Since ancient times, people from older generations have lamented what they perceive to be a diminishment of character qualities in the younger generation. In fact, it’s such a common phenomenon that scientists have studied and named it—the “kids these days” effect. And they have found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the elders who think youngsters are oh-so-different from how they were when they were young are generally mistaken.
But this perpetual hand-wringing over perceived generational changes is not limited to kids versus adults. It manifests in all kinds of ways, including regularly scheduled moral panic over gender roles and norms (largely based on gender stereotypes).
Gender is not a simple subject, no matter how simplistic certain people try to make it. What we view as masculine or feminine comes from a complex mixture of culture, history, psychology, biology, sociology and every other lens through which we analyze the world. Additionally, those views of what is masculine and what is feminine can come with judgments and biases, resulting in all kinds of emotions and gut responses when our gender expectations and assumptions are challenged.
Paul Fairie, a senior research associate and professor at the University of Calgary, shared “A Brief History of Men Today Are Too Feminine and Women Too Masculine” on Twitter. The thread contained nothing but clippings showing people’s fears about gender shifts and the year the clippings came from.
He began with 2020 and 2018, sharing what appear to be quotes from Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro and Alex Jones, three right-wing influencers who have lamented what they claim is the loss of “manly men” and masculinity.
It’s not a new freakout, however. Fairie shared clippings from 2004, 1997, 1984, 1977, 1965, 1950, 1940 and so on—all the way back to 1886—showing people expressing concern about men becoming more feminine and women becoming more masculine.
“Women’s-lib stuff” being blamed for the “wimping” of America isn’t surprising to see, but living in high-rise apartments causing men to be effeminate is a new one.
Ah yes, the century-old women in sports controversy. “IN NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD DO YOU SEE SUCH MASCULINE-LIKE FIGURES AS THE AMERICAN WOMEN HAVE.” OK, calm down, John Alexander from 1910. If you’d lived another 110 years, you’d see how much time and energy you wasted worrying about this.
This one from 1886 is fabulous, just for the language. “Women are growing more dashing.” (Can we go back to using the word “dashing” more often? Great word.)
So much of this sounds so familiar, doesn’t it? Fretting over changes in fashion, wigging out over women advancing in athletics and wailing over what will become of men and women if people exhibit varying degrees of traditionally masculine or feminine traits.
Some of this is to be expected, as we’ve witnessed humanity moving closer and closer to recognizing gender equality. While equality doesn’t mean sameness, much of what we view as masculine or feminine is wrapped up in patriarchal views of gender roles, and the dismantling of patriarchal systems and expectations will naturally disrupt those views. Judgments over masculinity and femininity are also wrapped up in homophobia and transphobia, so greater inclusion and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people are throwing those judgments into disarray as well.
None of that is a bad thing. We don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater and ditch the concepts of masculinity and femininity altogether, but we do need to acknowledge that many of the things people fret over when it comes to gender are just silly.
Sometimes a movement brings you to tears; tears that are mixed with pride, solidarity and sorrow, and that’s exactly what this movement is doing across social media. A 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, was arrested recently by the morality police in Iran for not fully covering her hair with her hijab. While in police custody, where she was supposed to be reprimanded and educated about the proper way to wear a hijab, Amini was severely beaten before falling into a coma and passing away. The untimely death of Amini ignited a movement that is taking over Iran.
After the 22-year-old’s funeral, protests broke out in the streets where women pulled off their hijabs and burned them. Since the news of her death spread, Iranian women have been removing their hijabs and cutting their hair in a moving display of protest and solidarity. Many of the women who have uploaded videos of themselves cutting off their hair to TikTok have been in tears. Women revealing their hair in public and online is extremely risky. In 1983, the religious revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini began enforcing a modesty law that required women to cover their hair or face 74 lashes.
Since 1995, women caught without their hair covered in public can also face up to 60 days in jail as well as fines. Seeing women in Iran defiantly cut, burn or rip their hijab in public is truly awe-inspiring because the risks are so great. But the women are not alone in their fight to abolish the morality police and hold them accountable for the death of Amini. Men in Iran are not only showing solidarity by shaving their heads, they’re showing up in the streets, seemingly acting as protectors and accomplices.
In one video, a girl with beautiful long dark hair sections her hair off before taking small scissors and cutting it close to her scalp. She begins to break down with the first cut, but she finishes before crying into her hands. Music plays in the background and words are displayed over the video explaining why the unknown woman is cutting her hair.
This isn’t the first time Iranian’s have protested the hijab. When the idea of a national modesty dress code was introduced in 1979, people protested, which temporarily caused the country’s leader to walk back on publicly pushing it before it became law a few years later. According to U.S. News, there has been a steady push back against the hijab rule since 2014 after the creation of an online campaign called My Stealthy Freedom. The campaign collected pictures of Iranian women without their hair covered.
They Killed her,But Mashsa Amini is alive in our mind🖤 #mahsaamini #viral #protest #hijab #freedom #مهسا_امینی #گشت_ارشاد #مهساامینی #ایران @selenagomez @taylorswift @dailymail @amandacerny @samsmith @brodywellmaker
The protests going on today are large in number and happening despite the country shutting down internet and social media channels in an effort to control the narrative and reduce coverage of the protests. But videos continue to pop up online showing things burning and people filling the streets chanting. One video that has more than 900,000 views and more than 200,000 likes shows a crowd gathered while women burn their hijabs.
Videos are appearing on TikTok claiming to show the continued unrest in the streets. The hashtag #MahsaAmini on TikTok is filled with videos of people cutting their hair, crowds gathered in the streets and stories of the 22-year-old whose death may have spurred a revolution.
Events are still unfolding in Iran and with internet access being cut, the information about continued protests may become more difficult to come by. But the videos that are making their way to social media are as inspiring as they are heartbreaking. Hopefully protests on this scale will bring about real change for the women in Iran.
We’ve all done it. If there is one common human experience, it’s getting the lyrics wrong in a song. I refuse to believe that this isn’t a universal thing that transpires in all countries, cultures and languages, and if you tell me otherwise I’ll have no other choice than to believe you’re lying. But there’s something innocently hilarious about people learning that they’ve been singing the wrong words to popular songs. Someone in a Reddit community decided to ask the question that clearly a lot of people have been waiting to be asked: “What’s a song lyric that you completely misheard for a while?”
The results were gold, obviously, because lots of lyrics are misheard and sung incorrectly until it’s emblazoned into the part of your brain that’s responsible for holding song lyrics. I remember hanging out with a friend and we were blasting “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis but when the part came when they sing “so we put our hands up like the ceiling can’t hold us,” my friend belted “so we put our hands up like the silly can holders.” When I told her those weren’t the words she insisted I was mishearing them, so I asked, “what the heck is a silly can holder?!”
Turns out my friend had no idea what a silly can holder was and we had a good laugh. The person on Reddit that asked people to share their misheard lyrics was likely just as entertained. Like when one user’s misheard lyrics gave Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved” a very dark turn, because they heard and sang “ask her if she wants to stay alive” instead of “ask her if she wants to stay a while.” Ma’am-sir, we’re going to need to see what’s in your trunk.
One person thought Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” said “Starbucks lovers” instead of “long list of ex-lovers” and honestly, it’s pumpkin spice season, so Starbucks lovers kind of works. A couple of cozy sweaters, laptops and white cups with a weird mermaid that seems to be holding two tails in her hands could make a great rom-com opening.
Some unfortunate person thought Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much” lyrics were “I can’t believe you kiss your cock goodnight.” Now that’s either NSFW or someone has a really close relationship with their rooster. Either way, those lyrics are unequivocally wrong because the actual words are, “I can’t believe you kiss your car goodnight.” Car! Sweet mother of pearl, I hope they weren’t singing that in public.
Who remembers Dido? “White Flag” was definitely a bop in the early 2000s but this person thought the singer said “I will poke my eyes out and surrender.” Let’s hope they do in fact still have their eyes because the actual lyrics are, “And I won’t put my hands up and surrender,” which obviously makes much sense—bonus points for getting to keep your eyeballs.
Some of these misheard lyrics are just hilarious and also confusing because I can’t quite figure out how this person heard “I got shoes, they’re made of plywood.” The words are, and as far as I know have always been “I’ve got chills, they’re multiplying” in the Grease song “You’re the One That I Want.”
But this last one has me wondering who is Jason and why does he get his own waterfall? This user thought TLC sang “don’t go Jason waterfalls” in their hit song “Waterfalls.” I mean, we probably shouldn’t be chasing waterfalls like the lyrics actually say, but Jason waterfalls might be a pretty cool dude. We’ll never know though.
If you’ve never known the hilarity and embarrassment of mishearing lyrics, consider yourself lucky. But I’m highly suspicious that you’re making that up. No one’s that perfect, people aren’t tacos. Now go forth and belt out “pour some shook-up ramen” while the rest of the crowd demands they be doused with sugar.
It’s not every day that an act of kindness looks like a parade of witches, zombies and monsters. But for the Hurdakis family, it’s one they’ll likely never forget.
According to CBC, 5-year-old Alexandros Hurdakis had undergone surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation to fight ependymoma (a brain tumor that forms in the brain or spinal cord) for most of his young life. On top of these intense and expensive therapies, Alex uses a tracheostomy tube to breathe and eats with a gastrostomy tube. Despite his challenges, nothing stops him from “lighting up a room.”
Though the treatments did help, eventually his tumor grew back, and his parents, Nick and Kira, finally received the message they had been dreading—the cancer was now terminal. The family’s GoFundMe page shared on Sept. 8 that doctors expected them to lose Alex “within a week.”
Alex’s heartfelt wish was to celebrate Halloween by seeing the monsters at the haunted house in Niagara Falls. Though doctors said Alex would have to stay close to home, the entire community stepped up to bring Halloween to him..
A lot of the credit goes to Paula Tzouanakis Anderson, a family friend who blasted the community group page on Facebook looking for some basic decorations to build a modest haunted house.
Tzouanakis Anderson received an overwhelming amount of response from people wanting to help. So much so that she asked city officials to block off the street in preparation for a bona fide block party.
Alex wished for monsters and he got them. People paraded through the street dressed as dinosaurs, witches, zombies, Freddy Krueger, Darth Vader and more. Even English bulldog Rubble from “PAW Patrol” (one of Alex’s faves) showed up. There were decked-out cars and motorcycles, plus festive face painters and cotton candy vendors. It was an all-out banger, and it became possible in a little over two days.
The expected guest count was initially 200. They had somewhere around 1000.
“I started crying,” Tzouanakis Anderson told CBC on Sept. 15, the day after the party. “So many individuals came together to make this night great.”
“We never expected so many people to help out,” Nick added. “It was something else. There are no words.”
As for Alex, he enjoyed giving everyone high-fives well into the night, despite being tired. “[Alex] was waving to every single person in the crowd. He knew it was for him …. You could see the love in his eyes,” Tzouanakis Anderson said.
Support from the neighborhood continued to roll in long after the party had ended, as they were able to gather donations to help the Hurdakis family cover medical expenses during such a difficult time. Halloween is a time for fun and magic, and these strangers showed up in a big way to ensure Alex wouldn’t miss out. His time might be limited, but he got to experience the pure joy of the holiday, thanks to a loving community. This is humanity at its best. If you’d like to donate to the Hurdakis family, you can find their GoFundMe page here.
Inglewood singer and rapper SiR is gearing up for the release of his hotly anticipated third major-label album, Heavy. Ahead of the album, he has shared a new song, “Nothing Even Matters,” an ode to a special woman in his life.
The song samples “Nothing Even Matters” by Lauryn Hill and D’Angelo and interpolates “Mad Issues” by Angie Stone, while maintaining original, fresh production.
“I can’t get enough / Hard to believe I even found your love / Diamond in the rough / Light up the dark like the fire I’m sparkin’ up / Baby, when we touch / Nothin’ even matters, no one loves me better / I want this forever,” he sings on the song’s chorus.
The song’s accompanying video contains all the elements of iconic R&B music videos of the late ’90s and early 2000s, including elaborate choreography, dancing in empty warehouses, and performing in the desert.
SiR detailed his upcoming album in an interview with Okayplayer. He noted that he took an even more raw and personal approach to his songwriting this time around.
“I always come from a very transparent, vulnerable place,” he said. “I definitely was just trying to be as honest as possible. I was writing songs that I needed to write. It was my therapy, almost, because I had nothing else to do. All I had was music and my home life.”
Check out the video for “Nothing Even Matters” above.
Sources close to Taylor Swift have reportedly confirmed that the pop star will not perform at the Super Bowl Halftime show in 2023, according to TMZ. Evidently, Swift was offered the slot for the show, however, she reportedly turned it down.
Sources who apparently have “direct knowledge” of the Super Bowl halftime show have reportedly revealed to TMZ that Swift is not interested in performing in the halftime show until she finishes rerecording her first six albums.
Last year, she released re-recorded versions of her sophomore album, Fearless, and her fourth album, Red, the latter of which contains the 10-minute version of fan favorite, “All Too Well.” Swift also released re-recordings of “This Love” and “Wildest Dreams” from her fifth album, 1989.
Though she has not announced which albums from her back catalog will receive a re-release next, she is gearing up for the release of her 10th studio album, Midnights. We have yet to hear a single from the album, however, we know Jack Antonoff has co-produced the album along with Swift, and some of the song’s titles include “Mastermind” and “Vigilante Sh*t.“
Since summer has literally just ended, you might not feel ready to dive right into darker, maltier, bolder fall beers. We get it and we’re definitely on board for our fair share of lagers and pilsners in these early fall days, but we also plan to turn to bold, rich stouts on the chillier nights to come.
Don’t get it twisted. We’re not talking about the barrel-aged behemoth stouts that spent time in bourbon (and other whiskeys) casks. We’re going to save those for the later autumn nights and early winter days. As for right now, we’re opting for fall gateway stouts — the sort perfectly crafted to ease your way into the season.
To find the best stouts for early fall, we turned to craft brewers for advice. Keep scrolling to see all of their picks and head to your favorite online retailer or local beer store and pick up some of these gems.
Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout
Bell’s
Broc Eichhorst, brewer at Sun King Brewery in Indianapolis, Indiana
Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout is a great mid-strength American stout to ease your way into colder weather. At 6% ABV, it drinks like a bigger beer with deep licorice and bitter chocolate flavors, a bit of roast, and a firm hop punch. The dry finish and medium body make you want another.
Goldwater Brewing Co. Oats M’gotes is a great fall stout. Aside from having one of the best names in the game, it’s like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in a glass. A shade sweeter than your classic oatmeal stout, it’s nevertheless light enough to maintain drinkability even when the Arizona summer stubbornly refuses to end. But it would hit the spot anywhere in the US during the fall months.
Maine Mean Old Tom
Maine Beer
Matthew Steinberg, head brewer and co-founder of Exhibit ‘A’ Brewing in Framingham, Massachusetts
Maine Beer Co. Mean Old Tom is one of those stouts I have to get every year. Last fall and winter, it was one we all enjoyed thoroughly in the brewery. It’s fairly subtle on the vanilla and coffee which makes this one a winner for my palate. The roasted malts drive this very drinkable stout and make it one of the finest around for fall drinking.
Other Half Short, Dark & Handsome Mexican Hot Chocolate
Other Half
Morgan O’Sullivan, co-owner of FlyteCo Tower in Denver
ABV: 7.2%
Average Price: Limited Availability
Why This Beer?
Short, Dark & Handsome Mexican Hot Chocolate from Other Half Brewing Company. If the name doesn’t convince you, how about cacao nibs, vanilla, cinnamon, and a hint of chilies? Add marshmallow and milk sugar and you have the makings of a winner. Sweet, warming, and slightly spicy like a classic Mexican hot chocolate.
I have always liked North Coast’s Old Rasputin. The North Coast brewery makes Old Rasputin in the tradition of the ‘imperial stouts of the 18th Century. English brewers supplied the court of Russia’s Catherine the Great with a sturdy oversized stout that would warm them throughout the cold Siberian winters. The beer has a rich and intense impact on the taste buds. Dark Roast coffee and chocolate dominate the flavor with medium levels of ripe dark fruits that complement, there are notes of cherry and plumb mingled with the roastiness.
There is a solid Hops bitterness throughout, that coupled with the heat from the higher level of alcohol balances the malt sweetness. Old Rasputin Finishes relatively dry and slightly bitter, inviting you to another sip.
Prison City Wham Whams
Prison City
Chris Spinelli, co-founder and brewer at Roc Brewing Co in Rochester, New York
ABV: 9.5%
Average Price: Limited Availability
Why This Beer?
Wham Whams from Prison City. This beer is just an amazing stout. It is rich, big bodied with toasted coconut and vanilla. That imperial 9.5% ABV will warm you right up on a cool fall day. Prison City received national attention for its Mass Riot IPA, but this stout proves they know their way around a warming, robust stout as well.
Coppertail Miriam’s Irish Coffee Stout
Coppertail
Adam Cranford, lead brewer at Left Hand Brewing in Longmont, Colorado
ABV: 5%
Average Price: Limited Availability
Why This Beer?
Miriam’s Irish Coffee Stout from Coppertail Brewing Co in Tampa, Florida. I love how the coffee comes across in this stout. It’s a solid stout base, but instead of having the standard ‘coffee’ flavor, you get more nuance from the coffee. Roast-forward but without the harsh acidity and a bit more milk chocolate creaminess than your standard coffee stout.
While we tend to shy away from Pumpkin-based beers in general, this 8.6% imperial stout is malty, sweet, and loaded with flavors like dark chocolate, freshly brewed coffee, and sweet, slightly spicy pumpkin flavor. It’s bold, rich, and pleasantly warming on a cool fall evening.
This creamy, rich, nitro milk stout is a great fall beer for a variety of reasons. Brewed with myriad malts and Tettnager hops, nitro gas and milk sugar give this beer a sweet, robust flavor profile of coffee, chocolate, and sweet malts.
Last night, Lil Baby received the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award at Black Music Action Coalition’s second annual Music in Action Awards Gala. At the ceremony, which was held at Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Baby was honored for his work in the realm of social justice.
For the past three years, Baby has hosted Back To School Fest, in which he has provided children in Atlanta with backpacks and school supplies ahead of their first days of school. He has also launched a $150,000 “My Turn” scholarship program at Tri Cities High School, his alma mater.
Earlier this year, he collaborated with Atlanta restaurateur Lemont Bradley to help provide 100 local people with jobs.
“I honestly didn’t know what a humanitarian was, but as I looked into it and started reading, I understand that I’m actually humanitarian,” said Baby during his acceptance speech. “I just want to say that I appreciate everybody in here because nothing that we doing or trying to do can be done by one person. It’s gonna take all of us to stick together and stay together.”
In equally exciting news, Lil Baby also dropped “The World Is Yours To Take,” the Tears For Fears-sampling official anthem of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
(For You)r Consideration is a weekly column breaking down the rappers and singers doing it RIGHT on TikTok and the viral TikTok music trends and top songs taking over your FYP.
What’s A Mob To A King?
Frank Ocean is no stranger to virality. In 2013, the singer dropped an “Open Letter” on Tumblr, where he spoke poetically about his first love and became a bisexual icon. Jumping just about ten years forward, it’s a no-brainer that Frank’s pen is still relevant. The chorus on 2011’s “No Church in the Wild,” is the sound supporting TikTok’s latest trend using the Photo feature. Users are spotlighting the Great Chain of Being, a hierarchical structure of all matter and life, and power structures alluded to in the song, seemingly present in popular TV shows and movies. TikTokers have taken to the app to break down cult classics like Arrested Development, highlighting Michael Cera’s character as a “God” and the quirky Tobias Fünke as a “non-believer.” Other media in the mix? The dystopian film The Hunger Games and the campy reality TV show, Dance Moms.
“Freestyle 2” by Atlanta native and Playboi Carti protegee Ken Carson is here to stay on the FYP. The track, released in July, is seeing a new wave of popularity as creators pair a simple, 3-step dance to the opening verse. Over seventy thousand videos have been made to the record and fellow punk-rap artist Rico Nasty hopped on the app to join the dance craze. Peep her video and learn the choreography below.
It girl and St. Louis-born, Savannah-bred rapper Dess Dior’s long-waited mixtape has arrived. Ahead of the project’s release, she’s used TikTok to tease “Naan Hoe,” from her 8-track project Raw, and users are starting to catch on. Dess herself used the Trina-inspired track under a day-in-the-life TikTok for NYFW, sending a bat signal to the fashion girlies and influencers of the app. With Dess’ social media popularity and the song’s catchiness, it’s sure to gain traction on the FYP. Check out Dess Dior’s TikToks below.
Five months after its initial release, Omar Apollo’s “Evergreen” is taking the FYP by storm. The track and his album Ivory are rumored to represent his relationship with fellow singer Frank Ocean. Apollo sings, “You know you really made me hate myself / Had to stop before I break myself / Shoulda broke it off to date myself,” hinting at a not-so-perfect relationship with the elusive Blond singer. Not only are TikTok users having a ball with this information, but the chorus is also trending as background to thousands of videos where creators are showcasing their self-love journey. The song emphasizes the app’s softer, uplifting content, from open letters to the beauty standards users have overcome and video montages of fitness journeys. Watch below if you want to see fan reactions to the Omar/Frank tea or some tear-jerking content.
Miguel’s presence in R&B has been quite subtle since his 2017 project War & Leisure. Still, his classic “All I Want Is You,” has remained a fan favorite on vibey playlists and now on TikTok. Creators are doing what many of us do when cuffing season is right around the corner…thinking of their exes. Users are taking the opportunity to compare their current relationship to their former partner using the song’s bridge: “Cause they don’t smile, huh, or smell like you. ” See some of the hilarious videos below.
Look, Kentucky still makes about 90 to 95 percent of the world’s bourbon whiskey, depending on who you ask. But the speed at which the bourbon market is growing — state-by-state — is shocking. And while Indiana and Tennessee are well-known bourbon producers right alongside Kentucky, Washington, New York, Texas, Michigan, Maryland, South Carolina, New York, Utah, Ohio, California, and so many more regions are popping off right now and building long-lasting bourbon whiskey heritage in real-time.
That means that a lot of us can look locally to find perfectly good and occasionally amazing bourbon whiskey right next door. Are there some clunkers out there, too? Obviously — that’s why you have us!
To that end, I pulled ten bottles of bourbon whiskey that are not made in Kentucky, had my wife line them up, and then blind-tasted them to find a winner. This wasn’t about recognizing regional variation or local vibes. This was all about the taste. Spoiler alert: All of these whiskeys tasted good. So, I’ve ranked them purely on which pours had the most depth and enjoyable flavor profiles.
Our lineup today is:
Redwood Empire Whiskey Grizzly Beast Bottled in Bond Batch #002 (CA)
Cedar Ridge Bottled-In-Bond Iowa Bourbon Whiskey (IA)
Heaven’s Door Aged 10 Years (TN)
Remus Repeal Reserve VI (IN)
William Alan Small Batch (SC)
High West Bourbon (IN & UT)
Middle West Straight Wheated Whiskey Michelone Reserve (OH)
Jefferson’s Ocean Aged At Sea Voyage 25 (IN)
Chattanooga Whiskey Bottled In Bond Spring 2018 (TN)
Woodinville Moscatel Finished (WA)
Let’s dive in and find you a great non-Kentucky bourbon whiskey to add to your bar cart (click those price links to see if you can get them in your neck of the woods).
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
Cherry pie with plenty of winter spice leads off on the nose with buttery brown sugar, tart red berries, and walnut shells. The palate opens with burnt orange, salted caramel, and more of those tart berries swimming in rich vanilla cream before a hint of spicy warmth arrives. The end leans into brown sugar and winter spice-laced butter with walnut tobacco leaves wrapped in vanilla husks and cedar bark.
This was a lovely place to start. It’s a complex sip with a nice balance of bourbon-y flavor notes.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s a bit of grain on the nose with hints of leather, oatmeal cookie dough, raisin, and light brown spices with a hint of butter and wet brown sugar. The palate has a nice body with smooth Cream of Wheat next to vanilla cookies just kissed with cinnamon. The end arrives quickly with a dash of mint chocolate chip next to yellow cornbread with plenty of butter and brown sugar.
This was nice. It’s crafty but well-made.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s a tannic old oakiness on the nose (this is older) with hints of pecan waffles covered in maple syrup with vanilla butter. The taste is pure silk with salted caramel, vanilla cream, black licorice, marzipan, and a hint of cinnamon-pecan ice cream with a dusting of powdery chocolate. The end has a moment of warmth thanks to that cinnamon before lunging toward old porch wicker, cinnamon bark, star anise, pear tobacco, and old leather with a hint of potting soil.
This is certainly the oldest and most complex so far. It’s deep but didn’t grab me by the collar and hold my attention.
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with a light sense of fresh mint next to fairground caramel apples, boot leather, spiced plum jam, and a touch of sweet cedar bark. The palate leans into salted caramel with eggnog spices and creaminess next to creamed honey and vanilla sheet cake. The end arrives with a rush of woody spice next to candied fruits, cedar bark, and menthol tobacco leaves.
This feels lighter by comparison to the last pour, but only barely on the nose and finish. It’s so good otherwise, that. I can 100 percent forgive any “lightness by comparison.”
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose on this is very crafty in the best way with a bowl full of white grits cut with butter and brown sugar with a hint of burnt orange, dried rose, and fresh mint rounding things out. The palate leans into woody wintery spices before circling back around to those sweet grits, Cherry Coke, ginger juice, and a hint of savory fruit — think pumpkin flesh just touched with cinnamon. The end leans into that fresh savory fruit before hitting on a moment of black peppercorns and cinnamon bark with a lush burnt orange finish.
This is very much in the new style of bourbons that lean into the mashing (extracting sugars from grains with hot water) more so than the fermentation (turning sugar water into beer), distilling (turning beer into spirit), or aging (turning spirit into whiskey). The grains are the star of the show and it’s done really well here.
Taste 6
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose on this one is pretty thin comparatively with buttered corn, fruity yeast notes, and a nice sense of woody spice. The palate is soft and leans into lush nougat with a vanilla wafer vibe next to creamy honey, nutmeg and clove, and a mild sense of fresh firewood bark. The end has a smooth vanilla base with a hint of salted apple chips and dry straw stacked with very light tobacco.
This was very light. There was plenty there but it just didn’t enthrall or last long.
Taste 7
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
A hint of sourdough doughnuts dusted with cinnamon and sugar leads to maple syrup, coconut cream pie, marzipan, and a hint of toffee. The palate dries out toward an almond nutshell before hitting a rum-raisin/Cherry Coke vibe next to woody winter spices on the mid-palate. That spicy warmth fades toward cedar bark, Almond Joy, and spiced cherry tobacco on the finish with a hint more of that warm doughnut from the nose.
This was pretty nice overall. The warmth on the mid-palate was big but not over-powering. Still, I wanted a rock in the glass before I went back in for more.
Taste 8
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
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. The palate leans into woody cinnamon bark next to ripe orchard fruits wrapped in old tobacco and stacked with old porch wicker. 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.
This really needs to be higher proof. There’s a lot going on but it isn’t quite landing for me today.
Taste 9
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with rich toffee leading to dark chocolate, tart red berries, malted vanilla milkshake, orange oils, old leather, and a hint of cornbread dripping with maple butter cut with cinnamon. The palate sweetens the tart berries slightly toward cherry root beer with buttery Southern biscuits dipped in honey leading to a vanilla wafer vibe. The end leans into spicy barks and cherry tobacco with a hint of hickory and huckleberry on the dry and robust finish.
This is just good. This also might be the first pour that I was excited to get back into.
Taste 10
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose presents as sweet with hints of sweet prunes and dates but runs deep and dark with smoked apricot, five spice, dark chocolate creaminess, and black tea cut with burnt orange. The palate mixes Almond Roca (toffee covered in roasted almonds) with peach pits, vanilla pound cake, poppy seeds, black molasses, rum-raisin, black-tea-soaked dates, and rich Christmas cake spices with candied zests. The end leans into those dark spices and adds a woody edge that leads to dry porch wicker, choco-date tobacco, and cedar bark dipped in toffee.
High West Bourbon is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after sourced/own-make whiskey blends. The whiskey in the bottle is a blend of two to 13-year-old barrels rendered from high-rye and low-rye mashes alongside undisclosed whiskeys, some of which are sourced from MGP. Those sourced barrels are mixed with two-year-old barrels from High West before proofing and bottling.
Bottom Line:
This being a blend makes sense. It was the lightest sip by far. That said, this was fine. It’s great for cocktails (think of it as a building block).
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.
Bottom Line:
This was, again, very nice. It was just a little too proofed down for my palate. That did make it very approachable, but I’d really use this to make a killer cocktail with a nautical theme before I’d grab for it as a sipper.
8. Cedar Ridge Bottled-In-Bond Iowa Bourbon Whiskey — Taste 2
This very local whiskey is made with 74 percent corn, 14 percent malted rye, and 12 percent two-row malted barley. After mashing and distilling, the juice is aged for at least four years in Iowa. Once just right, the whiskey is touched with a little water to bring it down to proof and bottled without any fussing. For this 2021 release, only 400 cases were released, but it was the first Cedar Ridge Bottled-in-Bond to make it out of Iowa.
Bottom Line:
This had a nice enough flavor profile and didn’t feel washed out by proofing. It just didn’t really grab my attention beyond feeling like a good cocktail whiskey.
7. Redwood Empire Whiskey Grizzly Beast Bottled in Bond Batch #002 — Taste 1
The latest batch of Redwood Empire’s Grizzly Beast is a four-grain bourbon. The California whiskey was made with 69 percent corn 22 percent rye, five percent malted barley, and a mere four percent wheat. After five years of maturation, 26 barrels were picked for this batch. Those barrels were vatted and the juice was just kissed with pure water from a local Russian River Valley aquifer.
Bottom Line:
This was really pretty nice overall. I think it has a great flavor profile that leans toward classic Kentucky bourbon notes. I can see sipping this over some rocks or building a really solid cocktail with it.
This Ohio whiskey is all about grain-to-glass. The juice is made from a mash of sweet yellow corn, soft red winter wheat, dark pumpernickel rye, and Two-Row malted barley. The whiskey spends about four years in oak before it’s bottled as-is at cask strength.
Bottom Line:
This is where things start getting complex and fun. This feels like a solid sipper that’d make one hell of a Sazerac or Manhattan. The only reason it’s not in the top five is that it felt a little warm and not as deeply hewn as the rest of the whiskeys on this list.
This year’s Remus Reserve is a mix of six to 14-year-old bourbons. Buckle in. The blend is made from two percent from a 2008 bourbon with a 21 percent rye mash, 27 percent from a 2012 bourbon with a 21 percent rye mash, 29 percent from a 2014 bourbon with a 21 percent rye mash, 17 percent from a 2012 bourbon with a 36 percent rye mash bill, and 25 percent from a 2014 bourbon with that same very high rye mash bill. Once vatted, the whiskey is just touched with water for proofing and bottled as-is.
Bottom Line:
This is where the good stuff starts in earnest. This is the lowest of the top five simply because it was the smallest on the palate. There’s still a ton going on (all of it great) but it didn’t quite pop as brightly as the next four.
This is the first release in the new series from Bob Dylan’s Heaven’s Door Tennessee whiskeys. The juice is a ten-year-old straight bourbon that was made in Tennessee but wasn’t charcoal filtered before or after aging. The sourced barrels were blended and just proofed down before bottling without any other fussing.
Bottom Line:
This was a solid goddamn whiskey. The age sort of betrayed some of the subtler notes on the nose and finish. But if you’re looking for that tannic oakiness, this is going to be your jam.
3. William Alan Small Batch — Taste 5
William Alan
ABV: 45%
Average Price: Distillery Only
The Whiskey:
This South Carolina bourbon is all about small batching and farm-to-glass experiences. The corn-fueled spirit with a very high malted barley component is aged for four years before it’s re-barreled in new toasted oak barrels for a final three-month rest. Those barrels and then vatted and the whiskey is proofed with local water for bottling.
Bottom Line:
This is very crafty but very deep and kind of fun. If you’re getting into that new, grain-forward bourbon style, this is a great bottle to find. You’re just going to need to go to South Carolina to do so.
2. Chattanooga Whiskey Bottled In Bond Spring 2018 — Taste 9
This particular whiskey was made back in spring 2018 and released in June 2022. The whiskey is a blend of four mash bills that all feature specialty malts ranging from honey malts to oak-smoked barley to naked oats to chocolate roasted barley to caramel malts and many more. The throughline is yellow corn, bonded warehouse aging, and proofing down to 50 percent ABV.
Bottom Line:
These top two were both stellar pours. I really, truly love this whiskey. It’s complex and fun and rewarding and yet it’s super accessible and easy to drink. It’s a hoot to mix cocktails with and it rules neat or on the rocks.
This whiskey starts as Woodinville’s award-winning five-year-old bourbon. That juice is then re-barreled into Moscatel wine casks for a finish maturation period. After nearly a year, the whiskey goes into the bottle having just been touched by water but otherwise as-is.
Bottom Line:
This wins out simply by having more arresting flavor notes and a slightly deeper profile overall. There’s just more going on with this whiskey and it really takes you on a journey. The best part, this one is finally available nationwide, so you can try it without schlepping out to Washington state!
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
I stand by the top five as the bottles you want to chase. They all have their own vibes — offering something unique. But they also just taste good and sometimes (all the time, really) that’s enough.
In the end, the top two are the ones you want to stock up on. Buy a case of each. Give a bottle or two as gifts. Make your favorite cocktails with them. Crack them open for parties. You won’t be disappointed, I assure you.
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had to show @TOPICALS a good time! 
