Category: News

Good bourbon is everywhere these days. But even with the ubiquity of bourbon on the shelf in 2023, you still need a little guidance to find the best bourbon. It’s no secret that there’s way more average and even bad bourbon on the shelf than true gems. Still, there’s great bourbon on the shelf right now and we’re here to help you find it.

One good way to figure out which brands actually make the good stuff is to see what the people are actually buying. To that end, I’m listing the best-selling bourbons of 2022 on Drizly below. But I’m not just providing you with a list and sending you shopping for whiskey. I’m also adding which bottle — or “expression” — I think you should buy from these top-selling bourbon brands with my own professional tasting notes. That way, when you have a hankering for a bottle of bourbon, you’ll be a little more informed about which to buy.

Take a look at those tasting notes below and find a bottle that speaks to you. Then click that price link and see if it’s available in your neck of the woods. Let’s dive in!

• The 100 Best Bourbon Whiskeys Of 2022, Ranked
• We Put A Whole Bunch Of Bourbons To A Giant Blind Test And Discovered Some Absolute Gems
• The Affordable Vs Expensive Blind Bourbon Bottle Battle
• The Best-Known Basic Bottles Of Bourbon, Blind Tasted And Ranked
• The 30 Best Bourbon Whiskeys For Fall, Blind Tasted & Ranked

20. Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. — Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch Bottled In Bond

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $88

The Whiskey:

Buffalo Trace’s Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch is an entry point to the other 12 expressions released under the E.H. Taylor, Jr. label. The whiskey is a blend of barrels that meet the exact right flavor profiles Buffalo Trace’s blenders are looking for in a classic bottled-in-bond bourbon for Taylor.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose opens with a lush and creamy grit vibe with spicy cinnamon and clove next to pecans, maple syrup, singed cherry bark, and old lawn furniture with dead leaves strewn about.

Palate: The taste hits on a buttery toffee vibe with a dark and old leatheriness next to dark chocolate tobacco, dried ancho chili peppers, and more of that sharp woody cinnamon with a whisper of salted black licorice lurking in the background.

Finish: The end has a sense of salted caramel and cinnamon candy next to malted vanilla ice cream, huckleberry pie, and dark cherry tobacco rolled into an old leather pouch.

Bottom Line:

This is a great place to start. This bottle is a little harder to find. It’s allocated and only a select few retailers actually get it but it’s clearly not impossible to buy since it’s on a top 20 best-selling list. It’s also a very good classic bourbon. This is the stuff you can pour and sip slowly or mix into a killer cocktail.

19. Widow Jane — Widow Jane The Vaults Aged 14 Years 2022 Release

ABV: 49.5%

Average Price: $273

The Whiskey:

This sourced New York whiskey is made from 14 to 19-year-old barrels from Tennessee and Indiana. Those barrels were sent out to Brooklyn and blended and then re-barreled into Missouri Ozark casks that were air-seasoned for three years before they were coopered and charred. Finally, the whiskey was blended in a small batch and bottled as-is without filtering but was cut with limestone mineral water from the Rosendale Mines in New York.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: There’s a mild sense of graininess on the nose with a hint of vanilla wafer honey sandwiches with mild winter spices — woody cinnamon, allspice, star anise — next to a hint of sweet tobacco layers of cherry and apple pie filling.

Palate: The palate has a very Tennessee vibe with soft bran muffins next to vanilla wafers layered with nougat and cinnamon with a hint of root beer cut with cherry syrup.

Finish: The end has a mild chocolate milk powder feel next to old oak, worn leather, and root beer-laced tobacco leaves.

Bottom Line:

This is a very limited edition run of great bourbon from a brand that really knows how to make something special. This particular release is perfect for slow sipping on a lazy afternoon. It’s a solid-tasting bourbon that’ll always reveal more depth with more nosing and tasting, especially when you start to add a little water.

18. Michter’s — Michter’s Single Barrel 10-Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon

ABV: 47.2%

Average Price: $218

The Whiskey:

Michter’s is currently distilling and aging its own whiskey, but this is still sourced. The actual barrels sourced for these single barrel expressions tend to be at least ten years old with some rumored to be closer to 15 years old (depending on the barrel’s quality, naturally). Either way, the whiskey goes through Michter’s bespoke filtration process before a touch of Kentucky’s iconic soft limestone water is added, bringing the bourbon down to a very crushable 94.4 proof.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose opens with subtle notes of softwood and worn leather next to light touches of dark berries, orange oils, egg nog spice, and slight toffee sweetness.

Palate: The palate starts off equally soft with something more akin to maple syrup sweetness which then leads into a rush of berry brambles. The mid-palate hits on a bit of dark spice, vanilla tobacco, and dark cacao espresso bitterness.

Finish: The finish leans into a dry-yet-almost-sweet oak with a touch of an almond shell and dry grass coming in at the very end.

Bottom Line:

This is a classic bourbon whiskey. It’s luscious and delectable. This is the bourbon you get when you want to wow someone on the palate (and by having a rarer bottle of bourbon).

17. Old Forester — Old Forester 1897 Bottled in Bond

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $56

The Whisky:

Old Forester 1897 Bottled-in-Bond is the brand’s throwback bottle that celebrates the 1897 act that brought the world bottled-in-bond whisky. The whiskey in the bottle is a mid-rye bourbon mash that’s aged, proofed, and bottled in accordance with the bonded laws and regulations.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: This drips with caramel on the nose — the kind that’s a bit tacky and chewy — alongside a touch of orange blossom and maybe a vanilla latte.

Palate: That vanilla and bitter espresso bean note carry on through the palate as a bowl of red and stone fruits soak in a bowl of brandy with plenty of cinnamon sticks and allspice berries thrown in too.

Finish: The finish marries all those notes while leaning heavily into the caramel sweetness as it fades away at a good clip.

Bottom Line:

This is a great workhorse, old-school bourbon. It works as a sipper on the rocks and as a killer cocktail base. This one makes a mean old fashioned.

16. Eagle Rare — Eagle Rare 10

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $50

The Whiskey:

This might be one of the most beloved (and still accessible) bottles from Buffalo Trace. This juice is made from their very low rye mash bill. The whiskey is then matured for at least ten years in various parts of the warehouse. The final mix comes down to barrels that hit just the right notes to make them “Eagle Rare.” Finally, this one is proofed down to a fairly low 90 proof.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: There’s a lot happening on the nose here, with worn leather mingling with dried orange, fresh sage, butter toffee, and cellared oak.

Palate: The taste turns towards marzipan covered in dark chocolate with a touch of honey and a sprinkling of dark spices.

Finish: The finish isn’t too long and touches back on that marzipan, toffee, and oak while ending short and sweet.

Bottom Line:

This is the perfect house pour bourbon to have on your home bar. Yes, it’s a Sazerac product so it’s fairly allocated but you can still find it for a decent price in most markets. If you do find it at MSRP, just get a case. It’s perfect on its own or in cocktails.

15. Jefferson’s — Jefferson’s Ocean Aged At Sea Wheated Bourbon Voyage 25

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $88

The Whiskey:

This expression is Jefferson’s sourced wheated bourbon from Indiana. The barrels were loaded onto an Ocearch vessel in Savannah, Georgia, and then sailed through the Caribbean, Panama Canal, around the Pacific, into the Indian Ocean, and back along the Pacific Coast, through the Panama Canal again, and back to Savannah — all that rocking around the ocean means more extraction of sugars into the spirit. Once the barrels were back in Kentucky, they were vatted, proofed, and bottled in very small batches.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: There’s a thin, proofed vibe on the nose with fresh honey, mulled wine spices, dark sugars, burnt orange, and a hint of white pepper peeking in.

Palate: The palate leans into woody cinnamon bark next to ripe orchard fruits wrapped in old tobacco and stacked with old porch wicker.

Finish: The end leans into the orchard fruit and wood more than the spice with a hint of salted caramel next to pear skins and apple tobacco.

Bottom Line:

This is a good conversation starter bourbon. No whiskey brand has a story like this. Moreover, the whiskey in the bottle is actually pretty goddamn tasty, especially over some rocks or a raw oyster.

14. W.L. Weller — William Larue Weller Bourbon BTAC 2022

ABV: 62.35%

MSRP: $1,099

The Whiskey:

Distilled back in the spring of 2010, this whiskey was made with a mix of Kentucky corn and wheat, and barley from North Dakota with that Kentucky limestone water. The distillate was filled into new white oak from Independent Stave from Missouri with a #4 char level (55 seconds) and stored in warehouses C, K, and N on floors 2, 3, and 4 for 12 long years. During that time, 64% of the whiskey was lost to hungry angels. Those barrels were then batched and this whiskey was bottled as-is.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose on this one is surprisingly sweet with a big slice of coconut cream pie (with a lard crust) next to your grandma’s butterscotch candies straight from an old leather handbag that’s held menthol cigarettes for decades and maybe some old Mon Cheri bonbons.

Palate: The palate opens with a lush eggnog full of nutmeg, allspice, and vanilla that leads to a white pound cake with a hint of poppy seed next to old leather tobacco pouches with a hot cinnamon spiciness on the mid-palate with light cedar woodiness.

Finish: The end layers that white cake into the tobacco while packing it all into an old leather handbag with whispers of mint chocolate chip, Halloween-sized Mounds bars, and old lawn furniture that’s been left out too many seasons.

Bottom Line:

This is going to be hard to find unless you want to pay a premium. Thems the breaks, folks. If you do find it, you’ll have a bottle to show off that also tastes f*cking amazing.

13. Wild Turkey — Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit Single Barrel

ABV: 50.5%

Average Price: $62

The Whiskey:

Jimmy Russell hand selects eight to nine-year-old barrels from his warehouses for their individual taste and quality. Those barrels are then cut down ever-so-slightly to 101 proof and bottled one at a time with their barrel number and warehouse location right on the bottle.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose draws you in with classic vibes from top to bottom thanks to rich vanilla smoothness, wintry spices, a hint of cedar, and a mix of sour cherry and tart apple with a slight lawn furniture earthiness.

Palate: The palate stays very classic with old boot leather next to dry cedar bark, a layer of rich marzipan cut with orange oils and covered in dark chocolate, and a distant hint of nasturtiums suspended in fresh honey.

Finish: The end finishes with a good hint of spiced cherry tobacco and old leather next to mild nuttiness, bitter chocolate, and soft vanilla cake frosted with cinnamon and cherry.

Bottom Line:

This is the good stuff that a) could cost way more than it does and b) is still pretty easily findable in most places. Really though, this is top-notch whiskey at a great price. You can drink this stuff neat and always find more depth or you can mix it into one hell of a Manhattan.

12. Elijah Craig — Elijah Craig Barrel Proof

ABV: 60.4%

Average Price: $88

The Whiskey:

This year’s first drop is a 12-year-old whiskey made from Heaven Hill’s classic bourbon mash of 78% corn, 12% malted barley, and a mere 10% rye. Those barrels are masterfully blended into this Barrel Proof expression with no cutting or fussing. This is as-is bourbon from the barrel.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Caramel draws you in on the nose with a slight sourdough cinnamon roll with pecans, a touch of floral honey, and a soft and woody drug store aftershave with an echo of vanilla candle wax and singed marshmallow.

Palate: The palate rolls through a soft leather and vanilla pie note as cinnamon ice cream leads to spicy oak.

Finish: The mid-palate leans into a sweeter, almost creamy spice (think nutmeg-heavy eggnog) which, in turn, leads to a dry cedar bark next to a dry stewed-apple tobacco leaf folded into an old leather pouch for safekeeping.

The Bottle:

I love having a bottle of this around for mixing up hefty cocktails with a kick. It also works perfectly well over a glass full of ice.

11. Knob Creek — Knob Creek 12

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $74

The Whiskey:

This is the classic Beam whiskey. The juice is left alone in the Beam warehouses in Clermont, Kentucky, for 12 long years. The barrels are chosen according to a specific taste and mingled to create this aged expression with a drop or two of that soft Kentucky limestone water.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: This opens with clear notes of dark rum-soaked cherry, bitter yet creamy dark chocolate, winter spices, a twinge of a sourdough sugar doughnut, and a hint of menthol.

Palate: The palate leans into a red berry crumble — brown sugar, butter, and spice — with a hint of dried chili flake, salted caramels covered in dark chocolate, and a spicy/sweet note that leads toward a wet cattail stem and soft brandied cherries dipped in silky dark chocolate sauce.

Finish: The very end holds onto that sweetness and layers in a final note of pecan shells and maple candy.

Bottom Line:

This is the sweet spot for Knob Creek. It’s also a 12-year-old whiskey that you can actually find and afford. Pour it over a rock or two, sit back, and enjoy.

10. Angel’s Envy — Angel’s Envy Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Port Wine Barrels Cask Strength

ABV: 59.9%

Average Price: $274

The Whiskey:

This modern classic is a yearly limited release from the beloved Lousiville distiller. The whiskey is made from a mix of locally sourced barrels that are finished in Ruby Port casks. The best of the best are hand-selected by Angel’s Envy’s team for as-is batching and bottling with only 14,000 odd bottles making out this year.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: This opens with a deep sense of blackberry jam over a Southern biscuit with plenty of brown butter, vanilla sauce, and apple fruit leather with a dash of cinnamon, allspice, and star anise next to a whisper of cherry cream soda and orange-chocolate tobacco packed into a cedar box.

Palate: The palate is soft and supple with a brandy butter vibe next to mince meat pie with powdered sugar icing, meaty dates, black tea, and rich Black Forest cake.

Finish: The end subtly meanders through shaved dark chocolate and stewed cherry, eventually landing on a vanilla-laced tobacco leaf rolled up with apple-cider-soaked cinnamon sticks and old wicker canes.

Bottom Line:

This cask-strength version of Angel’s Envy is a high water mark for the brand. It’s bold, delicious, and worth tracking down.

9. Buffalo Trace — Buffalo Trace Bourbon

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $35

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.

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 really delivers on the vanilla and spice.

Bottom Line:

This is a great mixing bourbon to have on your bar cart. It’s damn near quintessential as a broad cocktail base. Don’t let that stop you from pouring some over some rocks and enjoying it as a slow sipper. It’s good for that too.

8. Evan Williams — Evan Williams 1783 Small Batch

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $20

The Whiskey:

This is Evan William’s small-batch bourbon reissue. The expression is a marriage of 200 barrels of Heaven Hill’s classic bourbon (78% corn, 12% malted barley, and 10% rye). That whiskey is batched and then proofed down to 90 proof (instead of the old 86 proof) and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: This has a distinct nose that ventures from vanilla-soaked leather to a clear sense of allspice berries and ground clove with a hint of cornbread batter and soft oak.

Palate: There’s a light sense of caramel apples on the palate leading toward Johnnycakes covered in butter and honey with a light nutmeg lurking in the background.

Finish: The finish arrives with a hint of dry reeds that ends up on a vanilla cream with brown spices.

Bottom Line:

This is the best deal on this list. This whiskey is great for its price point, works as a sipper over some ice, and makes a great cocktail. Wins all around.

7. Blanton’s — Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel

ABV: 65.15%

Average Price: $399

The Whiskey:

Blanton’s is “The Original Single Barrel” bourbon, and this expression is the purest form of that whiskey. The whiskey in this case is from the barrels that need no cutting with water and are perfect as-is, straight from the barrel. All the barrels will come from Warehouse H (where Elmer T. Lee stored his private stash of barrels back in the day) and arrive with varying proofs. The through-line is the excellent taste of that single, unadulterated barrel in each sip.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose is full of very bespoke dark chocolate-covered salted hard caramel toffees encrusted with almonds and pecans — the kind you get from a chocolate shop that imports their goodies from somewhere like Belgium.

Palate: The nutty toffee carries through into the taste as oily vanilla pods mingle with cedar boxes of dried tobacco leaves and a touch of floral honey.

Finish: The end is very long and lingers in your senses, with a hot buzzing that subtly fades through all that sweetness.

Bottom Line:

Look, if you’re going to spend the time (and money) tracking down some Blanton’s in the U.S., you may as well get a cask-strength version of the famed single-barrel whiskey. Just make sure to pour it over a single rock or with a drop of water to really let it shine in the glass.

6. Four Roses — Four Roses Single Barrel

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $50

The Whiskey:

Four Rose’s standard single-barrel expression is an interesting one. This is their “number one” recipe, meaning it’s the high-rye mash bill that’s fermented with a yeast that highlights “delicate fruit.” The whiskey is then bottled at 100 proof, meaning you’re getting a good sense of that single barrel in every bottle.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Woody maple syrup and cinnamon sticks lead to a hint of pear candy with a vanilla underbelly on the nose.

Palate: The palate lets the pear shine as the spices lean into woody barks and tart berries next to leathery dates and plums with a butteriness tying everything together.

Finish: A spicy tobacco chewiness leads the mid-palate toward a soft fruitiness and a hint of plum pudding at the end with a slight nuttiness and green herbal vibe.

Bottom Line:

Four Roses Single Barrel is a must-have. It’s so easygoing while still offering a seriously deep flavor profile. This expression is the preeminent slow sipper at a great price point.

5. Basil Hayden — Basil Hayden Red Wine Cask Finish

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $68

The Whiskey:

Freddie Noe — Beam’s eighth-generation Master Distiller — created this expression by blending classic Basil Hayden with bourbon partially aged in California red wine casks. The resulting batch is then proofed down and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: There’s a hint of orange zest on the nose with sour mulled wine spices — star anise, cardamom, cinnamon — next to Cherry Coke and vanilla cake with white frosting.

Palate: The palate is soft yet creamy with a nutty spiced cake vibe next to zucchini bread with a dollop of butter next to tart-dried berries dipped in brandy with a hint of dark cacao in the background.

Finish: The end is pretty short (low-proofed) and finishes with a sense of old oak staves soaked in sour red wine with a dash of burnt orange and dried winter spice rounding things out.

Bottom Line:

This was the best Basil Hayden release in a while and really delivers a great and fresh flavor profile for the brand. It works really well on the rocks but really shines in things like a Manhattan or New York Sour.

4. Jim Beam — Jim Beam Single Barrel

ABV: 54%

Buy Here: $39

The Whiskey:

Jim Beam’s single-barrel bottlings are pulled from single barrels that hit just the right spot of taste, texture, and drinkability, according to the master distillers at Beam. That means this whiskey is pulled from less than 1% of all barrels in Beam’s warehouses, making this an exceptional bottle at a bafflingly affordable price.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: You’re greeted with vanilla pound cake drizzled with salted caramel, mulled wine spices, and a cherry hand pie with powdered sugar icing that’s just touched with dark chocolate and maybe some broom bristles and corn husks.

Palate: The taste leans into floral honey cut with orange oils next to sticky toffee pudding and cherry tobacco packed into an old leather pouch.

Finish: There’s a hint of coconut cream pie next to woody winter spices on the finish with a touch more of that cherry tobacco married to salted dark chocolate all layered with dry sweetgrass and cedar bark.

Bottom Line:

This is a great whiskey from Jim Beam’s stable. It’s so accessible while still delivering a serious profile. It’s an easy, everyday sipper that makes a fine cocktail.

3. Woodford Reserve — Woodford Reserve Double Oaked Bourbon

ABV: 43.2%

Average Price: $60

The Whiskey:

This expression takes the standard bourbon above and gives it a finishing touch. The bourbon is blended and moved into new barrels that have been double-toasted but only lightly charred. The whiskey spends a final nine months resting in those barrels before proofing and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: There’s a welcoming aroma of marzipan, blackberry, toffee, and fresh honey next to a real sense of pitchy, dry firewood.

Palate: The taste drills down on those notes as the sweet marzipan becomes more choco-hazelnut, the berries become more dried and apple-y, the toffee becomes almost burnt, and the wood softens to a cedar bark.

Finish: A rich spicy and chewy tobacco arrives late as the vanilla gets super creamy and the fruit and honey combine on the slow fade.

Bottom Line:

Of the mainline from Woodford Reserve, this is the one you want to get. It’s versatile enough to be a day-to-day sipper while also deep enough to be the base for a tasty cocktail.

2. Bulleit — Bulleit Bourbon 10-Year

ABV: 45.6%

Average Price: $49

The Whiskey:

This is classic Bulleit Bourbon that’s aged up to ten years before it’s blended and bottled. These barrels are hand-selected to really amplify and highlight the classic flavors that make Bulleit so damn accessible in the first place.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: There’s a lot going on with butter and spicy stewed apples, maple syrup, Christmas cakes full of nuts and dried fruit, and a hint of savory herbs all pinging through your olfactory.

Palate: The palate brings about smooth and creamy vanilla with plenty of butter toffee, sourdough crust, more X-mas spice, cedar bark, and a hint of dried roses.

Finish: The finish is long, warming, and really embraces the toffee and spice.

Bottom Line:

Bulleit slipped from the number-one spot on Drizly’s sales list for the first time in years! Still, this 10-year-old expression from the brand remains the best buy. It’s a serious whiskey that has real nuance and depth that shines through over rocks, neat, or in a cocktail.

1. Maker’s Mark — Maker’s Mark Cask Strength

ABV: 56.25%

Average Price: $35

The Whisky:

This special release from Maker’s Mark is their classic wheated bourbon turned up a few notches. The batch is made from no more than 19 barrels of whiskey. Once batched, that whiskey goes into the barrel at cask strength with no filtering, just pure whiskey-from-the-barrel vibes.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Burnt caramel candies and lush vanilla lead the nose with hints of dry straw, sour cherry pie, and spiced apple cider with a touch of eggnog lushness.

Palate: The palate has a sense of spicy caramel with a vanilla base that leads to apricot jam, southern biscuits, and a flake of salt with a soft mocha creaminess.

Finish: The end is all about the buzzy tobacco spiciness with a soft vanilla underbelly and a hint of cherry syrup.

Bottom Line:

Maker’s Mark makes great whisky. That’s best exemplified by their Cask Strength expression. This is the brand at its best and deepest. It’s also a good pour if you’re looking for a nice, easy slow sipper. But I really dig this in Manhattans and Sazeracs — that’s where it truly dazzles.

Oscar the Grouch has met his grouchy match.

Brett Goldstein, who plays lovable grump Roy Kent on Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso, appeared on Thursday’s episode of Sesame Street. The actor and comedian played hide and seek with Elmo and Grover (you can watch the clip above) and lived the dream of every Muppets fan: he hung out in a trash can next to Oscar.

I’m framing this.

And these.

Back in December, Goldstein interviewed occasional Sesame Street guest Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy (who has never been on the show), and Gonzo about his love of The Muppet Christmas Carol and what the Muppets should do next.

“You guys did A Christmas Carol, you did Treasure Island, you did The Wizard of Oz. Is there another classic you would like to adapt, and can I please pitch that we make Muppets Pride and Prejudice?” Goldstein asked the crowd of not quite mops, not quite puppets. “Ooh, yes! Pride and Prejudice, I’d love to do that,” Miss Piggy responded. “Brett, you’ve got pull in this town. Can you get Pride and Prejudice and Piggy green-lit?” I will be a grouch until Disney makes Pride and Prejudice and Piggy.

Sesame Street is available to watch on HBO Max.

J. Cole may have made trap soul artist Morray scrap his album a few times claiming that he wasn’t ready for the spotlight it would bring, but his performance for UPROXX Sessions proves he’s not far off.

The Fayetteville, North Carolina native has built a strong musical foundation with a long list of impressive singles, including “Momma’s Love,” “Still Here,” with Cordae, “Never Fail” featuring Benny The Butcher, and “Trenches.” Fans have quickly fallen in love with Morray. The musician’s rustic, soulful vocals and heartfelt lyrics draw listeners in, and every time he touches a mic or hits the booth he bares another piece of his soul, leaving it all on the line.

In a music landscape flooded by artists bragging about their abilities to not feel anything, Morray is the antithesis of this trend bringing his unabashed vulnerability to UPROXX Sessions for a moving performance.

Watch Morray’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “Letter To Myself” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Billie Eilish is one of music’s biggest stars (duh), which has helped her also become one of social media’s favorite personalities: She was one of TikTok’s most popular musicians of 2022 and she has one of the world’s most-followed Instagram accounts. On the latter platform, her account is one of only a few dozen to top the 100-million-follower mark, and yesterday (January 11), Eilish offered those onlookers a set of bedroom selfies.

In the eight-image gallery, Eilish dons some black lingerie and strikes various poses captured from various angles. Eilish captioned the post, “you’re looking right at me.” As for reactions, a recurring theme in the comments is that people really think Eilish looks like a particular classic TV character.

One Instagram user, echoing the thoughts of many others in the post’s comments section, wrote, “i thought this was Jane from Breaking Bad for a solid minute,” referring to actress Krysten Ritter. The gallery has furthermore drawn comparisons to Madonna, Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, and Wednesday Addams from Wednesday/Addams Family. Avril Lavigne also chimed by leaving two fire emojis in the comments.

Whoever it is that Eilish most truly resembles here, she’s generating some attention, as the new post is currently at over 11.5 million likes. That makes it Eilish’s most-liked Instagram dispatch since a two-photo gallery she shared in August 2020.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley spent years being loyal to Donald Trump, and she’s since learned what that gets you: A knife in the back. While promoting the paperback edition of his new book, Donald Trump V. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President, NYT reporter Michael Schmidt stopped by Morning Joe where he revealed how Trump rejected Haley for several top administration positions, including as a potential replacement for Mike Pence, because of her looks. Turns out the man who looks kind of like if a bullfrog got a spray-tan has high standards for his underlings.

Via Raw Story:

“So Trump is throwing around different possibilities for replacement of Tillerson and [vice president Mike] Pence, even as far back as 2018, talking about whether he could replace Pence,” Schmidt said, “and in discussing that, he says, well, you know, what do you think about Nikki Haley, he throws out in the Oval Office, and what Trump says is that she doesn’t look good for me, and he complains about her ‘blotchy’ complexion and saying that, you know, because of her aesthetics, he didn’t like her as a potential, you know, senior administration official or as a potential vice presidential replacement for Pence, who Trump was complaining as far back as then owed him.”

Schmidt’s anecdote is an interesting revelation given recent reports that Trump is pursuing a female running mate for 2024. The former president is reportedly considering Tulsi Gabbard, Kristi Noem, and Kari Lake. Haley is noticeably missing from that list, but that tracks given her public break from Trump following the Jan. 6 attack and her own well-documented presidential ambitions.

(Via Raw Story)

Ellie Goulding recently dispelled a decade-old rumor that she cheated on Ed Sheeran with Niall Horan. Now, fans have a reason to revisit Goulding’s connection to another man from her past: Calvin Harris.

Harris posted a selfie with Goulding in the studio today, January 12, with the exciting caption, “Back in studio!! It’s time for the third installment of our banging song trilogy.” The post quickly garnered comments from Anitta, the Recording Academy, Firebeatz, and more.

Harris isn’t wrong. He and Goulding’s sample size is small, but their two collaborative singles were bangers. “I Need Your Love,” from Harris’ 2012 album 18 Months, peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted for 25 total weeks. Harris’ 2014 album Motion housed “Outside” featuring Goulding, which enjoyed at No. 29 peak on the Hot 100 and 20 total charting weeks across 2014 and 2015.

Harris’ Instagram activity balances out Goulding’s. She marked the new year by vulnerably opening up about feeling “crippled by anxiety,” and she shared earlier this week that Higher Than Heaven, her forthcoming album, has been delayed from February 3 to March 24.

“I know you’ve all been so patient with me but we’ve had some exciting opportunities appear behind the scenes which I cannot wait to share with you in due course. In the meantime as a thank you for your patience, I’m excited to confirm that my new single is called ‘Like A Saviour.’ It’s coming soon, we’ve shot the video and it’s one of my favorite videos I’ve ever done,” Goulding captioned a snippet of her “Like A Saviour” video.

Goulding added, “Thank you all so much for sticking by me. I can’t wait to finally share this record with you all on March 24 and I hope you love it as much as I do.”

Who’s hoping that the aforementioned exciting opportunity is adding a Harris collaboration to the tracklist?

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In a new interview with The Guardian, Pharrell answered questions from readers. He shared which De La Soul albums he thinks everybody should hear. He also discussed what fans really want to know: How he’s maintained his youthful glow over the years.

“I have been dealing with my dermatologist for 26 years,” the 49-year-old explained. “It’s a combination of things. One is understanding that I needed to be curious about how my skin works, what works for it, and then coming up with some sort of regimen and being committed to it. That’s what led us to stepping into skin health [Williams launched a vegan skincare range called Humanrace in 2020]. Once you understand that you have to be curious about how your skin behaves or conducts itself, that’s when you realize there’s a routine for you. Then be committed; that’s when you have success. The second part was just through experimentation — trying everything out, from over-the-counter to prescription.”

It probably helps that Pharrell frequently partakes in good deeds. Right before the end of last year, the artist’s label teamed up with MINI USA to release an exclusive merch collection featuring a variety of Icecream products. 100 percent of the proceeds went toward Polar Bears International, the non-profit polar bear conservation organization.

[Disclaimer: This article necessarily includes spoilers for ‘The Menu.’ Consider yourself warned; please do not bitch to me about them.]

The central premise of The Menu is that it takes place amid the ultimate foodie’s wet dream: an exclusive, one-service-per-night tasting menu presented by an acclaimed chef at restaurant on a private island. It’s also a movie that’s never stingy on detail, one of its strengths. In the opening scene, über-foodie Tyler, played by Nicholas Hoult, spars with his date, Margot, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, about the adventure they’re about to embark upon.

“12 customers a night? How do they turn a profit?” she asks.

“$1,250 a head, that’s how,” Tyler says.

“You’re kidding, right? What are we, eating a Rolex?”

Tyler, clearly, is the true believer and Margot the skeptic — a fairly traditional dramatic setup. Not only is The Menu heavy on detail, most of those details also ring true, or true enough, to anyone familiar with the world of food media, “haute cusine,” etc.

Part of which is a credit to their chief creative consultant, Dominique Crenn, the first female chef in the US to be awarded three Michelin stars and arguably at least as acclaimed as The Menu‘s fictional chef-teur, Jeremy Slowik, played by Ralph Fiennes. It was reportedly Crenn, who has been known to write the menus in her own restaurants in the form of poems, who conceived most of the dishes in the film, from the alginated “lemon caviar” to the breadless bread plate.

That the film so clearly aspires to that kind of accuracy (and as far as I could tell, largely succeeds) naturally got us wondering: could a restaurant really offer the kind of experience Hawthorn does for $1,250?

For her part, the Margot character clearly believes that’s a ridiculous price for a meal. But as the movie depicts it, the meal does include:

• A ferry ride to a private island.
• An exclusive, one-per-night tasting menu (with seven courses — one of which is a fiery death, but still…).
• Locally harvested seafood (scallops).
• Locally-milled grains (for bread that the diners don’t get to eat).
• Locally dry-aged meats (DAIRY COWS ONLY!)
• Full wine pairings (including a natural one, “with a little barnyard funk to it”).

“Is this a realistic price” was my editor’s prompt, and yet… the seemingly simple question of whether a restaurant could offer what Hawthorn did for the price described is actually a more complex tangle of sub-questions. Such as:

1. Could Hawthorn charge $1,250 a head and still turn a profit?
2. Could they do that ethically/sustainably?
3. Is $1,250 a person an exorbitant price or a bargain?

The first question is complicated further by some artistic choices. At some point, we find out that Chef Slowik has “an angel investor,” who “kept him open through COVID.” This raises the question of whether Hawthorn would even need to turn a profit, or if some rich guy was just keeping it open at some level of loss as an ego thing/tax write-off for his other businesses (talk of him tampering with the menu does seem to suggest that he tried to compromise its integrity to cut costs). Still, any qualms about the level of luxury on offer at that price could simply be hand-waved away with “well, the investor was losing money on it.”

It’s also, we find out, going to be Chef Slowik’s last service (spoiler alert?). Thus, turning a profit presumably wasn’t a huge concern. You probably don’t fill out your costs ledger for at least a few weeks before your giant murder-suicide. Alas, we press on.

PART I — Is $1,250 A Fair Market Price?

For the sake of argument, let’s assume Hawthorn was a profitable restaurant at some point or was designed to be. Now, is $1,250 a realistic price? It seems logical to compare Hawthorne to some of its obvious analogs:

• A tasting menu at Noma will reportedly set you back about $670, including wine pairings.
• For Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, you’re looking at £210 ($247.80), plus wine pairings at levels of £125 ($147.50), £250 ($295), and £500 ($590). That’s $837.50 for the most expensive version.
• The testing menu at The French Laundry is $390 for food, plus $500 for wine pairings — so $890. They also have a “black truffle and caviar dinner” next month for $1,200, which is pretty close to the $1,250 people are paying at Hawthorne.

None of those prices (which aren’t easy to find, by the way, presumably to keep out the riff-raff) includes an exclusive seating for 12, one service per night, a ferry ride to a private island, or the famous chef knowing your name and deepest personal foibles, as Jeremy Slowik does. On the question of whether $1,250 is a believable price for Hawthorn, the answer is clearly “yes.”

Slowik is presumably juuust a bit more famous than some of the world famous chefs we know, and Hawthorn’s offerings juuust a touch more fabulous, and thus it costs a hair more than the fanciest single service at The French Laundry. I’m fairly certain the writers conceived it that way.

PART II — Is That Fair Market Actually… Fair?

Whether $1250 a pop for 12 seats is a sustainable price is more complicated. The aforementioned Noma, in Copenhagen, a perennial on any list of the world’s best restaurants, recently announced that it would be closing its doors at the end of 2024 (almost too-perfectly timed to The Menu hitting HBO Max). Noma’s influence on The Menu is fairly obvious to people who have heard of Noma. For anyone else The Menu‘s production designer spelled it out to Variety, back in November:

“Hawthorn’s austere style is clearly influenced by restaurants like Noma, where Tobman once spent a memorable Christmas Eve, hanging out with the staff for 12 hours on the night before it closed for a lengthy break. ‘The staff was rather rowdy that night,’ he remembers. ‘I learned so much about their techniques and I thought if I could ever do a film that captured this environment, it would be the greatest gift.’”

The reason for the announcement — which was actually something of a flex in and of itself, given that most high-end restaurants saying they will be open for the next two years would be a statement of hubris rather than a retirement announcement — according to chef founder Rene Redzepi was that the fine dining model was “unsustainable.”

“Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn’t work,” Redzepi told the Times.

In an essay he wrote in 2015, he also noted, “In an ideal restaurant, employees could work four days a week, feel empowered and safe and creative. The problem is how to pay them enough to afford children, a car, and a house in the suburbs.”

In that sense, a famous restaurant is kind of like a sports dynasty. The more successful it gets, the more entitled the role players feel to be paid a salary commensurate to their successful work, which is tough to do while also paying the superstars exorbitant superstar salaries, commensurate with their being the premiere superstars.

That being said, the line cooks in The Menu don’t have cars, children, or houses in the suburbs. Just a barracks with unpartitioned beds (14 of them, by my count) and communal toilets — sort of a knowing parody of the phenomenon I just described in the above graf. Obviously, The Menu‘s version is a bit of heightened reality but it’s not terribly far off from the workplace described in this piece about Blaine Wetzel (whose restaurant was also on a private island).

Even acknowledging that it’s hard to ask “could that be a sustainable business model?” without asking the corollary “should that be a sustainable business model?” As The Noma example seems to suggest, public sentiment about the latter is beginning to affect the former. Famous chefs know they can’t expect their sous to sleep in barracks anymore. Perhaps that’s part of why this dinner is Chef Slowik’s last hurrah. Also, Noma, elBulli, and other restaurants operating at the caliber of Hawthorn rely on “stages” to work for free in exchange for being able to say “I cooked at Noma!” Though I will note — it’s tough to imagine a short-term free laborer still being committed enough to kill themselves in order to help the chef’s execute his vision.

Chef John Benhase from Savannah, Georgia, where The Menu was shot, helped run a chef boot camp for the actors playing Slowik’s chefs, taking time off from his work as a real chef. I put the question of whether Hawthorn could be a sustainable business to him directly and he immediately brought up the matter of stages.

“I think we’re seeing more and more that the model of stage labor [basically the chef version of an unpaid internship] and semi-free labor and stuff like that is no longer something that’s sustainable or realistic at all,” Benhase told me. “Whether it ever really was is a whole other question. So that would be my question to your question: who knows how many of those people were working there just because of the place, and whether they were even getting paid, or if the payment was just room and board and proximity to greatness.”

That an aspiring chef would take on upwards of six figures of debt in culinary school only to get their foot in the door of an industry that relies on chefs working for free and minimum-wage doesn’t make much sense, and wouldn’t seem to bode well for the long-term prospects of a system that relied on it. As Buddha Lo, the most recent Top Chef winner told me after his victory, “I’ve always found it a bit weird with the schooling system and the culinary schools in the US. For me to be a chef, I went to culinary school in Australia, where they realized that they have a skill shortage in cooks,” he explained.

“So they decided instead of people having to pay to go to school, everyone gets paid to go to school. So I got all these incentives to be a cook. I think that’s what’s affecting our cooking industry in the US is that nobody’s going to go to pay thousands of dollars for cooking college and then get paid $13 an hour at a good restaurant.”

Suffice it to say, the question of whether Hawthorn could function at the listed price seems to be yes, and the question of whether Hawthorn should function at the listed price could fill a thesis or a policy paper. That the model itself seems untenable is one of the themes of the movie. Asking a cook to kill himself for his head chef is just the low-wage/high-regard fine dining system taken to its logical if semi-absurd endpoint. That’s The Menu in a nutshell.

The inherent paradox of fine dining is that it takes what can be the most selfless act of service — feeding someone — and turns it into both high art and luxury commerce, both of which prize exclusivity. Which is to say, the opposite of selfless service. That’s not a critique of fine dining (which I, and most chefs I spoke to for this piece, enjoy), and in fact, The Menu seems to work best on people near enough to acknowledge that paradox.

PART III — Is $1,250 As Ridiculous As It First Sounds?

“Believe it or not, I didn’t charge you enough.”

This brings us to question number three: is $1,250 for that meal exorbitant or a bargain?

“Could I see myself paying that?” John Benhases says. “Absolutely, if I could afford it. But I think that I’m a poor representation of that. I’ve been spending all of my money on going out to eat and drink since I didn’t have any money.”

A lot of chefs were conditional in similar ways. Chef William Preisch of Abbey Road Farm in Oregon — himself a chef prone to making foams and “snow” and ice cream from the lees at the bottom of a wine barrel — initially said, “if that were Thomas Keller or David Kinch and [Hawthorn] was what they did instead of The French Laundry or Manresa, my answer would probably be ‘yes.’”

As our conversation evolved, he walked that back. “I mean truthfully, I won’t pay $1250 for anyone’s food. That price point that doesn’t compute for me.”

Food, at its basic level, is sustenance. Which shouldn’t be exclusive. But at its higher end, it’s art, it’s an experience, it’s an “event.” Would I, personally, rather find a different exceptional meal for less money than the one in Hawthorn? Sure. But would I rather spend $1,250 on the Hawthorn experience (assuming it didn’t result in my death) than, say, floor tickets to an NBA game or some such? I’d probably go Hawthorn.

At the risk of being crushingly obvious, whether $1,250 is a ridiculous price to pay for Hawthorn kind of depends on whether you’re a Tyler or more of a Margot. Which is to say, a rich foodie who would do a murder-suicide for the perfect meal, or a seen-it-all sex worker who just wants to give handjobs and crush cheeseburgers. Jk, but what I mean is, do you just want to eat or do you want to see art and have an experience? The beauty of The Menu as a movie, to me, is that does a pretty good job of juggling both. It’s a tasting menu that inspires reflection but doesn’t leave you feeling like you still need a cheeseburger afterwards.

I asked Chef Benhase if we’re spoiled in terms of how much we’ve become accustomed to paying for restaurant food.

“100%,” Benhase agreed. “I think people are wanting to get paid more and they should, given cost of living, given all the different parts of our society and economy right now. But then people are assuming that food is going to stay the same price. But if you don’t factor in labor and things like that into the price of the final product, then it’s not a sustainable business.”

—

Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can read more of his reviews here.

The Great Gas Stove Debate rages forth because 2023 is already a political cluster. It’s strange. Even Meghan McCain thinks this is a dumb argument, although she also waded into it herself. And there’s not too much sense to be made of this controversy, other than my made-up theory: House Republicans spent most of last week holding over a dozen House Speaker votes amid intense GOP infighting, and they might be craving more drama? Matt Gaetz loved it and wants more Hot C-Span coverage in the future, and he also happens to be one of the more prominent players in the gas stove matter.

To briefly boil this down to something succinct, some Republicans have grown convinced that President Biden wants to ban gas stoves, which conjures up all sorts of mental imagery of the feds bursting into people’s homes and dismantling their kitchens. The Daily Beast relayed Fox News coverage that has perked up ears to the alleged situation, but CNN pointed towards the Consumer Product Safety Commission chair setting the record straight on there being no ban, either in the works or planned.

Still, that hasn’t prevented “come and take it”-style reactions from House Republicans, including Florida’s Gaetz, who went so far as to post a Twitter video with the #FoodieRevolt tag and a battle cry: “You’ll have to pry it from my COLD DEAD HANDS!”

A video. Of a stove. From a sitting member of Congress.

This follows a previous declaration from Texas’ Ronny Jackson, who tweeted, “I’ll NEVER give up my gas stove. If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!”

The point here isn’t that gas stoves make for tastier food, although Bon Appetit has also weighed in on those initial reports of a ban. Rather, it’s worth noticing that the stove issue is starting to resemble the Second Amendment furor that periodically arises. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tried to engage with Jackson, although she probably should have left it alone.

The Gas Stove Controversy will probably continue, but in all likelihood, there will be a fresh Congressional outrage next week. Stay tuned!

Awards shows can provide plenty of drama, as Will Smith certainly proved at last year’s Oscars ceremony. But it’s not always the boldfaced names collecting the golden statuettes who are the center of the action, as pianist Chloe Flower discovered earlier this week during the Golden Globes broadcast.

As The Daily Beast explained, Flower was hired to draw the audience back into the show with a little live piano playing whenever the broadcast returned from a commercial break. A piano also played whenever a winner’s speech began to go over the allotted time, but in those cases it was a pre-recorded track, and not coming from Flower. Which nobody realized.

As a result, the pianist became the source of much ire throughout the night whenever a celebrity’s Golden moment was interrupted by the sounds of a piano playing.

When it was Austin Butler’s turn to get played off — just before he dedicated his award to his late mother — he suggested that “you could at least play ‘Suspicious Minds.’”

Colin Farrell simply said “you can forget that piano!,” as he was only just getting started.

But it was the indomitable Michelle Yeoh, who was named Best Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once, who really took it to the next level. “Shut up, please,” she said when the music began to play her off. “I can beat you up, ok? And that’s serious.”

Flower took to Twitter — where she was a trending topic — to explain that it was not her you were hearing. And host Jerrod Carmichael also explained that it was a pre-recorded track.

Flower reiterated that point in her interview with The Daily Beast, where she explained that her job was simply to perform live when coming back from commercial breaks — and that was what she did. “I would never play during someone’s speech,” she said. “I’m not a producer, I’m an artist. So I’m not concerned with time. I just would never do that. That’s not something that I would feel comfortable doing, and it was never something that was asked of me. So that is setting the record straight, I hope.”

As for having Yeoh threaten to kick her a**? That was cleared up, too. As Flower explained:

It’s funny because the winners’ portraits were happening right next to the piano, so a lot of the winners had to walk past me in order to take the portrait. And I stopped Michelle on her way to the portrait and I told her, “I would never play during your speech. I was not playing.” And we held hands, and she was really nice and gracious, and it was totally fine. And Austin, I did the same. I spoke to Austin. I didn’t speak to Colin. I didn’t speak to Eddie [Murphy]…

I think in the moment when you’re on stage… I don’t take it personally because they’re trying to say thank you, and I don’t feel like it was directed at me, you know? And it’s the first time in the history of the Globes that you have a live musician, so it just automatically gets directed to me because I’m the one there. There’s no face to the sound people [backstage]. So I became the face of that, unfortunately. But I didn’t take it personally.

Flower also admitted that when Yeoh won, “I was clapping harder than anybody. I was like, screaming from the piano, kind of unprofessional… I was just so happy for her. I still love her, I’m still a super fan of Michelle Yeoh. I respect her so much as an artist, as a person. I think she’s an amazing actress.”

(Via The Daily Beast)