pleasantly warm and spicy.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

The nose is filled with citrus and fruit but is otherwise lacking in aromas. Drinking it brings forth a ton of grape-like fruity flavors. It was very smooth, but there weren’t really any discernable flavors other than grapes. It’s fairly underwhelming.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

It all starts with a nose of lemon peels, honey, and light spices. The palate is extremely soft with an herbal flavor and light honey. While smooth, there aren’t a ton of notable flavors overall. Not a bad vodka, just not one with a ton of flavor.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

The nose is very neutral and soft with a ton of citrus peel, vanilla bean, honey, floral, and black pepper aromas. There’s more going on with the palate. There are notes of white chocolate, vanilla beans, wildflowers, candied almonds, and spicy rye. The finish is creamy yet peppery in the best possible way.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

A lot is going on with this vodka’s nose. There are notes of vanilla, cereal grains, wheat, and light spices. On the palate, you’ll find flavors of sweet cream, vanilla, candied almonds, and a ton of baking spices. The finish is sweet, soft, and pleasantly warm. It’s the kind of vodka you’ll want to drink over and over again.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

The nose has a ton of vanilla beans and light spices, but not much else. The palate has a little more going on with more vanilla and some corn sweetness, cracked black pepper, and other gentle spices. The finish is a warming mix of sweetness and spice. Overall, decent but nothing to write home about.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

Complex aromas of cracked black pepper, cereal grains, vanilla, and gentle spices make for a very welcoming nose. Take one sip and you’ll be greeted with notes of peppery rye, sweet wheat, candied nuts, vanilla, and gentle floral flavors. The finish is creamy and very warming.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

The nose is filled with grassy, earthy aromas as well as vanilla and orchard fruits. The palate is more of the same with more vanilla, grass, pears, and cracked black pepper. It’s creamy, sweet, and perfectly spicy. The finish is long, warming, and lingering with no harshness whatsoever.

Part 2: The Rankings

8) Ketel One (Taste 3)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $36

The Vodka:

This Dutch vodka brand comes from the Nolet Distillery. It’s a 100% wheat-based vodka distilled in copper pot stills before being filtered over charcoal and resting in tile-line tanks. It’s known for its soft, easily mixable flavor profile.

Bottom Line:

This wheat-based vodka is known for its soft flavor profile. If that’s what you’re looking for, grab this one. If you’re looking for more flavor, look elsewhere.

7) CÎROC (Taste 2)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $30

The Vodka:

CÎROC is a trendy, premium vodka brand that’s most well-known for its relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs. Using a history of wine-making, this grape-based vodka is distilled five full times. It’s known for its easy-drinking, fruity flavor profile.

Bottom Line:

CÎROC is a popular name, especially if you prefer celebrity-adjacent brands. It’s not harsh by any degree. It’s just not at all exciting.

6) Crystal Head (Taste 6)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $43

The Vodka:

Not only is Crystal Head Vodka unique because it comes in a literally skull-shaped bottle, but this Canadian vodka brand was founded by actor Dan Aykroyd and artist John Alexander. Launched in 2008, it’s a four-time distilled, seven-times filtered corn-based vodka.

Bottom Line:

This vodka is as mellow and drinkable as you’d expect from a corn-based vodka. But, for the price, you might as well just buy Tito’s instead.

5) Stolichnaya Elit (Taste 1)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $36

The Vodka:

With a name like “Elit” this had better be an amazing vodka, right? It’s already made from the highest quality neutral grain spirit made from wheat and rye. But it’s the freeze filtration process that gives this vodka its creamy, complex, nuanced flavor profile.

Bottom Line:

The mix of wheat and rye and freeze filtering gives this vodka a creamy, almost velvety mouthfeel and a nice mix of softness and spice.

4) Grey Goose (Taste 7)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $35

The Vodka:

There are few vodkas more well-known than Grey Goose. This French vodka is made using only two ingredients: single-origin Picardie winter wheat and natural spring water. This creates a simple, elegant vodka known for its soft, sippable flavor profile.

Bottom Line:

Grey Goose is surprisingly soft and creamy with just the right amount of spice to make it equally sippable as it is mixable.

3) Chopin Potato (Taste 8)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $30

The Vodka:

Not only is Chopin Potato Vodka gluten-free, it’s also the most-awarded potato vodka in the world. First launched in 1992, this Polish vodka is known for its full flavor because it doesn’t have a long list of ingredients. It’s simply made with potatoes (mostly sourced within twenty-five miles of the distillery), yeast, and purified artesian well water.

Bottom Line:

This vodka has more of an earthy, grassy flavor than some on the list and that’s definitely not a bad thing. It’s creamy, smooth, and has a really natural feel to it.

2) Absolut Elyx (Taste 5)

ABV: 42.3%

Average Price: $45

The Vodka:

Named as a reference to the word “elixir” Absolut Elyx is made using single-estate winter wheat from southern Sweden and is distilled using a manually operated copper pot still from 1921. The result is a complex, soft vodka that’s great for slow sipping or mixing into your favorite cocktail.

Bottom Line:

It’s clear that a lot of care went into crafting Absolut Elyx, It’s very soft and drinkable. The kind of vodka you’d actually want to drink neat or on the rocks.

1) Belvedere (Taste 4)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $42

The Vodka:

One of the reasons Belvedere is so great is that it’s made with simple, pure ingredients with no adjuncts or unnecessary flavors. It’s simply made with Polska rye and purified water. Specifically, it’s made with a heritage grain called Dankowski rye. The result is a mellow, fruity, spicy vodka you won’t soon forget.

Bottom Line:

Exceptional ingredients give this rye-based vodka a sublime creamy, smooth body and peppery flavor profile you’ll crave immediately after your last sip.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

While it’s quite clear that I prefer well-balanced and soft vodkas, the real winners had complex aromas and palates. The vodkas that didn’t fare well were more neutral and flavorless on the nose and palate. Also, any harsh heat immediately pushed the vodka into a poor ranking.

In a new interview about her recent Vogue feature, Nicki Minaj expressed regret about getting plastic surgery earlier in her career, saying, she “could not believe” that she ever disliked the way she looked.

As she told the hosts of Vogue‘s The Run-Through podcast, “I guarantee you, if you change anything on your body and do anything surgical and all this, you’re going to — more than likely, not definitely, more than likely — look back one day and say, ‘I was fine just the way I was.’ And that’s what happened to me.”

She credited the change in her perspective to becoming a mother, saying, “Seeing my son did remind me of myself so much. My real self. And it made me think, ‘Why didn’t I like this?’ So weird. But seeing old photos, being able to look at old photos again made me realize, these old photos are beautiful.”

The “Last Time I Saw You” rapper has addressed her past insecurity before, telling Joe Budden she “didn’t feel complete or good enough” being in hip-hop around women with big butts — many the result of BBL (“Brazilian butt-lift”) surgery. More of her rap peers (and rivals) have been opening up about having surgeries, including Cardi B, Doja Cat, Latto, and SZA, who have all opened up about getting work done, but who have also warned fans about going overboard.

Minaj is working on her fifth studio album Pink Friday 2, which is scheduled to be released on December 8 after being pushed back twice. Check out her “73 Questions” with Vogue clip above.

Everyone is new to Earth at some point in their lives. There’s just no getting around it. Whether you’re a human, a pig or an ant, at some point you were either hatched or born into a place that already existed before you arrived so you spend a little bit of time figuring things out. Granted, human children take a little longer to get the lay of the land, but that, “I’m new here” experience doesn’t end with homosapiens.

One Australian Sheppard puppy found out in the most amusing way possible that some stairs are a little trickier than others to navigate. Robin Bilby shared a video to social media of the spotted pup, named King attempting to follow his older dog siblings up the basement steps but somehow kept winding up back at the bottom. He was very determined and so was his tiny herd.

Every time he wound up right where he started, his siblings would run back down the stairs to try again.

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They were attempting to show the confused puppy how to get up the steps but he just couldn’t do it. If you’ve ever been in a basement then you likely know that many basement steps don’t have backs to them so King was just getting up two steps then diving through the opening.

Surely, he thought he was making progress but there were about 10 more stairs he needed to climb.

The brown dog vocally expressed her frustration as she repeatedly walked the steps to show him how to do the seemingly easy task. The video has gone mega viral with over 4.6 million likes and more than 28.9 million views. Commenters were amused by King’s confusion but also felt sorry for the little guy.

“King is going places. Not upstairs, but places,” someone writes.

“The one teaching was like ‘just stop and pay attention, I swear if you jump through the stairs again…,” one person comments with a crying laughing emoji.

“Other dogs: KING!!! Why do we have to go through this every day with you?? King: I KEEP GETTING SUCKED INTO THE PORTAL!!!,” a commenter jokes.

Poor puppy, so glad he finally figured it out even if the dog teaching him was ready to pick him up and carry him up the steps. You can watch his journey through the portal below.

@robinjbilby

King is trying to figure out how the basement stairs work. 😂 #australianshepherdsoftiktok #puppiesoftiktok #puppytraining @frankbilby1

As if a Canada goose named Arnold isn’t endearing enough, his partner who came looking for him when he was injured is warming hearts and having us root for this sweet feathered couple.

Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable, Massachusetts shared the story on its Facebook page, in what they called “a first” for their animal hospital.

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“We often have people ask if they can visit the patients they dropped off, but today we had our first animal visitor!” they wrote. “For the safety of our patients we do not accommodate visitation requests, but in this case we had to make an exception!”

Arnold is a Canada goose that lives on a pond near the facility and is part of a mated pair of wild geese that have been together for several years. The center said the geese usually keep to themselves, but one of their staff noticed that Arnold was walking with a “significant limp” and kept falling over. They were able to capture him and bring him into the hospital for examination.

“Upon exam our veterinary team found that he had two open-fractures on his foot,” they wrote. “This means that the tissue and skin has been pulled away leaving the bone exposed. Our best guess is that a Snapping turtle or other predator attacked him while swimming.”

To save his foot and help him survive, the staff knew they had to amputate one of the digits and suture the other wound closed. They gave him antibiotics and pain meds and prepped him for surgery the following morning.

Then his mate came knocking.

“Today, as we prepared to sedate Arnold and get him ready for surgery, we heard a faint tapping at the clinic door,” the center wrote. “We turned to see that his mate had waddled up onto the porch and was attempting to break into our clinic! She had somehow located him and was agitated that she could not get inside. She remained there throughout the entire procedure, watching us work, never moving from the doorway.”

Aww.

Surgery went well, and once Arnold woke up the staff decided to let him recover by the doorway so he and his mate could see each other.

“We opened the door and gave Arnold his flow-by oxygen in the doorway. His mate immediately calmed down and began to groom him through the door. They both seemed much more at ease in each other’s presence.”

AWWWW.

“Arnold will likely need several weeks of treatment in our hospital before he is ready to rejoin his mate in the wild,” they added. “He will need to be kept inside for the majority of this time in order to keep his wound sterile and prevent infection. We will do our best to get him back out quickly and will perform bandage changes and treatments in view of the doorway when possible so that his mate can check up on him. ❤️”

While attempting not to anthropomorphize too much, it’s so sweet to see animal partners show such genuine care for one another. Canada geese mate for life, and they are known to mourn in seclusion when they lose a mate. Seeing Arnold’s mate coming to find him and comfort him during his treatment is just too lovely.

Feel good story of the day, indeed. Wishing you a speedy recovery, Arnold!

This article originally appeared on 07.22.21

The best musical performances from the past week of late-night TV include sets from Jung Kook, Maren Morris, Rick Ross & Meek Mill, and more. Uproxx has the rundown below so you can catch up or relive your favorites. Here are the best live music performances on TV from the past week.

AJR

Indie pop band AJR stopped by The Tonight Show to impress Jimmy Fallon’s in-studio audience with their song “Yes I’m A Mess” on Thursday night. Their laid-back staging suited the folksy song and their joyful interpretation.

Black Pumas

The indie rock band’s soulful rendition of “More Than A Love Song” was accompanied by red and gold lighting, highlighting the warm and dynamic vocals of lead singer Eric Burton. The Tonight Show audience sure sounded impressed.

Jung Kook

The applause was so loud for Jung Kook’s Tonight Show solo debut, host Jimmy Fallon nearly lost his voice introducing the K-pop sensation, who performed the funky, MJ-influenced “Standing Next To You.” The King Of Pop would be proud.

Lauren Daigle

Lauren Daigle guided a boisterous Jimmy Kimmel Live! audience through some “Turbulent Skies” with an exuberant performance of her colorful new alt-pop anthem.

Maren Morris, Mickey Guyton, Brittney Spencer

Country music has seen a surge in popularity over the past year, but it’s also brought some nastier aspects with it. Maren Morris did her part to fight the fire with flowers on The Tonight Show with some help from Brittney Spencer and Mickey Guyton and her song “The Tree.”

Rick Ross & Meek Mill

Rick Ross and Meek Mill are savvy, veteran performers. They proved as much by pairing their newer single “Shaq & Kobe” with their prior hit “Ima Boss” on The Tonight Show, giving fans more to cheer for.

Saint Harrison

Southampton, UK-born Saint Harison put in an appearance on Kimmel, using sparse staging to put the focus on his impressive vocal range. With vocal runs and a falsetto that could bring a Southern Baptist congregation to their feet, his performance of “Ego Talkin’” was nothing less than soul-stirring.

Continuing her hot streak on Netflix that includes Stranger Things and the Enola Holmes movies, Millie Bobby Brown is ready to slay dragons in the upcoming fantasy epic Damsel.

The streaming giant just released a teaser trailer for the action film that looks to be a badass ride that bucks the normal fairy tale convention of a damsel in distress as Brown proves that her princess will put up a fight to the end. Here’s everything we know about Damsel ahead of its Netflix release:

Plot

In Damsel, Brown plays Princess Elodie, a young woman who thinks she’s about to live a fairy tale dream of marrying a prince. Unfortunately, her story doesn’t go the way. Elodie is soon trapped in a cave with a dragon where Brown gets a chance to stretch her action-star muscles in an epic clash with a ferocious beast.

Here’s the official synopsis:

A dutiful damsel agrees to marry a handsome prince, only to find the royal family has recruited her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt. Thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon, she must rely on her wits and will to survive.

Cast

Alongside Brown, Damsel also stars Robin Wright, Nick Robinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ray Winstone, and Angela Bassett. Not much is known about their roles, but the latest trailer does reveal that Wright and Robinson play a Queen and Prince who lure Brown’s Princess Elodie to their kingdom only to toss her into the aforementioned dragon’s lair.

Release Date

While no specific release date has been announced yet, Damsel will arrive on Netflix some time in 2024.

Trailer

You can watch the teaser trailer for Damsel below:

Damsel arrives on Netflix in 2024.

Sometimes you must go outside your comfort zone to find the good stuff in whiskey. Trying new expressions, styles, and whiskey brands is a great way to both expand your palate and deepen your overall knowledge. And I’m here to help because I’ve already done all of that.I’ve done the work and can guide you to some really good bottles.

Over just the last three years, I’ve sampled around 5,000 whiskeys — that doesn’t include other spirits, beer, wine, and cocktails. In the process, I’ve become a respected whiskey critic and judge. And even with all of that, I’m still expanding my palate every single day. I’m trying new whiskeys every…single…day. It never ends. (Don’t cry for me, it’s not a bad gig.)

So when my editor asked me to have a fellow whiskey expert friend set up a blind to see if they could “confuse” my palate, I had a bit of a laugh. Why? Because I can usually spot a whiskey from about a mile away based on sight and smell alone. If I couldn’t… well, I wouldn’t deserve this gig. Still, I agreed to the premise.

Since I’m currently visiting Texas for a long weekend of distillery tours (see, it never ends), I had the head of single barrel picks for ReserveBar, Lee Diaz, pour me seven very random-ass whiskeys to see if I could call out what they are. I specifically asked for confusing pours that could trick me like, say, peated malts from different regions, MGP of Indiana bottles, and random single barrels, plus a classic or two thrown in for good measure.

The lineup included the following whiskey bottles:

• Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• Treaty Oak Single Barrel Ghost Hill Texas Bourbon Aged 5 Years Cask Strength
• New Riff Single Barrel Rye Kentucky Straight Whiskey
• Balcones Peated Texas Single Malt Whisky
• Nulu Straight Bourbon Whiskey Double Oaked Single Barrel Select Topflight Series
• Old Fourth Distillery Experimental Series Double Cask Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Ruby Port
• Laphroaig Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky Single Cask Selection Cask Collector’s Edition 2 Pedro Ximénez

Okay, let’s see how close I got to getting “confused” by these whiskeys. And just to be clear, I didn’t see these bottles before they were poured, so this is technically a “double-blind” tasting.

• The 100 Best Bourbon Whiskeys From Kentucky, Ranked
• The Absolute Best Bottle Of Whiskey From Each Of The 50 States
• The ‘Smoothest’ Bourbons Under $100, Blind Tasted And Ranked
• The ‘Smoothest’ Bourbons On The Market, Blind Tasted And Ranked
• The 100 Best Bourbons Under $100 Right Now, Ranked

Part 1 — The Random Whiskey Blind Tasting

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Classic notes of vanilla come through next to a dark syrup sweetness, a flourish of fresh mint, and raw leather that veers towards raw steak.

Palate: The palate cuts through the sweeter notes with plenty of spices — like clove and star anise — next to a hint of tart berries underneath it all.

Finish: The end is long, velvety, and delivers on the vanilla and spice that leads to a layer of earthy fall leaves with a hint of musty old brick barrelhouse on the very end.

My Guess:

I’d bet my children’s lives on this being Buffalo Trace Bourbon. First, the pale caramel color of a proofed-down whiskey is a big giveaway. Then the raw leather on the nose and earthy barrel house on the finish is a dead giveaway on the profile.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose is tannic and a little dirty with a sense of light sweet grains (kind of like a sweetcorn porridge), dark fruit leather, and a touch of maltiness.

Palate: That bitter oak drives the palate with a clear sense of raw cornbread batter next to almost smoked plums and rum raisin.

Finish: The end has a sense of dank and dryness that’s almost bitter with a sense of chocolate and oak.

My Guess:

This is dark AF whiskey, so it’s a Texas whiskey. It’s maybe four or five years old since the grains are sweet and porridge-like and not fresh and wet. It’s not Balcones or Garrison Brothers because it’s not that refined (or good). I don’t know beyond it being a four to five-year-old Texas bourbon.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Freshly cracked hazelnuts dominate the nose and lead to worn boot leather, old and slightly molded porch wicker, old clove, dark chocolate sauce, and a hint of red peppercorns.

Palate: The palate starts with hazelnut shells before diving into a deep matrix of dried roses, vanilla husks, allspice berries, clove buds, and a chili-chocolate sauce with a flake of salt and dusting of singed peanuts.

Finish: The end is lush thanks to the vanilla and just spicy enough thanks to the chili-chocolate and red peppercorns with plenty of soft hazelnut rounding things out.

My Guess:

This is a really f*cking good Kentucky rye. It’s unique, sweet, and full of profile notes that go beyond “spicy.” Generally, MGP’s 95/5 (rye/malted barley) is that dry grassy peppery rye that everyone knows. Kentucky rye has way more depth with fruity sweetness, nuttiness, and lushness. This is likely a single barrel from a smaller distiller so I’m going with either New Riff or maybe Castle & Key.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose on this is clearly a deeply peated whisky with layers of caramel, teriyaki steak, smoked salmon bellies, and salted caramel drizzled over pound cake with a hint of almost burnt drip coffee.

Palate: The palate is lush with a sense of buttered vanilla apple cider with plenty of cinnamon next to brown sugar rock candy, honey-laced black tea, and a hint of winter spice cakes that give way to creamy eggnog full of allspice, nutmeg, and clove.

Finish: The tea takes on a powdered green tea vibe with a lot more of that eggnog spice before hitting a smoked green chili vibe at the very end with hints of smoldering cedar bark and smudging sage.

My Guess:

This is peated but very clearly an American peated malt (the vanilla, apple cider, and spices are a dead giveaway). Then that green tea note hits and this is clearly a Balcones malt.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Peanut brittle and chocolate cream with a hint of Black Forest cake and Honeynut Graham Crackers mingle on the nose.

Palate: Plenty of vanilla, Nutella, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch drive the palate toward hints of winter spice barks and light sweet fruitiness that’s part overripe banana and part dark cherry.

Finish: The finish takes on a bananas foster vibe with plenty of allspice and clove next to more vanilla, caramel, and a touch of oakiness.

My Guess:

This is pretty standard bourbon. It’s probably a Kentucky bottler aiming for a Kentucky vibe with MGP of Indiana whiskey. That could be about a million different brands at this point (I’m only half joking).

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

Nose: There’s a light sense of nutshells on the nose with hints of dark chocolate, dark cherry, and dark Graham Cracker with a hint of honey.

Palate: Nutella over cinnamon toast with a dash of dark cherry jam, vanilla sheet cake, and winter spice drive the palate to hints of figs and dates.

Finish: Those spices kick up some heat on the finish with plenty of oaky vanilla and cherry with a touch of white grits cut with butter and brown sugar.

My Guess:

This is extremely close to the last pour. The finish is different though. So I’m going with this being a small-time bottler using MGP juice but finishing it in maybe port of PX sherry barrels. And that could be one of thousands of brands out there across this nation of ours.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose opens with this deep and fatty smoked pastrami vibe with deep pickled herbs, spices, and botanicals next to a whiff of sea salt air, deep dark dried fruits — dates, figs, prunes — with a sense of spiced mulled wine and Christmas cakes brimming with roasted almonds, candied citrus, and tons of dark spice with a sweet edge.

Palate: The peat kicks up something fierce on the palate with a fresh Ace Bandage vibe that gives way to a sense of seafood chowder on a cold and rainy day before layers of smoked plums and smoldering cinnamon bark lashes the profile with warmth, spice, and sweetness with a dash of tarmac on a hot day sneaking in late.

Finish: The pastrami circles back on the finish with fatty smoked meat vibes countered by plenty of sea salt, smoldering spice barks, and Christmas pies with a lush sense of stewed red fruits and bright pear brandy with a fleeting sense of mulled wine cut with butter on the very end.

My Guess:

First of all, this is the best whiskey on the panel by a country mile. Second, this is clearly an Islay peat monster. It’s too hefty to be a Bowmore, Lagavulin, Kilchoman, Caol Ila, or Bunnhabain. That only leaves Bruichladdich, Ardbeg, and Laphroaig. It’s not a Bruichladdich, it’s too subtle for that.

The deep and amazingly funky pickled profile with a sense of Ace Bandages, tarmac, and seaside only points to Laphroaig. And it’s a great Laphroiag with, I’m guessing a PX sherry finish thanks to all that smoked dark fruit and mulled wine vibes. Bandage, sea salt, and asphalt are the foundations of Laphroaig, folks. (Ardbeg tends to be more ashtrays and old rope)

Part 2 — The Random Whiskey Ranking

7. Nulu Straight Bourbon Whiskey Double Oaked Single Barrel Select Topflight Series — Taste 5

ABV: 57.4%

Average Price: $107

The Whiskey:

This Louisville bottler leans on MGP of Indiana whiskey for mostly single-barrel bottlings in Kentucky. In this case, they pulled in MGP’s double oak aged whiskey and let it rest in their barrelhouse in Louisville before bottling.

Bottom Line:

Nailed it! MGP whiskey by a Kentucky bottler was my guess. That aside, this is perfectly fine bourbon. At $100 per bottle, it’s outrageous though. Get two Wild Turkey Rare Breeds for $50.

6. Treaty Oak Single Barrel Ghost Hill Texas Bourbon Aged 5 Years Cask Strength — Taste 2

ABV: 59.85%

Average Price: $60

The Whiskey:

This small craft distillery in Texas has been distilling and bottling locally-made grain-to-glass whiskey, vodka, and gin for almost two decades. The whiskey in this bottle is hewn from local heirloom grains (57% corn, 32% wheat, and 11% malted barley) that are fermented in the Texas Hill Country before distillation and aging. After five years, the whiskey was selected and bottled as a single barrel at cask strength.

Bottom Line:

The dark look of this one gave it away as a Texas whiskey immediately. I wouldn’t have bullseye’d it being Treaty Oak simply because it wasn’t that distinct. Overall, this was a pretty bold whiskey with a lot of oak and feels like it’d be a fine sipper over a lot of ice.

5. Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey — Taste 1

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $25

The Whiskey:

This is the whiskey that heralded a new era of bourbon in 1999. Famed Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee came out of retirement to create this bourbon to celebrate the renaming of the George T. Stagg distillery to Buffalo Trace when Sazerac bought the joint. The rest, as they say, is history — especially since this has become a touchstone bourbon for the brand.

Bottom Line:

This was so clearly Buffalo Trace Bourbon from the jump that there’s not much more to say. Use this for your favorite whiskey-forward cocktails.

4. Old Fourth Distillery Experimental Series Double Cask Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Ruby Port — Taste 6

ABV: 56%

Average Price: $124

The Whiskey:

This Georgia bottler uses MGP of Indiana whiskey. They transported the barrels down to Georgia where this whiskey was re-casked into Ruby Port casks for an additional 1 year and 10 months of aging before batching and bottling 100% as-is.

Bottom Line:

Again, this was fine. I certainly called it as a specially finished MGP. I wouldn’t have guessed it was bottled in Georgia. But that’s almost incidental to what’s actually in the bottle.

Overall, this was nice. But that price tag is, again, outrageous. You can almost get three bottles of Michter’s Small Batch Bourbon for that price.

3. New Riff Single Barrel Rye Kentucky Straight Whiskey — Taste 3

ABV: 53.75%

Average Price: $55

The Whiskey:

This whiskey from New Riff is a unique take on the style. The juice in the bottle is 100% American rye made with 95% classic rye and 5% malted rye. That mash is fermented and distilled before resting for several years in new oak. Once a single barrel hits the perfect spot, it’s bottled as-is one barrel at a time.

Bottom Line:

The 100% rye mash bill with a malted rye aspect gives this a mighty grass, herbal, and funky vibe that’s unique to any other rye out there. It’s also delicious. There are really only three or four distilleries doing that in Kentucky and only really two doing that this well. In this case, it was New Riff but Castle & Key’s rye is right there too.

In the end, this is a great sipper to have on hand to expand your rye whiskey knowledge and palate.

2. Balcones Peated Texas Single Malt Whisky — Taste 4

ABV: 59%

Average Price: $85

The Whiskey:

This peated Texas Single Malt Whisky is made with classic peated Scottish malts. The distillery imports very high-grade and heavily peated malts into Texas from Islay. They then ferment the mash and distill the whisky in Waco, Texas, before letting the whisky rest in their hot warehouses for a few years. The barrels are then batched to highlight the best of Scottish peated malt with the Texas distilleries signature profile.

Bottom Line:

No one is doing whisky like this in America besides Balcones. No one is really doing peated malt in America as well as Balcones either. So this was a super easy whisky to spot from a million miles away. Overall, this is a delicious example of how good American peated malt whisky can be. Pour this over one big rock, sip it slowly, and you’ll be in for a delicious treat.

1. Laphroaig Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky Single Cask Selection Cask Collector’s Edition 2 Pedro Ximénez — Taste 7

ABV: 60.4%

Average Price: $249

The Whiskey:

This brand-new edition of Laphroaig is part of the exclusive Cask Collectors series. In this case, a single cask of funky Laphroaig rested in Pedro Ximénez sherry hogshead casks (slightly larger than an average barrel). That whisky was bottled 100% as-is without proofing to highlight the beauty of the single cask of whisky.

Bottom Line:

First and foremost, this is a phenomenal pour of whisky. It’s a damn near perfect peated sipper as a neat pour and really shines over a single large cube. All of that aside, Laphroaig is so distinct as a brand that this was easy AF to nail in a double-blind tasting. Hell, I was even able to nail it as a PX sherry cask.

Part 3 — Final Thoughts on the Random Whiskeys

Luckily, nothing confused me on this panel. As mentioned above, that would have been super embarrassing. My editor swears he can confuse me but… we shall see.

What to keep in mind when building a palate and whiskey education is to find the nuance that makes a certain whiskey what it is. Every style, brand, and expression has something that makes it individual (to a degree). You have to build a catalog of those flavors, nuances, and textures to really know whiskey in a deep sense. Then you have to continually expand that catalog pretty much every single day of your life (I haven’t had a weekend off from tasting whiskey in, like… years).

When it comes to which of these whiskeys you should add to your collection, focus on the top three in the ranking. Yes, the Laphroaig is expensive but it’s a single bottling of a miracle cask. That’s worth the money. And since the Balcones and New Riff are local, the prices are fair for the beautiful whiskeys in those bottles.

The Clippers lost their fifth straight game on Sunday afternoon when the 1-8 Grizzlies were able to out-execute them down the stretch to pull off a 105-101 win. With the loss, they moved to 0-4 with James Harden in the lineup, and once again their offense was painful to watch as their four former MVP candidates all tried not to step on each other’s toes.

With Harden on the floor on Sunday, the Clippers were an impossibly bad -28 in a game they lost by four, and since his arrival in L.A. the Clippers boast a -25.8 net rating in lineups with Harden. Tyronn Lue’s message to Harden was to be himself and let the Clippers adapt to him, but that didn’t flip a switch against Memphis as many of the same issues persisted.

Every time there’s a new star combination, we wonder who will sacrifice, who will take the lead, and how to best maximize everyone’s skill level. With Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, there was never a question of how that dynamic would work out, as George was happy to raise his hand and say he would be the second option. When they’ve been healthy and shared the floor together, that agreement has worked well for the Clippers. However, with Harden in tow, the arrangement is changing in real time and no one seems quite sure how it all should work.

This is where dragging the trade talks out into the season has hurt L.A., as these are the kinds of things you need to work out in offseason workouts and training camp. While I think some of the same issues would persist, there would at least be a better understanding from their stars of where everyone likes to operate and how to at least try to get the ball to their teammates in their preferred spots. Instead, they’re spending precious time during the season figuring out each other and it’s clear that the learning curve is much steeper than anticipated.

The first sign the Harden experiment in L.A. might not work smoothly came in his introductory press conference, when he insisted he was boxed in by the Sixers and not allowed to play to his best abilities. His exact words were “I’m not a system player, I am a system.”

That sentence should have set off some alarm bells for the Clippers, because if he wasn’t happy fitting in with Joel Embiid (who won MVP last year) and the Sixers, why would that change with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Russell Westbrook in Los Angeles. Harden was legitimately good in Philadelphia and won them a couple of playoff games with his play last year, but his ability to consistently carry a team has diminished as he’s gotten older and dealt with various injuries. In theory, he’s the kind of star that should work well with others given his skillset, his passing acumen, and his shooting ability, but the problem comes with his preference to operate at his own cadence.

His propensity to pass up catch-and-shoot opportunities to try and create off the bounce has already been notable with the Clippers, and it will likely be the biggest hurdle to making this entire operation work offensively. Even when he played with Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook in Houston, he was not always an active threat to shoot the ball while spacing the floor, often stationing himself well away from the three-point line as a release valve to start his own action. In L.A., he’s taken some catch-and-shoot threes and seemingly tried to be a bit more engaged off the ball, but will only let them fly when wide open. His belief in his creation ability works against him when defenders close out on him, because he looks to attack those closeouts off the bounce and defenders are often settling in front of him knowing this rather than flying by.

This gets to the second issue, which is that Harden is one of the best passers in basketball when it comes to creating shots for others, but he is not a connective passer in any way. His passes almost always have the purpose of leading to a shot and rarely come in service of continued action and ball movement. He wants to survey the defense and methodically pick it apart, but that only works when, one, the rest of the team is on the same page and, two, he is given full control to operate the offense. The first issue can be resolved with more time together, but the second is much murkier.

The real problem with the Harden system working in L.A. is they have someone who wants to operate in a similar fashion, particularly late in the game, but is better at it (at this point) in Kawhi Leonard. While Kawhi has become a very good spot up shooter, when push comes to shove, he wants the ball in his hands to make decisions and wants the rest of the team playing in his orbit. To do as Ty Lue says and adapt to Harden, the Clippers will need to take the ball out of Leonard’s (and George’s) hands more often — and likely become even more of a “your turn, my turn” offense. That’s an issue that’s already caused some problems for L.A., as their offense already had a tendency to slow up and could get stuck in the mud late in games, and Harden’s presence only exacerbates those problems.

Since Harden’s arrival, the Clippers pace has dropped off considerably (a full four possessions per game) and no one is moving with confidence or comfortability in the halfcourt. Time together will certainly help, as will some inevitable positive shooting progression from three, but L.A. faces a real crisis of identity with the Harden acquisition. He is right when he said he is a system and has never been happy being just a cog in the wheel. The problem is that only works when he’s the best on-ball option on the team. That isn’t the case in L.A., and the Clippers already have a system. His name is Kawhi Leonard.

In theory, the two could help each other, but Harden seems almost determined in the early going to prove he just doesn’t work as a complementary player. Ty Lue has responded by saying the Clippers need to play through Harden and adapt to him.

That’s exactly what Harden wants and will probably bring his level up, but it also requires two better players (at this point of their careers) to be the ones doing the adapting and sacrificing. Therein lies the fundamental problem with the Harden system in Los Angeles. While it won’t be this bad all season, there is likely a ceiling on how successful this all can be.

Donald Trump’s main campaign strategy as of late has been body-shaming his Republican presidential rivals. He was previously obsessed with former Governor Chris Christie’s bulky physique but, as of late, it’s Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who has caught his eye.

During a stump speech in New Hampshire over the weekend, Trump spent an inordinate amount of time theorizing about DeSantis’s height. Plenty of critics have speculated that the governor, who clocks in somewhere around 5 ft 11 in, has been wearing lifts in his shoes during public debates. Keen-eyed observers have even taken to Twitter to share videos of DeSantis struggling to walk comfortably during town hall talks.

But Trump took it to a whole new level, mocking DeSantis’ strange gait with a screwball impression in front of a pro-MAGA crowd.

“And I’m not wearing lifts, either, by the way,” Trump said while poking fun at DeSantis.

“I don’t have six-inch heels. Actually, the greatest moment of the debate was when Ron was walking – or Ron DeSanctimonious was walking – off the stage and his feet,” he continued, pretending to lose his balance as his arms flailed wildly. “He’s walking off stage like he’s trying to balance himself. I thought he was wearing ice skates.”

Trump spent the rest of his speech threatening tougher death penalty verdicts for drug dealers, confusing Obama for Biden, accusing Democrats of rigging elections, and praising the “look, strength, and voice” of Chinese Xi Jinping. But it was his terrible stand-up routine that will likely bother entrenched GOP members the most.

(WARNING: Spoilers for the most recent Power Book IV: Force episode will be found below.)

STARZ recently concluded the second season of Power Book IV: Force, one of three spin-offs birthed from the original Power Universe. In the show’s latest season, there was a small group of characters who were brought on to the show to add to its storyline. One of them was Mireya Garcia who played the role of Tommy Egan’s new love interest. She is also the younger sibling of Miguel Garcia, who was also new to season two as one of Tommy Egan’s main competitors in the Chicago drug game. In the end, Mireya was one of the standout characters in Power Book IV: Force season two and fans are excited for her return in season three.

Who Plays Mireya Garcia On Power Book IV: Force?

Mireya Garcia is played by Carmela Zumbado whose acting career dates back to 2011. Since then, she’s landed roles in TV shows like NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Los Angeles, Chicago P.D., Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and the recent iCarly reboot. She most notably played the main role of Delilah Alves on Netflix’s You where she appeared in all 10 episodes in season two. Zumbado has also appeared in movies that include 2 Minutes Of Fame, Run Sweetheart Run, Hot Seat, and The Wall of Mexico.

During a recent interview with Uproxx, Joseph Sikora, who played the role of Tommy Egan, praised Zumbado for her portrayal of Mireya Garcia. “Let’s give Carmela Zumbado some love too,” he said. “What a wonderful portrayal of Mireya she’s had, I think that she’s wonderfully shown this inner conflict that she had to be with Tommy. It’s always like, ‘No, but I can’t help it.’ I think that that’s very relatable to us as human beings.”

‘Power Book IV: Force’ season two is now available to stream on STARZ.