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The Celtics Pummeled The Heat In Game 5 To Clinch A First Round Series Win

jaylen brown
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The Boston Celtics will not get upset by the Miami Heat this year. Boston welcomed Miami to TD Garden on Wednesday night and left no doubt, as they completely overwhelmed their rivals from South Beach from the very start of the game and could have started planning for their conference semifinal matchup by the time the two sides went into the locker room for halftime. When the final buzzer went off, the Celtics picked up a 118-84 win.

Two players primarily spearheaded the Boston offense on Wednesday: Derrick White and Jaylen Brown. Both had been magnificent throughout the series, and once again, they brought their A-game with a chance to close the Heat out. White continued his recent hot streak from three, as he knocked down five of his 10 attempts from deep as he put up 25 points, five rebounds, two assists, and a steal in 29 minutes of work.

As has been the case for much of the series, Miami just didn’t have much of anything for Brown, who went for 25 points and six rebounds. He shot 11-for-19 from the field, but six of those eight misses came from behind the three-point line.

Boston, which did not have the services of Kristaps Porzingis on the night, was buoyed by a productive night off the bench by Sam Hauser’s 17 points on 5-for-8 shooting from deep, along with a double-double by Jayson Tatum, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds.

For Miami — which learned before the game that Jaime Jaquez Jr. would join Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier, and Josh Richardson on the sideline due to injury — Bam Adebayo led the way with 23 points, six assists, five rebounds, and two steals. But the problem was a lack of a consistent threat from the perimeter, as the Heat could not keep up with the fact that the Celtics went 16-for-40 from three. As a team, Miami shot 3-for-29 from behind the arc, while top perimeter threat Tyler Herro was only able to put up 15 points on 6-for-19 shooting.

The Celtics now get to sit, put their feet up, and wait to see what happens in the 4-5 series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic. While the Cavs hold a 3-2 lead in the series, Game 6 will take place in Orlando, and the home team has won every game to this point.

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Angel Reese Was Asked To Choose Between Drake And Kendrick Lamar, And She Handled It Perfectly

Angel Reese 2023 ESPY Awards
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Kendrick Lamar and Drake have a longstanding beef, as chronicled by Uproxx’s Aaron Williams, and it’s sizzling this week. On Tuesday, April 30, Lamar dropped “Euphoria,” the latest in a string of diss tracks between Drake, Lamar, J. Cole, and more that began with Lamar’s verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That.” The six-minute sprint of a song packs in myriad Drake disses, and everyone from Joel Embiid to Rick Ross is chiming in.

Angel Reese is not interested in entering the fray. The Chicago Sky posted a video on Wednesday, May 1, showing the WNBA team’s players answering a loaded question: “Drake or Kendrick?” Reese’s teammates each chose a side — the results were lopsided in Drake’s favor — but Reese knew better. “I’m not getting in this controversy because I’ll be on Twitter, The Shade Room, all that,” Reese said. “Nope!”

Last month, Reese was drafted seventh overall by Chicago after a decorated collegiate career at LSU, where she and the Tigers won the national championship in 2023. Anyway, Reese’s favorite rapper might be her former LSU teammate, Flau’jae Johnson. The two co-starred in NLE Choppa’s “Champions” video last year, and Reese was also featured in the video for Latto and Cardi B’s “Put It On Da Floor Again.”

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Imagine Dragons Will Drop A New ‘Eyes Closed’ Version With J Balvin, As Teased By J Balvin & Dan Reynolds Dancing

In early April, Imagine Dragons dropped “Eyes Closed,” a rock-charged anthem of reemergence. The track arrived a few weeks before the Dan Reynolds-led band announced LOOM, their forthcoming album.

“Eyes Closed” already got the acoustic treatment, but Imagine Dragons aren’t done with it. This week, it was revealed that “Eyes Closed” featuring J Balvin will arrive this Friday, May 3. Imagine Dragons have been teasing the collaboration for days — most recently with an Instagram video showing Balvin and Reynolds dancing to the track.

LOOM is due out on June 28, and Imagine Dragons will support the album with their LOOM World Tour, which will begin in Camden, New Jersey on July 30 and run through October.

“After taking some time off the road and spending time catching up with family and loved ones, I finally have felt the desire to go back to the sonic places that originally brought me the most joy, but with a new outlook and mentality,” Reynolds said at the time of the tour announcement, as per Rolling Stone. “The world looks much different after being a band for more than a decade. But some things will always remain the same. It’s finding that right balance of nostalgia and freshness that brings me the most joy in the studio. We had a lot of fun making this one and hope you enjoy it too.”

Watch the original “Eyes Closed” video above, and watch the LOOM album trailer below.

LOOM is out 6/28 via Interscope. Find more information here.

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James Jones Wants The Suns To Be ‘The First Team’ To ‘Maximize’ Kevin Durant, Who Has An MVP And Two NBA Finals MVPs

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The Phoenix Suns went all-in on putting their team together ahead of the 2023-24 NBA season. Unfortunately for them, things did not end the way they wanted, as Phoenix just could not stay healthy during the regular season and looked like they couldn’t quite get on the same page as they got swept in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Now, the Suns head into an offseason where they don’t really have a ton of avenues to get better — their cap sheet is brutal, they gave up all of their draft capital to build this team, and it sure seems unlikely they’d be willing to move either of their stars who don’t have a full no-trade clause. As such, they have to look towards internal improvement, and in the eyes of general manager James Jones, this includes trying to be the first team to “maximize Kevin Durant.”

“A constant focus for us is to continue how to figure out and maximize Kevin Durant. No one has done it yet. I believe we’ll be the first team to do it. Roster because we can maximize him, we can maximize our entire roster, we’re a better team.”

Jones went on to say that Durant had “a phenomenal season this year offensively,” and believed he had “some of the best stretches of his career this year” during his first full season in Phoenix. He did, however, express that the team’s issue was “the totality of figuring out when and where and how to do it together, we just could not get on the same page, we ran out of time.”

Since entering the NBA in 2007, Durant has won a pair of NBA championships, a pair of NBA Finals MVP awards, and was named the league MVP back in 2014. A member of the league’s 75th anniversary team, Durant, who turns 36 in September, has earned 10 All-NBA nods, six of which came on the first team, along with 14 All-Star Game appearances. He appeared in 75 games for Phoenix in the regular season, and averaged 27.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, and five assists in 37.2 minutes per game.

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How GeoGuessr pros can pinpoint any place in the world just from a Google street image

Imagine someone handing you a photo of a random street corner, neighborhood or field anywhere in the world and expecting you to know where it is. Occasionally, you might get lucky and see a sign or a landmark that gives a helpful clue, but chances are good that all you’d have to go from is some vegetation and maybe a building or two to guess from. We live in a huge world—seems impossible, right?

But that’s often all that GeoGuessr pros need to be able to tell you in seconds where on the globe the image came from, often within just a handful of miles.


When Swedish IT consultant Anton WallĂŠn launched the GeoGuessr app in 2013, he surely didn’t expect it to launch an entire global esport phenomenon. It was just a fun game to be dropped somewhere on the globe and try to guess where you are. But thanks to the pandemic forcing people to travel virtually for a while, it took viral hold as a competitive game in 2021. Now there’s even a GeoGuessr World Cup championship, and it’s a wild ride to watch.

In fact, these players are so fast at pinpointing locations based on photos that would have most of us scratching our heads, saying, “Heck, that could be anywhere,” it’s almost hard to watch. Check out even just a minute or so of these highlights:

One of the most popular Geoguessr players on social media is Trevor Rainbolt, one of the hosts of the 2023 GeoGuessr World Cup. While he says he’s not as good as some of the other pros, his TikTok account has 2.7 million followers and he consistently demonstrates his ability to find anything on the planet based on an outdoor photo. Literally anything, anywhere.

Rainbolt explained to WIRED some of the tools and tricks of the Geoguessr trade, and it’s both incredibly impressive and surprisingly mundane. Obviously, when there are street signs visible that offers a huge clue, but players learn details about every element of different countries’ landscapes, from telephone poles to vegetation the way lines are painted on the street to what garbage bins look like in different cities. They even get so specific as the color and texture of soils.

Watch Rainbolt explain:

Geoguessr players educate themselves using Google Maps so thoroughly that they are able to piece together every tiny clue to make an educated guess about where an image comes from. But it’s the speed with which the pros make their guesses that’s so mesmerizing—the result of years of learning and practice, just like any other highly developed skill.

If this all seems a bit pointless (though one could argue there’s always a point to knowing where you are), there are actually some really heartwarming things that have come out of the “geonerd” world. For instance, a woman had a photo of her mom, but zero other information about her. Rainbolt was able to pinpoint the exact location the photo was taken, giving the woman a clue into her own past.

@georainbolt

this one felt good #geo #geoguessr #geography #geowizard

And another similar request yielded similar results:

🫶

@georainbolt

🫶

Sometimes people’s requests are even more challenging, and yet Rainbolt manages to find locations with remarkable accuracy.

@georainbolt

road matching #geo #geography #geowizard #geoguessr #ReadySetLift

People often tell him he should be hired by the CIA or FBI, and for sure that seems plausible. But what’s great about what he does is that he explains exactly how he does it. It just takes countless hours over years and years to get to know the planet as well as he and other Geoguessr pros know it.

Anyone can play—just download the GeoGuessr app or play online and give it a go. Fair warning, though. It’s not nearly as easy as these guys make it look.

Highly recommend following @georainbolt to watch more.

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Laughing woman gives sweet reason you should never be embarrassed about mispronouncing a word

There is likely not a single person on this Earth that has not mispronounced something. Sometimes people mispronounce words they know how to say, but for some reason in that moment it fell out of their head and ran away. But most of the time people read a word that they’ve never heard spoken and pronounce it the way they think it sounds.

If you think about it, the English language has so many different rules that it can be hard for native speakers to figure out the sound of certain letters within a word. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people mispronounce things all the time, but one woman shared a beautiful sentiment on mispronunciation through tears of laughter.

Monica Turner shared a video on her Instagram page, Monica’s Open House, of her reaction to a man who was announcing the Pepsi Co. recall of Schweppes Ginger Ale. The man in the video mispronounced the name of the ginger ale, calling it shu-wa-pee-pees.


This mispronunciation sent Turner into a giggling fit so intense that she started crying tears of laughter. While other people might have taken the video as her making fun of the young man, Turner was actually just tickled by his mispronunciation, not that he mispronounced the word in general. The woman contained her uncontrollable laughter long enough to explain something many people may need to hear.

“Ok, ok, hold on,” she says while collecting herself. “Don’t ever be embarrassed about mispronouncing a word because that means you read it, you didn’t hear it. If you heard it you would’ve pronounced it properly, but you read it so don’t ever be embarrassed. Ever, about mispronouncing a word, ok? Cause that gives you a leg up in my opinion.”

Commenters found the mispronunciation just as hilarious as she did but also loved her response.

“Shu wa pee pee? This could be the best mispronouncing of a word I’ve ever seen,” one person says.

“I love your explanation on mispronounced words. You read the word you have not heard the word. That is the best response to stop someone from feeling embarrassed,” another writes.

“I have never heard the way that you explained away a possible insecurity. And I just want to say if your a mom, then that’s incredible and your kids are so lucky. But for anyone else who watched this video I hope they took note of the fact that you said that he read that word instead of hearing it. There’s so many different ways to learn, and the fact that you took the time to say that and make that clarification I think it was beautiful and I’ve never heard that in regards to words before, and I pride myself on English and literacy. I will forever explain things this way, if I ever hear a word mispronounced again. Thank you for the laugh and the perspective,” someone shares.

There is nothing wrong with mispronouncing a word, everyone does it and this just may be the best reason to never be embarrassed about it.

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Dan Rather returns to CBS, 18 Years after losing anchor job in political scandal

Before 24-7 networks like CNN and Fox News became the go-to places for TV news junkies, the newscasters of the “big three” networks attracted 50 million people every night. Throughout most of the ‘80s, ‘90s and early ‘00s, viewers chose between three network news titans: Tom Brokaw on NBC, Peter Jennings on ABC and Dan Rather on CBS.

Tom Brokaw left “NBC Nightly News” in 2004, Jennings left “ABC World News Tonight” in 2005 and Rather was forced to leave “CBS Evening News” the same year after being involved in a controversial segment about then-President George W. Bush.

In 2004, Rather filed a report on “60 Minutes II” critical of Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. The documents central to the story were questioned as fakes and the blowback from the story led to Rather’s ouster.


Twenty years later, Rather still stands by the story. “You can argue that we never got to the original documents,” Rather said in an interview. “But nobody has ever proven that they were anything other than what they were purported to be.”

Rather worked for CBS News for 44 years in many roles, including bureau chief, war correspondent, foreign correspondent and White House correspondent. He was the network’s national evening news anchor from 1981 to 2005.

Now, 18 years after his controversial departure from CBS, Rather, 92, returned to the network in a segment aired on April 28 on “CBS Sunday Morning.” In it, he spoke with Lee Cowan, his former protegee, who remembered that Rather taught him that it’s not the question but the “follow-up” that matters.

Rather was on the show, in part, to promote his new Netflix documentary, “Rather,” which debuts on May 1.

In the interview, Rather told Cowan that the ultimate job of a journalist is to speak truth to power. “In the heart of every reporter worthy of their name, Lee, there’s a message that news, real news, is what somebody, somewhere, particularly somebody in power, doesn’t want you to know,” he said. “That’s news.”

He also admitted that being forced to leave CBS was the “lowest point” in his esteemed career.

“I gave CBS News everything I had. They had smarter, better, more talented people, but they didn’t have anybody who worked any harder than I did,” Rather said.

When asked why he wanted to be a reporter, Rather admitted that it is just a part of his being.

“I’ve never quite known the answer to that question,” Rather said. “All I know is it’s the only thing I ever wanted to be was a reporter and I get up every morning as soon as my feet hit the ground, I say, ‘Where’s the story?'”

Even though Rather was devastated after leaving CBS, he remained in the public eye. He has hosted an interview show for HDNet, written books and newspaper columns and hosted a radio show on Sirius XM. He has over 2.6 million followers on Twitter, where he’s introduced himself to a younger audience.

“You either get engaged and you get engaged in the new terms … or you’re out of the game,” he admits.

News reporters face an uncertain future given the decline of newspapers and social media’s dominance with younger audiences. But Rather is still impressed with the reporting he sees in today’s news.

“The people who are practicing journalism today are so much better than those of us who came up here another time,” he said. “They’re better educated. They’re more knowledgeable about the world,” Rather continued. “They want to do the right thing. They’re doing the best they can.”

Even though he’s dedicated his life to journalism, Rather believes his true legacy are those he loves. “In the end, whatever remains of one’s life — family, friends — those are going to be the things for which you’re remembered,” he said.

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Joshua Bassett Reflects On A Love That Was ‘Fun ‘Til It Hurt’ In An Unreleased Song Snippet

Joshua Bassett August 2023
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In early 2022, Joshua Bassett opened up about the impact of being associated with Olivia Rodrigo’s galactic debut song, “Drivers License.” Bassett disclosed to People that he had been diagnosed with septic shock and felt “depressed,” “stressed,” and “had a panic attack every single day.”

Although it would be reckless and irresponsible to speculate as to whether Bassett’s newly teased song, “The Golden Years,” is about Rodrigo, it is a wistful reflection on a love gone wrong.

“Four years gone by, in the blink of an eye,” Bassett sings while standing on a gusty Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles, California, in a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, May 1. “We were young ’til we weren’t / It was fun ’til it hurt / Now, I’m terrified that I’ll never find love like yours.” Bassett captioned the video with the eyeballs emoji.

As of this writing, Bassett has not specified a release date for the song, but there is a pre-save link in his Instagram bio. His bio also reads, “[sunflower emoji] soon.”

The former High School Musical: The Musical: The Series actor last released “Just Love” last September. The compassionate ballad was accompanied by a self-directed video.

Watch Bassett’s “The Golden Years” snippet below.

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The 10 Best-Selling, Easy To Find Tequilas Between $20-$50, Ranked

The Best Tasting Affordable TEquilas(1600x500)
Uproxx

When you get deep into high-quality additive-free tequila, a funny thing happens — you can forget that people who are serious about tequila are a very small subsection of tequila drinkers, overall. That leads you to recommend bottles that go beyond what your pals are seeking and into the aficionado “hard to even find” realms. So what about folks who just want a solid, non-burning sip from their grocer?

That’s where most tequila drinkers reside, after all. In the middle of the price bell curve looking for the widely available stuff.

To help guide you to the best of the best, we’re ranking some of the most popular and easiest-to-find bottles of tequila on store shelves today. To populate this list, I’ve scanned through multiple grocery liquor aisles making a note of the most common bottles. Because this is a list aimed at more casual tequila drinkers, I decided to focus on expressions you can find for under $50.

Here is how the most popular-meets-affordable brands rank!

10. Jose Cuervo Silver

Tequila
Dane Rivera

ABV: 40%
Price: $19.99

The Tequila:

The first thing you need to know about Jose Cuervo is that it’s what is called a “mixto.” That means it’s not made from 100% blue agave, that’s part of the reason why it’s so cheap. If you’re mixing this up in a big batch frozen margarita maker and packing it with sugar and sweet mixers, you’re not going to really taste the harshness here. However, if you plan on taking shots with this one, or mixing it up in a traditional cocktail, it’s going to burn, and not in the good way those agave-forward bottles tend to.

Produced at NOM 1122, Casa Cuervo, the agave here goes through acid thermal hydrolysis cooking (which sounds delicious right?) and is extracted via a diffuser before being twice distilled.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Harsh on the nose, I’m getting a heavy dose of kerosene, burnt plastic, and nail polish remover.

Palate: A lot of spice with white pepper. It has a cheap vodka-like burn to it.

Finish: The burn is intense, which makes it a bit hard to latch on to any flavors on the finish. I’m tasting a touch of agave under all the alcohol harshness, enough to know that this is tequila and not something else.

The Bottom Line:

The sort of frat-house tequila that can make you swear off the stuff forever. If you’re entertaining a big crowd and making a huge batch mixed drink that
gets the job done, this tequila works, but for anything else, you have other options out there for a few dollars more.

9. Hornitos — Plata

Sauza

ABV: 40%
Price: $21.99

The Tequila:

I have a certain nostalgia in my heart for Hornitos Plata. It’s the first bottle of tequila that I was really into, the tequila that made me claim the spirit as my own. Having said that, I hadn’t had Hornitos Plata for years and when I tasted it again I was shocked at how far away it is from what I like about tequila.

This tequila is produced at NOM 1102, Tequila Sauza, and is made from agave that is cooked and extracted in an autoclave and diffuser. It is then fermented in stainless steel tanks, and twice distilled. At least it’s made from 100% blue Weber agave, which is a slight step up from what you’ll get from Cuervo silver.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: A lot of ethanol on the nose, very chemical and harsh. With a big whiff, I can smell the slightest hint of lime.

Palate: A surprising amount of agave on the palate here, with a dusty black pepper flavor mixed with some salt.

Finish: A harsh medicinal burn followed by a vegetal quality.

The Bottom Line:

For the money, you can probably find something that tastes more like agave. This is harsh, smoother than Cuervo, but still very. metallic and chemical.

8. Cazadores Reposado

Cazadores

ABV: 40%
Price: $23.99

The Tequila:

As you might have noticed this list isn’t populated with too many reposado tequilas, so Cazadores is a good option if you want something a bit more mellow and smooth than what you’ll get out of a blanco. Cazadores is produced at NOM 1487, Bacardi Y Compañia, and is made from 100% blue Weber agave that is cooked and extracted via an autoclave and diffuser, fermented in stainless steel tanks to the sounds of classical music (a surprisingly prevalent trend in tequila for some reason) and twice distilled in a stainless pot with a copper coil.

Once distilled, the tequila is then rested for two months to a year in virgin American oak barrels to reach the reposado state.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Heavy wafts of vanilla and caramel over nail polish remover.

Palate: That vanilla from the nose is the primary note on the palate joined by caramel candies, a slight hint of pepper and cinnamon, and a
noticeable minerality.

Finish: Smooth oak on the finish with a bit more of that caramel.

The Bottom Line:

Smooth and vanilla-heavy. If you don’t like your tequila to burn, this is the bottle for you.

7. Patron Silver

Patron
Tequila
Total Wine

ABV: 40%
Price: $41.99

The Tequila:

10 years ago, Patron was widely considered the high-end brand. Thankfully, those days are over. While Patron is good, it’s far from the greatest bottle you can find in this price range.

Patrón’s Silver is made with blue agave cooked in stone brick ovens and tahona extracted, fermented in wood fermentation tanks, and carbon filtered at NOM 1492, Patrón Spirits. There was a time when most of the general public considered Patrón to be top-shelf tequila, I think that’s down to its sweetness and drinkability.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: All over the place, I can smell some roasted agave, but there is a noticeable sweetness here as well, and a strong almost kerosene-like quality to it.

Palate: Silky with a mix of tart pineapple and juicy orange juice, with some bitter lettuce-like flavors keeping the sweetness from being too out of control.

Finish: Black pepper with an artificial lime finish. Goes down incredibly smooth.

The Bottom Line:

Sweet and easily drinkable, perhaps too much so. It disappears in a cocktail.

6. Milagro Reposado

Milagro

ABV: 40%
Average Price: $25.99

The Tequila:

There are a lot, and I mean a lot(emphasis necessary) of bottles of tequila that survive purely on a cool bottle design. Milagro, with its different colored bottles for different expressions, is one of the first and most affordable brands to put a lot of investment into bottle design. This stuff just looks cool, and when you compare it to similarly priced bottles, the design might just be enough to push you to buy this instead of something else.

I’m not mad at that, especially because Milagro, especially the reposado, is pretty damn solid.

Hailing from NOM 1559, Tequila Milagro, this brand stone cooks its agave before crushing it in a roller mill, ferments the juice in stainless steel tanks and twice distills through a stainless steel pot. The tequila is then aged in American white oak barrels for 2-4 months.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Agave and oak dominate, rich confection-like notes pull you in and a hint of cinnamon lurks underneath the layers.

Palate: Unfortunately that sweetness doesn’t completely translate to the flavor, you get the roasted agave flavor and an overpowering bit of oak, but there is an ethanol-like body that weighs the whole thing down.

Finish: It ends with a burn and a small vanilla lift with a hint of zesty citrus.

The Bottom Line:

Pleasant on the nose, a bit harsh on the palate, but with a nice finish that juggles sweet vanilla tones and some bright zestiness.

5. Teremana Reposado

Teremana

ABV: 40%
Average Price: $32.99

The Tequila:

The Rock’s tequila! Celebrity tequilas in general get a lot of criticism in the tequila space, and there are some good reasons for that. One of those reasons though is usually the price point but I want to push back on that. Yes, celebrity tequilas tend to be a bit pricier than the other mass-market bottles, a bottle of Teremana Reposado is more than double the cost of Jose Cuervo. But, Teremana, and the other celebrity tequilas, are made better and usually follow a more traditional production process.

So that more expensive price is justified. Can you find other bottles that offer the same slow-cooked production method for cheaper? Absolutely, but not as easily. So don’t be quick to write these bottles off as celebrity vanity projects.

You might be surprised to learn that the Rock’s Teremana, is pretty damn good. The tequila is produced at NOM 1613, Destileria Teremana De Agave, where it is the only brand in production. What other bottle on this list can claim the same? The agave used in Teremana is cooked low and slow in stone/brick ovens for three days, roller mill extracted, proofed down with well water, and fermented in open-air stainless steel tanks before being twice distilled in copper pots.

The tequila is then aged for six months in used bourbon barrels.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Pleasing butterscotch notes and roasted agave.

Palate: Floral honey with some sweet vanilla and browned butter.

Finish: A mix of orange zest, oak, and juicy melon.

The Bottom Line

Better than you expect, don’t sleep on it just because it has Dwayne Johnson’s name on it.

4. Casamigos — Tequila Blanco

Tequila
Drizly

ABV: 40%
Price: $43.99

The Tequila:

One of the best-selling and most visible tequila brands on the market right now, Casamigos is everywhere. It’s at restaurants, sporting events, your local bar — the people have spoken, they love Casamigos. George Clooney is one of the few celebrities who launched a tequila brand (now sold to Diageo) and doesn’t get a lot of criticism, probably because Casamigos is a pretty good bottle. It’s not a bar cart staple for me, but it has a people-pleasing flavor that is easy to like.

It’s produced at NOM 1609, part of Diageo, where the agave is cooked in stone brick ovens, roller mill extracted and fermented, and rested in stainless steel tanks. This tequila is made with deep well water which gives it a lot of minerality.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Black pepper, green grass and agave dominate the nose. There is a subtle harshness to the scent that makes my eyes water a bit, especially after the sweetness of the last pour.

Palate: Very nice on the palate, I’m tasting strong asparagus notes mixed with a zesty orange rind flavor, a bit of vanilla sweetness, and more black pepper.

Finish: I like the finish here, it’s harsh and spicy, but in the best way. It continues to burn on the tongue once you’re done with it. A cool sensation.

The Bottom Line:
Addictive, spikey, and agave-forward, while also having a lot of people-pleasing vanilla notes.

3. 818 — Tequila Blanco

818

ABV: 40%
Price: $29.99

The Tequila:

There isn’t a celebrity tequila brand that gets more flack than Kendall Jenner’s 818. I think what’s behind that is that the public is a bit exhausted with the Kardashian/Jenner family, and, well, sexism. I’ll spare you going to deep on this (if you’d like to read my full thoughts, do so here), but I will say that out of all the celebrity tequilas, 818 is by far the best.

Produced at NOM 1607, Grupo Solave, the agave here is cooked in stone brick ovens, tahona extracted, and fermented in stainless steel tanks.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Strong dessert vibes on the nose, I’m getting a lot of vanilla and roasted agave from this one. There is an apparent mellowness here, almost like an aged expression.

Palate: Sweet and super smooth. I’m tasting some fruity berry notes and a hint of cream. One of the least harsh unaged expressions I’ve ever tasted.

Finish: The vegetal notes come out at the aftertaste. It still goes down smooth and has a dessert-like quality to it, but the aftertaste brings forth vegetal flavors. A hint of green bell pepper and green grass.

The Bottom Line:

Yes, it’s sweet, it’s supremely smooth, and it’s easy to drink. All things a tequila snob would argue aren’t characteristic of this agave-forward spirit. But the subtle and shifting flavors make this a true joy to drink.

2. Espolòn — Tequila Blanco

Tequila
Total Wine

ABV: 40%
Average Price: $27.99

The Tequila:

Well under $30, Espolòn is present at every market and liquor store I’ve ever been to, and there is a good reason for that. It’s cheap, and more than any other bottle on this list in this price range, it punches way above its weight. If you’re looking for an affordable bottle of tequila that tastes bright and agave-forward and is very drinkable and pleasing on the palate, you’re not going to find a better bottle than this.

The tequila is produced at NOM 1440, Campari Mexico, where it is one of three brands. The agave is cooked in an autoclave and roller mill extracted, fermented in stainless steel tanks, and twice distilled in a stainless pot with a copper coil.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: A strong ethanol scent dominates with some zesty citrus notes lurking underneath the alcohol. Not the best nose.

Palate: Juicy pineapple with earthy black pepper qualities hover over a base of roasted agave. There is a slight vegetal quality here, but it leans more on tropical sweetness.

Finish: Buttery and vegetal, the finish here is surprisingly pleasant for its price point.

The Bottom Line:

The nose matches what you’d find in this price point, but the flavor is bright, zesty, juicy, and tropical, with a lot of agave character.

1. Don Julio Blanco

DJ
Total Wine

ABV: 40%
Price: $47.99

The Tequila:

Don Julio has a reputation as being a top-tier tequila brand, and while there are a lot of bottles in this price range that I would grab before this, most of those bottles are a bit harder to find. So when your options are limited, Don Julio’s blanco is a no-brainer choice and of the most popular brands, easily the best.

Don Julio’s blanco is made from 100% blue agave cooked in stone brick ovens, roller mill extracted, and fermented in stainless steel tanks at NOM 1449.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: A medley of roasted agave and vanilla bean on the nose, it almost has a slight baking spice quality to it. Very inviting, like fresh cookies out of the oven.

Palate: A warm chocolate quality begins our journey, it starts sweet and then quickly turns into a spicy burn with green tea and green pepper flavors dancing on the tongue.

Finish: Peppery celery and zesty citrus dominate the finish. Highly vegetal and almost juicy.

The Bottom Line:

If you’re looking for a truly great bottle and the options at your local market are limited, there is a high chance Don Julio Blanco will be there and a definite chance it’ll be the best bottle in attendance.

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Cher Dates Younger Men Because Men Her Age ‘Are All Dead,’ Which Is An Inarguable Defense

Cher has been dating Alexander Edwards, a music executive, since 2022. People don’t need an excuse to peer into Cher’s love life, but the 40-year age gap between her and Edwards has been a constant source of intrigue. Last December, the 2024 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee visited Chicken Shop Date and advised everyone to “go out with a younger man” at least once.

This week, Cher stopped by the Jennifer Hudson Show for an extensive interview, and Hudson took the opportunity to ask about Cher turning down Elvis Presley way back when, which led to Cher opening up about her present-day approach to dating.

“I’m really shy when I’m not working and kind of shy around men,” she said. “And the reason I go out with young men is because men my age or older — well, now they’re all dead, but before, they were always terrified to approach me. Younger men were the only ones [who would].”

Cher will turn 78 later this month.

Elsewhere in her conversation with Hudson, Cher discussed her evolving her fashion through the years, becoming friends with Meryl Streep while filming Silkwood in the eighties, struggling to reinvent herself, and more.

Watch the Jennifer Hudson Show clip above.