Nicki Minaj has already firmly cemented her place in hip-hop history, but now she’s added yet another bullet point to her resume: Minaj’s Instagram account just passed 200 million followers, which makes her the first rapper to rack up that many followers on the platform.
The next closest rappers on the list are Cardi B (who has 138 million followers), Drake (117 million), and Snoop Dogg (75 million). Minaj now has the 18th most-followed account on the platform overall.
Minaj observed the milestone on her Instagram Story by sharing a screenshot from the early days of her account, when she had only one post and a bit over 7,000 followers. She wrote, “most followed rapper on IG? Do I get a prize or smthn? From 7K to 200MM. thx yall.”
@nickiminaj/Instagram
Minaj is the seventh most-followed musician behind Selena Gomez (338 million followers, No. 5 most-followed user overall), Ariana Grande (324 million, No. 8), Beyoncé (270 million, No. 9), Justin Bieber (250 million, No. 12), Taylor Swift (220 million, No. 15), and Jennifer LopezAffleck (219 million, No. 16). Minaj is also the sixth most-followed female musician, the second most-followed Black musician behind Beyoncé, and the second most-followed musician not born in the United States after Bieber (Bieber is Canadian while Minaj was born in Trinidad and Tobago).
Here at Uproxx, we run a lot of blind taste tests. It’s our favorite way to keep our taste buds on their toes (in this analogy, taste buds have toes), ditch our brand biases, and zero in on the senses — allowing us to be hyper-focused on flavors, textures, and smells rather than marketing. But sometimes our palates do get pretty exhausted. After your eighth sip of blanco tequila in a row, flavors start to blur together and notes get muddled.
In an attempt to remedy that we decided to mix it up for our latest blind tequila taste test.
Instead of sticking to a single expression, we’re throwing a bunch of random aged tequilas together, — reposados, añejos, extra añejos, blends, and even cristalinos — in an effort to keep things fresh, challenge our taste buds, and pick out the finest aged tequilas around. To add another layer of curiosity to the whole thing, we also decided to grab expensive bottles (over $100) and pit them against more affordable bottles (under $70) to see if we could find any gems that are flying under the radar.
Methodology:
Because we’re dealing with a mix of expressions that have different colors, I did this blind taste test completely blindfolded (usually we just have someone else pour the tasting out of view), which actually helped me to focus even deeper on the flavors, without getting distracted by the expression itself. I took a sip, recorded voice notes of my experience, and had my girlfriend bring the next shot.
All photos were taken after the tasting and all prices are for 750ml bottles.
Avion Reserva 44 Extra Añejo
Calirosa Tequila Añejo
Centenario Añejo
Dahlia Cristalino
Herradura Selección Suprema Extra Añejo
Hiatus Tequila Añejo
Jose Cuervo Tradicional Reposado
Mijenta Tequila Añejo Gran Reserva
Siempre Tequila Añejo
Volcan De Mi Tierra X.A. Tequila
Let’s drink!
Part 1: The Tasting
Taste 1:
Dane Rivera
Warm and floral honey on the nose with a super smooth oaky flavor. A fresh cracked black peppercorn flavor rides on the backend alongside notes of fig and cooked agave.
From my notes: “You get a lot of oak on the aftertaste.”
Taste 2:
Dane Rivera
Rich chocolate with a pronounced sweetness that soaks into the tongue. This is a really pleasant slow-sipping dessert tequila. I’m getting some charred oak and an earthy roasted coffee bean flavor at the finish.
Taste 3:
Dane Rivera
In another league. My god, this is good. My voice notes for this tasting began with “nectar of the gods!” Floral honey and vanilla on the nose with a cooked agave, caramelized butterscotch, and molasses flavor that finishes with an oaky richness. You can really taste the barrel here, but not in a blunt and obfuscating way, it’s very fresh and natural, like walking through a woody glade in perfect weather and taking a deep breath in.
Taste 4:
Dane Rivera
After the fragrant aroma of the last three tastings, I’m almost shocked at how blank this is on the nose. I can faintly make out some melon notes, which I’m surprised to smell in an aged tequila tasting. This hits the palate with a lot of brightness and green vegetal flavors, a bit of grass, and some bell pepper.
The slightest barrel flavor hits the backend.
From my notes: “I’m really stumped as to what this can be.”
Taste 5:
Dane Rivera
Very rich on the tongue, it seeps into the taste buds like moist devil’s food cake. Chocolate and coffee dominant with notes of cooked agave, honey, butter, and molasses. This has a caramel coffee-like quality to it with a tingling spicy bite at the end. Very interesting.
Taste 6:
Dane Rivera
Sweet vanilla on the nose with lots of brightness and a fruity tinge. A bit of pineapple, a bit of melon. On the palate cooked agave and butter dominate with a soft and earthy roasted tea flavor, like genmaicha.
Taste 7:
Dane Rivera
After riding what seemed like a never-ending wave of delicious sips this one hit me like a truck. It’s assaulting on the nose, with a leathery flavor and an over-charred quality. The overall flavor is a bit watery in comparison to what came before, but I’m getting vanilla and honey with a harsh oak finish.
Overall this one is very muddled and unfocused. It probably works just fine in a cocktail, but on its own it’s missing the life and character of the tastings that proceeded it.
Taste 8:
Dane Rivera
Herbaceous on the nose with a slightly harsh oak body. Light notes of peppercorn, leather and bacon hover over some sweetness.
From my notes: “I’m not a fan of this one.”
Taste 9:
Dane Rivera
A fragrant bouquet of cooked agave, floral honey, and vanilla. This one goes down incredibly smooth showcasing a caramel-like body with spicy smoked notes on the backend. Very balanced, nothing comes on too strong, the flavors gently ignite your tastebuds before shifting from one to the next.
Taste 10:
Dane Rivera
A strange berry quality on the nose. I can sniff out some oaky qualities, but that berry scent really sticks out. The scent doesn’t translate to flavor though, this one stays in a dark chocolate territory with some gently smoked notes. A strange close, but a good flavor overall.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the cheapest bottle aged for the least amount of time was the weakest of this tasting. This one just really lacked a depth of flavor to it in comparison to the others. Jose Cuervo’s Tradicional line is a step up from the brand’s ultra-affordable Especial series, and is made from 100% blue agave cooked in traditional stone ovens and is produced at NOM 1122, Casa Cuervo. It’s smoother and more flavorful than you’d expect Jose Cuervo to be, but it just can’t stand against the competition in this list.
The Bottom Line:
It’s fine for the price, but no mid-shelf reposado is ever going to be able to compete with the complexity and depth of flavor of an añejo.
I was shocked to find this pricier bottle ranked so low. Siempre does everything right to make this añejo, the brand uses traditional stone and brick ovens, copper pot stills, and rests carefully selected plata in American oak ex-bourbon barrels for 12-36 months, and yet the flavors just don’t stand out here like you’d expect for this price point and level of craft.
This tequila is produced at NOM 1438, Destiladora del Valle de Tequila, which is home to 163 other brands of tequila, which might explain its overall lack of character.
The Bottom Line:
A good flavor, but for this price, you should expect more and will find it in even cheaper bottles.
Our second surprise of the ranking, I was shocked to find Dahlia, at $35 a bottle, landing comfortably near the middle of this list. Dahlia makes this tequila from estate-grown agave and produces it at NOM 1489, Destileria Leyros, where it is then aged to a reposado state before being finished with advanced charcoal filtration technology to remove the color and other impurities. The result is a smooth tequila that has bright tropical notes, a soft and smooth taste, and just a hint of oakiness.
The Bottom Line:
Way better than its price would suggest. Fruity, smooth, and smokey.
Produced at NOM 1137, La Cofradia, Hiatus ages its tequila for a full year in reclaimed American oak, resulting in a warm golden color that admittedly looks pretty damn great in a glass. I like a lot of what this bottle offered, it was very peppery and spicy but in comparison to what’s ranked above it, it came across as a bit too harsh.
Hiatus still produces a great bottle though and while it didn’t perform too well in a shoot-out, it’s a worthy bottle to enjoy with friends.
The Bottom Line:
Spicy and fragrant, but a bit too harsh on the backend to be truly great.
This tequila is responsible for the weird berry-tones on the nose that I was experiencing in Taste 10 and that translates to the color as well. This is by far the reddest añejo I’ve ever seen and that comes down to the fact that Calirose rests its tequila in red wine barrels for 18 months.
I have no complaints about this bottle, it’s great and it feels adequately priced for the depth of flavor you get.
The Bottom Line:
An añejo tequila rested in wine barrels that produces a softer and smoother flavor, and a distinct red hue.
This is the big surprise of the ranking and had me questioning myself so much over ranking it so highly that I had to do an un-blind retest. This is good, way better than it should be for the price. Like the Cuervo Tradicional, this tequila comes from NOM 1122, Casa Cuervo, but where that tequila lacked flavor and complexity, this is full of it.
The tequila undergoes what Centenario calls the “Seleccion Suave” process which involves the brand’s master distiller selecting the smoothest and best quality añejos before blending them according to a traditional process. That sounds great and everything, but that’s just marketing at the end of the day. Or is it?
Whatever they’re doing, they’re doing it right and this might dispel my bias towards distilleries that produce a lot of brands.
The Bottom Line:
Punches way above its weight. This bottle is a steal, here is to hoping too many people don’t catch on to that.
As surprising as the battle of the under $70 bottle was, unfortunately, once we dip into the over $100 territory things get pretty predictable. The quality of flavor travels parallel to price here and while that is a bit of a bummer, any of these bottles is gift-worthy and will likely be one of the best bottles you have on your bar cart so long as it has tequila in it. With Avion Reserva 44, you might even keep the empty bottle for display.
This tequila is handcrafted in limited batches and claims to boast 44 unique flavor notes. While I found this one to be a definite bouquet of flavors, I don’t know that you’ll taste 44, but it’s so good you won’t stop trying. Aged for 36 months in American bourbon barrels, Avion Reserva 44 ships in a fire-polished crystal bottle with a really nice gift box.
The Bottom Line:
Delicious and good enough to gift. This is an aged tequila that is worth every penny but is still affordable enough that it won’t completely break the bank. Get it as a gift for the person in your life who appreciates well-crafted spirits, especially if that person is yourself.
This was my first experience drinking Mijenta and I’m pretty sold on the brand after this one bottle. Before we move forward I’d like to say that the top three bottles on this ranking were all neck and neck for the top spot so while this is ranked third, it’s a very high third place.
Produced at NOM 1412, Destiladora de Los Altos, Mijenta’s añejo is aged for 18 months in American White Oak, French Oak, French acacia casks, and cherry barrels in a limited run. The first batch of bottles consists of just 2,160 bottles, of which I have one. Nice! I can’t recommend this tequila enough, it has such a depth of flavor and an interesting fruity character that you don’t always expect from an aged tequila.
The Bottom Line:
Floral, fruity, smokey, so many things all at once. A true joy to sip.
2. Volcan De Mi Tierra — X.A. Tequila (Taste 5)
Dane Rivera
Price: $1,900* (only available for bottle service/restaurants )
ABV: 40%
The Tequila
Let’s address the price first because I’m sure your jaw is sufficiently dropped right now. X.A., produced by Moet Hennesy’s premium tequila brand, Volcán De Mi Tierra, is only $1,900 because for the time being it’s only available at select nightclubs, venues, and restaurants. Bottle service is f*cking expensive, but if you’ve been wondering if you’ve been missing out on what someone like Dua Lipa or Jack Harlow drinks at the club, the answer is …yes and no.
On the one hand, this nearly $2000 bottle of tequila isn’t going to change your life if you drink it. It’s not even guaranteed to be your favorite sip of tequila ever. It doesn’t possess some magic that bottles less than half the price don’t have but with that said… it’s pretty damn great. This tequila is so delicate, so flavorful, and so interesting that it deserves a full-length article review, which we promise, we’re going to get to, but for now we’ll keep it brief.
This tequila is produced at NOM 1523 Agrotequilera de Jalisco — the only brand currently in production, bias re-confirmed — and is aged in American white oak barrels. It is a blend of reposado, añejo, and extra añejo tequilas made from 100% blue agave cooked in stone-brick ovens. Forbes has a list of everywhere the bottle is currently available, we can only hope for a retail release at a more affordable price soon.
The Bottom Line:
If you ever get a chance to sip this, don’t pass it up under any circumstance.
1. Herradura Selección Suprema — Extra Añejo (Taste 3)
Herradura is one of the best, fairly affordable tequila brands in business right now. There isn’t a single expression the brand can’t nail, but the top-shelf Selección Suprema series is on a whole other level.
Winner of 25 well-deserved gold spirit tasting awards from various competitions, this extra añejo is aged for 49 months in American White oak barrels this tequila is smooth as honey and presents flavors that never stop dancing across the palate, constantly shifting and offering something new with every taste. While the top three were neck and neck on this ranking, we’ve got to give the top spot to the one that made me say “nectar of the gods!” No other tequila has ever made me feel that goofy.
The Bottom Line:
It’s frustrating to see such an expensive bottle take the top spot but take comfort in the fact that this hefty price tag is actually worth it.
Remember the days when we thought the Saul Goodman spinoff would be a half-hour sitcom? 2013 was a simpler time. Better Call Saul has always been quietly devastating, but now it’s blatantly so, with Kim Wexler leaving her husband Jimmy McGill. Instead of seeing the events that follow Kim leaving Jimmy, the scene following their break-up does a little time jump to Saul Goodman the way we knew him on Breaking Bad.
Kim’s fate has always been up in the air considering her noted absence from Breaking Bad, but now that she’s no longer a lawyer and left Jimmy and their fish without any indication of where she’s going, her fate is even more up in that air, if that’s even possible.
My Better Call Saul theories are usually incredibly wrong because I always incorrectly assume that the writers are kinder than they are (no offense to them personally) and for some reason, I assume that I could be as smart, even smarter, than the show’s writers. I am not! Kim’s departure at the end of last week’s “Fun and Games” has left my mind spinning at night with possible outcomes for Kim Wexler. To ease our collective Kim Wexler anxiety (or to make it worse), here are some theories on Kim Wexler’s whereabouts and how she could return and see Jimmy again.
Optimist Theory
Considering Kim’s absence from Breaking Bad and Jimmy’s complete pivot into an entirely new, unhinged personality as a result of her departure, it’s safe to say that Kim has left Albuquerque entirely and is unreachable. Without the whole being adjacent to crime and the cartel thing, Kim can live her life in peace. This is more of a dream than a theory, but my dream for Kim Wexler is that free of Slippin’ Jimmy, she is now living her best life, somewhere with lots of plants and a replacement for those fish she left in the middle of the night. Maybe she has a house on the beach, maybe she’s perfected her iconic curled ponytail. Wherever she is, she is safe.
Cynical Theory
The cynical and therefore more probable theory because the Better Call Saul writers are trying to rip our hearts out with their cold, sharp hands is that Kim has disappeared and is living in isolation as a way to protect herself, but also as a way to punish herself. Kim feels responsible for Howard Hamlin’s death. The scheme to ruin his career and reputation was her passion project and inadvertently led to his death at the hands of Lalo Salamanca. If Kim is living in isolation, it would mirror Jimmy/Saul’s black-and-white future as Gene, the Cinnabon manager in Nebraska. If Kim is living a similar life, the story would end with some sad, but fitting symmetry for the star-crossed lovers.
Kim and Jimmy Reunite
Whether they like it or not, Kim and Jimmy are inevitable and are drawn to each despite themselves. Kim is great for Jimmy because he’s less Slippin’ Jimmy and more Jimmy McGill when he’s with her. Kim, on the other hand, becomes more of a Slippin’ Kim when she’s around Jimmy. They ironically bring out both the best and the worst in each other. At this point, the story is pulling them apart, making a reunion likely. Now, it’s just a matter of where, when, and who finds who. My little theory now that is probably not going to happen because it is quite optimistic is that one finds the other, but now I’m convinced Kim will somehow track Jimmy down in Nebraska. It’s also possible that Jimmy (as Gene) could crack and find her himself. Although we’ve only gotten small glimpses at Gene’s life, it is sad and lonely and has probably put a lot of things into perspective for the man formerly known as Jimmy McGill.
If Kim and Jimmy reunite, I would hope that they run off into the sunset, hands interlocked. But that’s unlikely given the brutality of this final season. Maybe in the metaverse?
Kim Never Returns
If Better Call Saul wanted to continue its incredibly cruel streak, we would never see Kim Wexler again. If Rhea Seehorn does not appear again, or only appears briefly, that could be an explanation for her running for an Emmy in the supporting category besides that it was the only way to beat Reese Witherspoon. Now that I’m writing this, never seeing Kim again is the most wicked thing Better Call Saul could do, and is, therefore, the most likely.
Kim D*es
Just kidding! If I don’t speculate that Kim Wexler could die, then she won’t. Kim Wexler will NOT die. There is no way. Goodbye!
Josh Hawley became a national punchline last week after the January 6 committee showed footage of the Missouri Senator running out of the Capitol building despite defiantly giving MAGA rioters a fist pump shortly before the attack. Hawley was roundly mocked including by the ladies of The View who called him a “shrimp, wimp, coward” after airing footage of former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone saying, “Josh Hawley is a b*tch.”
The whole thing was not great for Hawley, so naturally, Fox News is coming to his rescue. During Mark Levin‘s show, Life, Liberty & Levin, the conservative host actually tried to argue that the Jan. 6 committee’s humiliation of Hawley is somehow unconstitutional.
“Congress doesn’t have plenary powers to do whatever it wants,” Levin said before launching into his rant.
Levin says Article 1 of the Constitution gives no authority to Congress to humiliate Josh Hawley pic.twitter.com/uwa1EfYHBZ
“How they tried to humiliate Senator Hawley, it’s really not about Jan. 6,” he said, adding that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom he called “the main witness of Jan. 6” has been “effectively immunized by the committee,” whose members he says she single-handedly appointed.
“Article 1 provides no such authority. None, to the Congress of the United States,” Levin said.
Like any good right-wing rant, Levin made sure to invoke the specter of communism while taking shots at Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney for going against the GOP.
“When you get these phony Republicans like [Rep. Adam] Kinzinger and [Rep. Liz] Cheney waving the Constitution around, they’re not waving around our Constitution,” Levin said. “Perhaps it’s the 1934 Soviet Constitution, but it ain’t ours.”
By season four of Stranger Things, Jonathan Byers is a certified hero who lends a compassionate ear to his younger brother while he’s struggling with his sexuality. But in the early episodes of the Netflix series, he was a certified stalker creep. In season one, episode two, “The Weirdo on Maple Street” (a.k.a. the one with Barb), he takes picture of the object of his affection, Nancy Byers, while she’s in the pool with her friends — and again when she’s changing in her bedroom, including when she’s in her bra.
You wouldn’t know it from watching the episode in 2022, however.
Insiderreports that “in the original cut of the episode, Jonathan lowered his camera for a moment, clearly understanding that he would be violating her privacy even more if he documented this intimate moment.” But in the current cut of “The Weirdo on Maple Street,” the weirdo (Jonathan) doesn’t take any photos of Nancy while her shirt is off.
Some fans have said he raised the camera once more, and claim they saw him deliberately take more pictures of Nancy while she was in this vulnerable position. Instead, he raises his camera and the edit makes it look like he chose to photograph Barb (fully clothed and sitting by the pool) instead.
Lizzo is used to waiting for her songs to have their moment. “Truth Hurts” became her first No. 1 single in 2019 despite its initial release coming two years earlier. “Good As Hell” did something similar, hitting No. 3 that year after being first released in 2016. Now, to a lesser extreme, “About Damn Time” has finished a long(ish) journey of its own: The song was released as a single on April 14 and now, after gradually making its way up the charts over the past three months, “About Damn Time” reaches No. 1 for the first time on the new Billboard Hot 100 dated July 30.
The Billboard #Hot100 Top 10 (chart dated July 30, 2022)
This comes after “About Damn Time” spent the previous two weeks at No. 2, behind Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” which enjoyed its tenth (and for now, final) week at No. 1 last week. Now, though, “About Damn Time” is Lizzo’s second chart-topper, the 1,139th No. 1 song of all time, and the seventh this year.
Also noteworthy in this week’s top 10 is that Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” still has some serious momentum, as it reaches a new Hot 100 peak at No. 3. Elsewhere, Styles actually has two songs in the top 10 this week, as “Late Night Talking” rises to No. 9 following the recent release of the song’s new video.
Meanwhile, Lizzo’s new album Special also just debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, making it the highest-charting album of her career and the highest-charting 2022 album from a female artist.
.@lizzo‘s #Special debuts at No. 2 on this week’s #Billboard200, becoming the highest-charting album of her career.
It also becomes the highest-charting album released this year by a female artist.
A few days before free agency began, there were reports that Kyrie Irving had been given permission to seek out a sign-and-trade from the Nets, but was unable to find any suitors beyond the Lakers, who didn’t have a package the Nets wanted in return. As such, Irving picked up his player option for next season and it seemed as though the Nets would run it back and try one more time to make the Irving-Kevin Durant pairing work.
However, that feeling lasted a day before Durant requested a trade and sent the NBA into turmoil, stalemating a number of other potential moves as teams didn’t want to take themselves out of the Durant sweepstakes by dealing away assets, and also bringing Kyrie back into trade discussions despite his decision to opt in. At this point, though, the Durant trade talks have hit a lull, with the only real recent news being that Boston offered Jaylen Brown in a package at some point in the last few weeks and got turned down, which caught Brown a bit off guard. That has also stalled Kyrie talks, and at this point it seems there’s a legitimate chance the Nets hold on to both Durant and Irving going into camp.
Furthering that belief is a new report that Irving himself is expecting to be in Brooklyn no matter what happens with his co-star. At the one minute mark of this clip from Shams Charania’s appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, he offers up a nugget of info that Irving isn’t exactly pushing to leave Brooklyn and is planning on being a Net “with or without Kevin Durant.”
Charania is rather famously close to Irving’s camp, so there’s plenty of reason to believe this is indeed how Kyrie is thinking at the moment. Now, we also know that how Kyrie feels right now in late July is not guaranteed to be how Kyrie feels in September if KD is traded, and it also doesn’t particularly matter what Irving wants if the Nets decide they want to move him and have teams offering something they view as value in return. Still, as we approach the one month mark since Durant’s trade request, the idea the Nets could just bring everyone back has to be viewed as a real possibility, and the only person that can derail that is Durant by holding out — which would be a bold stance for someone with four years to go on his deal.
We’re about halfway through summer and, to our excitement, the music festivals just don’t stop. Most recently Northern Nights Festival Music Festival threw down in Piercy, California. As the first music festival to have multiple on-site dispensaries, as well as dispensaries located at stages, the event fostered the perfect environment for bumping techno beats, standout style, booze-filled beverages, and endless good vibes.
It was the ultimate summer party for avid festival goers, weed smokers, and music lovers alike with a lineup that included Claude VonStroke, TroyBoi, SNBRN, CloZeeTwo Feet, Of The Trees, Balkan Bump, Smoakland, Modern Biology, and Wreckno.
Between the epic music sets, outdoorsy scenery, and cannabis-friendly environment, it’s safe to say that Northern Nights Music Festival was a downright great time. If you’re in need of a mood boost this Monday, check out the photos from the fesitval below. The genuine smiles, neon lasers, and rainbow ensembles are sure to start your week off right.
While American whiskeys can be a lot of things, each style does have its own legal definition (and restrictions). One of the big ones is that in order to be called a “whiskey” (bourbon, rye, blended whiskey, etc.), it has to go in the bottle at 80 proof (40% ABV) or above.
That’s the low limit of alcohol by volume that a distiller/blender can adjust to with water (or flavoring) before it’s no longer considered a “whiskey.” Add more water, and you don’t have whiskey anymore. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, what happens when a whiskey comes out of the barrel below that legal limit?
Head Distiller and General Manager of Cascade Hollow Distilling Co. in Tennessee, Nicole Austin, is asking us all to think about just that. Austin just released her fifth edition of Cascade Moon — a series of one-off and very unique whiskeys from the vast rickhouses of George Dickel — to test the waters of what whiskey can and can’t be.
The latest Cascade Moon is a barrel-proof 15-year-old “spirits distilled from grain.” Legally, Austin cannot call it a “whiskey” because this barrel-proof expression is only 39.9% ABV, or 79.8 proof. Otherwise, this is a Tennessee whiskey just like any other made at Cascade Hollow. It’s a conundrum, in that rules are important for continuity but not calling this a whiskey — especially since it is barrel proof, as in, it came out of a barrel at that proof, rather than coming out of a barrel higher and being cut down with water or “natural flavors” afterward to achieve that low ABV — feels absurd.
Okay, let’s get into what’s actually in the bottle.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This whiskey, er, spirit, was made with George Dickel’s high-corn mash bill with about 8% each of rye and malted barley as support. It was barreled in new oak and left to rest in Cascade Hollow’s single-story rickhouse. After 15 years, Austin decided to bottle these spirits at barrel proof (with no fussing) instead of blending them out into other expressions (which is what usually happens with barrels that dip below the legal ABV standard to be called “whiskey”).
The Bottle:
The bottles from Cascade Moon are always cool. This edition is like an oversized Johnny Walker bottle with an artful label that feels like a Tennessee hollow abstraction in pastels. It’s a great centerpiece bottle with an eye-catching label. The tones are faint, like the thin juice, and altogether it feels like a photo torn from a sun-faded 70s magazine.
Tasting Notes:
Soft orchard fruits and dry grains draw you in on the nose initially before turning toward a fresh cherry Necco Wafer with a cut of old leather, sour currant, and damp white moss. There’s a faint hint of pine resin buried deep in that nose too. The palate is supple with a silky vanilla base supporting hints of cinnamon apple sauce, a flourish of buttery honey, and whole wheat biscuits with a twinge of buckwheat and maybe some sweetgrass. The mid-palate hits a light marzipan note before fading toward more vanilla, a touch of nutmeg, and almond shells on the very soft finish.
Bottom Line:
It’s kind of inexplicable how soft and inviting this whiskey is without a watery/washed-out base. I’ve tasted 90-proof whiskeys that are completely washed out by proofing water. Here, each of the flavor notes is distinct and deeply hewn. It feels a little old, a little bespoke, and a little Tennessee (that graininess and Necco Wafer are two cornerstones).
This is great neat. It’s very accessible while still delivering a well-rounded flavor profile. I can’t really see using it in a cocktail, thanks to that low ABV, but that’s fine. This is just good as it is.
Ranking:
95/100 — This gets extra points for being 100% fresh and new and pushing the boundaries of what we know of whiskey, especially at barrel proof. It helps that it tastes great — in fact, it’s one of the better Dickel expressions I’ve ever had.
There was a time when it seemed like Marvel was not going to move forward with its Black Panther sequel. After the lead Chadwick Boseman passed away in August 2020, the production slowly began to fall apart. Marvel confirmed that they would not be re-casting Boseman’s role, and with several COVID-related delays, on-set injuries, and vaccine controversies, it seemed like this movie was never going to be finished.
But, somehow, the movie wrapped up earlier this year and will hit theaters in November, following a triumphant trailer with some dazzling special effects and inspiring words from Angela Bassett. The movie will also feature new music from the upcoming Wakanda Forever Prologue, which is now available for pre-order.
Despite all of the bumps in the road, star Lupita Nyong’o called the process of making the highly-anticipated sequel “therapeutic.”
“For us as a cast, having lost our king, Chadwick Boseman, that was a lot to process, and in many ways, we’re still processing it,” Nyong’o told The Hollywood Reporter. “When you lose someone, I don’t know when you stop missing them. And of course, we felt it so much, making this film without him.” The movie also stars Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, and Angela Bassett as they fight for Wakanda after the death of King T’Challa.
“It was very therapeutic,” the actress added. “It restored a sense of hope for me in making it, and I think we’ve expanded the world of Wakanda in ways that will blow people’s minds — not just Wakanda, but the Black Panther world. It’s gonna blow people’s minds, and I just cannot wait until it’s not a secret anymore.” The trailer also revealed that someone is wearing the Black Panther suit, though the details are of course under wraps. Who could it possibly be? As it turns out, it could literally be anyone.
The secrets of Wakanda will be revealed when the movie drops on November 11th.
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