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In the great debate over which is superior — the nugget or the tender — I’m fully team tender. Nuggets are a gamble. Sometimes they’re heavily processed, sometimes they’re not even pure chicken, but with a tender you get a single cut of meat that has simply been battered and fried, even marinated if you’re lucky! But, who in fast food is making the best tasting highest quality chicken tender?

Come on, you know where we’re going with this… It’s time to blind taste test chicken tenders!

I’ve been a chicken tender fan for a long time, at one point in my life my diet consisted almost entirely of pancakes and chicken tenders. Yes, I was a picky child, but still, my love for chicken tenders (and pancakes) has never died, and I’ve had a lot of them throughout my life so my standards for what makes a great chicken tender are sky-high:

1. It has to be crunchy.
2. It has to be tender — I mean, it’s in the name.
3. It has to be battered in something that makes it perfectly flavorful, no sauce required.

So that’s how I’m going to taste them, sauceless. Let’s do it.

Methodology

Putting this taste test together was relatively easy compared to when we blind taste-tested chocolate milkshakes and cheeseburgers. All five of the restaurants chosen for this taste test were in relatively close proximity to each other and close enough to my home that I was able to grab the food and actually eat it at home instead of in a random parking lot like I’ve been doing for the last couple of taste tests.

Here is our tasting class:

• Carl’s Jr
• Chick-fil-A
• KFC
• Popeyes
• Raising Canes

Once I had each tender, I had my girlfriend bring me one tender at a time chosen at random and I ate the entire thing to get the full experience. Since chicken tenders can be very inconsistent in size and shape, I had her choose the best tender per order. Thankfully, none of them needed sauce to be edible, but unfortunately that made ranking them a bit tougher than I had imagined. Let’s dive into the tasting notes.

Part 1: The Chicken Tender Taste Test

Taste 1

Juicy and crunchy, a great start. This tender has a mix of black pepper, garlic powder, and salty flavors, and an aftertaste that is buttery with a gentle hint of lemon. Overall it’s a bright and light experience, I can see how sauce would easily elevate this to being even more delicious, but as it stands alone, it’s delicious!

Taste 2

Great breading here, it’s audibly crunchy. The chicken is a bit dry, but the flavor is nice with an emphasis on earthy black pepper notes with a sort of sweet aftertaste.

Taste 3

Dusty tasting and a bit bland. There is a staleness to the breading here, it tastes a bit burnt and the chicken inside is incredibly dry. I’m getting a lot of crunch out of this one, but eating it isn’t an enjoyable experience.

My hunch is that this one is going to rank last.

Taste 4

Incredibly juicy. This chicken is so tender that it almost melts in the mouth. The breading isn’t very crunchy, but it’s full of flavor, rich pepper notes, a hint of sweetness, and a slightly floral aftertaste. Very interesting. Sadly, I think it comes across as a bit wet and soggy. The breading sort of falls apart and sticks to my fingers — kind of off-putting.

Taste 5

Strangely flat, this piece of chicken is more breading than meat. It’s the crunchiest of the five we’ve tasted, and while the meat is scarce, all together the flavor is delicious. It’s bright, spicy, and salty. But I can’t get over just how little meat there is here. I’d say the ratio of breading to meat is 3:1.

Part 2: The Chicken Tender Ranking

5. Carl’s Jr — Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders (Taste 3)

Carl’s Jr’s Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders at one time, were novel. The idea of a hand-breaded piece of chicken was a rarity when the norm was fast food restaurants selling frozen pre-prepared chicken tenders with processed meat. Thankfully, we’re not living in those dark days anymore, but unfortunately for Carl’s Jr, that makes its hand-breaded tenders nothing special.

Ironically, this chicken sort of tastes like no love or care was put into crafting it, the breading isn’t seasoned well and it’s over-fried to the point of being dry, for that it stood apart as easily the least enjoyable piece of chicken we ate today.

The Bottom Line:

Carl’s Jr’s Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders feel a little outdated and underwhelming in comparison to the chains that specialize in chicken.

Find your nearest Carl’s Jr. here.

4. KFC — Chicken Tenders (Taste 3)

KFC makes some great-tasting bird — there is a distinct character and flavor in this chicken tender that tastes undeniably like KFC. Part of me knew this was KFC during the blind tasting portion, but unfortunately, since the chicken was a bit too dry, I can’t rank it higher than the second to last place spot.

Earlier I mentioned that none of the chicken tenders needed sauce to get through, but I’m not confident I could say that about this chicken if I had more than a single tender.

The Bottom Line:

Good flavor, but a bit too dry.

Find your nearest KFC here.

3. Popeyes — Spicy Chicken Tender (Taste 5)

I love Popeyes, great bone-in chicken, and great chicken sandwiches, but straight up the tenders and nuggets need work. The flavor is on point, it’s bright, buttery, smokey, and spicy, and has a superior crunch to anything else on the market, but there just isn’t enough actual chicken here to make it rank any higher than mid-tier.

It’s literally a flat strip of meat. I’m not even sure this qualifies as a chicken tender, it’s almost as if someone shaved off a layer from a chicken filet, breaded up to three times its size, fried it, and called it a day.

The Bottom Line:

Great flavor, but where is the actual chicken? In a fast food world where chicken is king, it feels like Popeyes needs to step up its game.

Find your nearest Popeyes here.

2. Chick-fil-A — Chicken Tenders (Taste 4)

I have to hand it to Chick-fil-A, marinating your chicken in pickle brine, breading it on-site, and frying it in peanut oil is a good way to make some great f*cking chicken. Unfortunately, as good as these tenders are, they’re Chick-fil-A’s worst chicken option. Why would you ever order these over the nuggets, which are juicier, or the chicken sandwich, which is meatier?

Having said all that, we’re not here to talk about the rest of the Chick-fil-A menu, we’re here to compare it to the chicken tenders we ate in this sitting. This was so close to taking the number one spot, the only thing that kept it from taking the crown was that it wasn’t crispy enough. The breading, as delicious as it is, came across as a bit wet and soggy.

The Bottom Line:

Great flavor, it’s tender and juicy, but not crunchy enough.

Find your nearest Chick-fil-A here.

1. Raising Cane’s — Chicken Tenders (Taste 1)

Raising Cane’s straight up doesn’t have a batter as delicious as Chick-fil-A, and they don’t marinate their chicken in pickle brine (I believe they use lemon water) resulting in a brighter and less intense flavor than Chick-fi-A, but the whole package is just on point here.

The batter is perfect, it’s thick, craggy, and well seasoned, the chicken is tender and juicy (made from non-frozen chicken tenders prepared in-house), and each piece is fried for the perfect amount of time, resulting in a chicken tender that is equal parts crunchy and flavorful. This chicken doesn’t leave me wanting for anything, and for that, it’s our number one choice.

The Bottom Line:

The perfect fast food chicken tender and the standard by which all other chicken tenders should be measured.

Find your nearest Raising Cane’s here.

The September tour dates Gorillaz announced in May are no more. While Damon Albarn’s animated band had planned to play four dates with Kaytranada, Lil Yachty, and Remi Wolf, ticketholders received emails today with a statement announcing the dates’ cancelations.

Due to scheduling conflicts and circumstances beyond our control, the previously announced Gorillaz shows in September have been cancelled. Refunds will be issued automatically at your point of purchase and will be processed as quickly as possible, there is nothing further for you to do at this time. Please allow for up to 30 days for the refund to process.

In a statement, Gorillaz wrote:

We are gutted not to be able to perform for you this year. We were really looking forward to it and we hope to get back to you again as soon as we can. We love our Gorillaz family and we can’t wait to see you again.

The mini-tour, called The Getaway tour, was to mark the final dates supporting the band’s latest album, Cracker Island. It was also to be the group’s first dates stateside since they rocked Coachella with Beck, Bad Bunny, and De La Soul.

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

The night before the 2023 NBA Draft was full of drama. A proposed three-team deal involving the Kristaps Porzingis fell apart just hours before a midnight ET deadline, only to be revived and ultimately completed. That resulted in Porzingis ending up with the Boston Celtics, Marcus Smart heading to the Memphis Grizzlies, and Tyus Jones heading to Washington. Around the same time, Milwaukee Bucks star Khris Middleton declined a lucrative player option and chose unrestricted free agency. While the dam has not yet broken with regard to trades on the day of the draft, the first domino fell when the Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers reportedly agreed to a swap involving draft picks and cash.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the original details, with the Lakers moving from No. 47 to No. 40 with the Pacers acquiring a pile of cash for their trouble. It is always crucial to point out that “cash considerations” simply line the pockets of ownership, rather than actually providing on-court value, but Tony East of Locked On Pacers notes that Indiana will receive $4.35 million from Los Angeles. ESPN’s Bobby Marks relays that Los Angeles could send a maximum of $4.4 million under league rules, which makes sense given the reported price. Given that the haul was paid to move up only seven spots, it would be considered a fairly lofty sum.

As far as basketball is concerned, the Lakers now pair with the No. 40 pick with the No. 17 pick in the first round, and Los Angeles has a decent bit of flexibility as the offseason arrives. The Lakers undoubtedly want to retain Austin Reaves, but Los Angeles could pursue the route of salary cap space and, if they do, having two top-40 picks to add cheap young talent could be useful. On Indiana’s side, the seven-spot drop won’t change the world, and the Pacers have been very active in deals, including a transaction to swap draft capital with the Denver Nuggets just hours before this deal.

Before The Bear became a sleeper hit for FX on Hulu, the Jeremy Allen White series set in the Chicago restaurant world originally started out as a feature film. However, as The Bear bounced around Hollywood, it evolved into a series, which was clearly a good call. The show is now in its second season, and fans can’t get enough of White’s chef.

As for why The Bear made the leap from film to TV series, showrunner Joanna Caro walked The Hollywood Reporter through the decision process for chopping up the experience:

The half-hour discussion had happened before I was there. But Chris and I really stayed true to what we wanted the voice to be. … It’s like, would you really want to be in that kitchen for more than half an hour at a time? I think you need a little credit break to get you through. These things were honestly just told to us, and we were so grateful that FX wanted to make the show that we were like, “OK, yeah, sure.”

However, Caro also revealed that the creative team still approached The Bear‘s first season story like a film.

“I think we often tried to think of it as still just one big feature,” Caro said. “And so how could we tell the story without hitting people over the head with it? Is it a different experience to just live in this kitchen and get lost in the food and letting the food represent connection between these people as if you’re making a musical and there’s a dance number.”

The Bear Season 1 and 2 are available for streaming on Hulu.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

I’ve been rewatching The Sopranos this year. It’s been a long process – partly because of the density of the average Sopranos episode and partly because of the glut of new content to keep up with that has been released over the past couple of months. Also, I took February off because who wants to spend Black History Month being called an eggplant?

In the meantime, I’ve been following the racketeering case against Young Thug, Gunna, and the rest of Young Stoner Life Records – or the Young Slime Life gang, if you buy the Fulton County District Attorney’s account of events of the past eight years. I watched as Gunna, Unfoonk, and nearly a dozen other members of the group accepted so-called “Alford Pleas,” admitting to lesser charges in exchange for shorter sentences while maintaining their innocence.

Hip-hop fans and artists alike turned on Gunna, declaring him a “rat,” someone who should be excommunicated from the community. His longtime producer Wheezy deemed him persona non grata; Lil Durk assumed he must have given information about the so-called criminal dealings of Young Thug (who most rappers and producers maintain hasn’t done anything illegal, so somebody has to explain to me the logic on that).

This has all both amused and frustrated me – a lot like my Sopranos viewing of late – probably because my recent rewatch has illuminated to me just how ridiculous the show wants us to know its characters really are. The members of the DiMeo crime family are, to put it bluntly, a bunch of petty, ignorant, emotionally-stunted goobers; their entire system of rules and honor codes ultimately amounts to a grown-up version of the He-Man Woman-Haters Club from Our Gang and The Little Rascals.

The gangsters of the show are men with the mindsets of little boys, all trying to prove to each other how “manly” they are, based on a concept of manhood out-of-sync with the world around them. This holds true of most mafia-centric entertainment: The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino, The Gangs Of New York, and yes, the hip-hop whose artists have based their stage personas (or past criminal activities) on these characters and “this thing of ours.”

Which makes it all the more baffling why Gunna is being held to these standards, when all he’s ever really claimed to be is a rapper. Yes, he’s rapped about illicit activities, but it’s been pretty firmly established by now that lyrics in rap should be understood to be exaggerated, fictionalized, or outright made up. No one believes Lupe Fiasco has a mecha in his backyard. Jadakiss’ bathtub most definitely does not lift up, nor do his walls do a 360.

Rappers are often playing roles, but what happens when those roles blur the line between creativity and reality? To take it even further, what happens when they drop the facade entirely and get “real” again? Gunna attempts to answer these questions on his new album, A Gift And A Curse, but honestly, I’m more interested in the response than I am in the music, which is as technically proficient as we’ve come to expect from Gunna – if a bit more earnest, humble, and soul-searching.

While social media was awash in posts claiming that Gunna’s career was over due to his “snitching” – something no one can confirm or do anything other than speculate about until the actual trial starts – most recent projections put the album at just under 100,000 equivalent units. That’s certainly a dip from his past projects, but it’s also far from “imminent retirement” numbers. It undermines the thesis that hip-hop and this mafioso-lite “honor code” are as closely bound as outsiders and parasites like DJ Akademiks seem to think.

And that, ultimately, is a good thing. As much as hip-hop is influenced and impacted by money from crime (after all, it costs a lot to get started in the music business, and there are few other options for many folks from America’s inner cities), it’s also taken lots of inspiration from mobster movies, leading to this impression even among the staunchest rap insiders that “keeping it real” is synonymous with acting like a Tony Soprano or Henry Hill.

But, spoiler alert: We know how their stories turn out. Hill not so coincidentally turns state’s evidence in an effort to save his own life. Tony’s fate is left to the viewer’s imagination, but that smash-cut to black bodes ill for someone whose “honor code” included murdering men he’d known since grade school, employees who he himself characterized as “good earners,” and even his own nephew (who was, admittedly, a f*ck-up of the highest order whose loose-cannon behavior often threatened the family business).

Whether or not you believe YSL was a gang or a label – and it matters, because you can’t really have it both ways in this case – holding someone who the vast majority of us only ever knew as an artist to the outdated, self-destructive rules of a pack of overgrown children is about as dumb as idolizing wiseguys who openly view the Black creators of hip-hop as “ditsoons,” “mulignans,” and “butterheads” in the first place. (Tony fainting at the sight of a box of Uncle Ben rice will never not be funny.)

And as for A Gift And A Curse, my big takeaway was this: Gunna has made some of his best music by stripping away the artifice and the trappings of gang life. That should tell us a lot about the direction hip-hop should be going instead of trying to rehash the same old stories – all of which have tragic endings.

A Gift And A Curse is out now on Young Stoner Life Records/300 Entertainment.

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

The Boston Celtics’ pursuit of Kristaps Porzingis from the Washington Wizards in a three-team trade involving the Los Angeles Clippers fell apart on Wednesday, but they managed to rally and pull off a deal before midnight that involved the Memphis Grizzlies, instead. The catch: Instead of moving Malcolm Brogdon, who was slated to go to the Clippers in the original deal, Boston sent the heart and soul of their team to Memphis, as Marcus Smart is going to play for a new team for the first time in his NBA career.

It was legitimately stunning, as Smart has been a staple in Boston since he entered the league. And according to multiple reports, he was just as shocked by the move, too. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Smart “did not see that trade coming until the team notified him, like, maybe 15, 10 minutes before.”

Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe added some more details, and reported that a source close to Smart viewed this as a “gut punch” because “He thought he was going to retire there. He wanted to retire there.”

Smart joined a brief call with his closest confidants late Wednesday night, sources said, and expressed hurt that out of all the guards on the roster, the Celtics decided to part ways with him. He had come so far with the franchise and was determined to hang its first championship banner since 2008. He believed they were so close.

While getting Porzingis and a pair of first-round picks should both help the Celtics, there are few (if any) players more beloved in Boston sports than Smart. It’s hard to imagine him playing for another team, in large part because he never thought that would happen.

Louis Tomlinson fans did not have it easy last night (June 21) at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. They went to see the former One Direction member perform, but the concert ended abruptly when the weather took a turn for the worse.

It started hailing and it was so intense that it left many concertgoers injured. The West Metro Fire Rescue wrote on Twitter: “Red Rocks hail storm- 7 people transported to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. A total of 80 to 90 people treated on scene. Injuries include cuts and broken bones. Sporadic hail still coming down in Morrison area.”

A photographer described the situation, “A freak hailstorm and flash flood hit Red Rocks tonight with golf ball sized hail while I was photographing the Louis T show. HUGE shoutout needs to go to the staff and medical teams at Red Rocks who were helping the injured as well as helping the fans be as safe as they could.”

The singer acknowledged it himself on social media, writing, “Devastated about the show tonight, hope everyone’s ok, I’ll be back! Even though we didn’t play the show I felt all of your passion! Sending you all love!”

Earlier this year, Louis Tomlinson released a documentary about himself called All Of Those Voices. “This has been something I’ve been working on for years, I’m really excited to finally put it out into the world,” he shared on Instagram. “I’ve said it a million times but I’m lucky enough to have the greatest fans an artist could wish for, and as they always go above and beyond for me, I wanted to share my story ‘in my own words’.”

Billie Eilish is a definitive icon for Gen-Z, but she doesn’t view herself that way. Endearingly, Eilish doesn’t suppress her formative fandoms and never hesitates to hype up her peers. Megan Thee Stallion received some of Eilish’s love this spring, and Rihanna is the subject of her latest declaration. (It’s a good day to be Rihanna — isn’t every day? — as Latto also shouted out RiRi.)

Vogue profiled Eilish around the recent release of her fragrance, Eilish No. 2. The one-time Oscar and seven-time Grammy winner reflected on her evolving style.

“I spent most of my life being very masculine and boyish, and I kind of recently, in the last couple of years, was kind of like, ‘You know what, I’m allowed to be whatever I want to be when I want to be it,’” she told the publication. “I don’t need to always prove to everyone that I’m a tomboy. Like, that is what I am, but I also am this kind of girl. I’m also feminine, and I’m also sexy, and I’m also cute, and I’m also just like, none of the above, and I’m just me.”

Eilish has to deal with what most 21-year-olds don’t: the treacherous illusion that strangers have toward her body, as if they should have a say about her relationship with her own body at all. Writer Calin Van Paris noted that Eilish combats the body shaming and constant public attention with things she likes, such as baths, family, friends, big dogs, phone games, and Rihanna.

“I think that I decided the other day that I think she’s the hottest person to ever exist in the history of the world,” Eilish said of Rihanna.

More vulnerably, Eilish noted, “It’s tough, man. Honestly, nobody can say anything about my body that I don’t have a stronger opinion about […] I also think that if I was younger, like if the internet talked about me the way they do now when I was like 11, I don’t think I would be able to exist, to be honest. … I like myself more than I used to, and I’m more interested in how I feel than how they feel. But then also that might be a load of bullsh*t because it still hurts my feelings like a sonab*tch.”

See more of Eilish with Vogue below.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Scotch whisky aisle at the liquor is pretty deep these days. More and more brands are getting shelf space with seemingly endless expressions on offer — 20-year-old this, cask strength that, sherry finished this, double oaked that… It’s all a lot to try and keep track of. Then there’s the price. Scotch is generally just more expensive than American whiskeys (for obvious reasons thanks to the costs of importing booze, tariffs, etc.).

That begs the question, what is the best value in Scotch whisky right now? I’m going to try and answer that today with a blind taste test of very good Scotch whiskies that also don’t cost all that much… relatively speaking.

For this exercise, I grabbed 10 bottles of Scotch whisky that I believe have great value (then my wife was kind enough to shuffle and pour those for me). Importantly, “value” does not mean “cheap.” It means that each of the bottles blindly tasted today has a convergence of high-quality and lower prices. Still, all of the Scotch whiskies on this list are under $100 and they all taste pretty good in their own way.

Our lineup today includes the following bottles:

• Compass Box The Peat Monster Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
• Macbeth Bloody Sergeant Household Series Act One Blair Athol Aged 10 Years
• Elements Of Islay Sherry Cask Islay Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
• Glenmorangie The Quinta Ruban Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky Aged 14 Years
• Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie Scottish Barley Unpeated Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
• The Balvenie DoubleWood Single Malt Scotch Whisky Aged 12 Years
• Kingsbarns Balcomie Lowland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
• Talisker Single Malt Scotch Whisky Aged 10 Years
• Arran Single Malt Scotch Whisky 10 Years Old
• Mossburn Blended Malt Scotch Whisky Island Smoke & Spice

So what tastes best among these expressions? I’ll answer that too via a ranking after my blind tasting notes. Because at the end of the day, it’s really all about what tastes best, even when you’re looking for bang for your buck. Let’s dive in!

• The 50 Best Scotch Whiskies Of 2022, Ranked
• The Best Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whiskies Under $100, Ranked
• The Absolute Best Scotch Whisky Between $60-$70, Ranked
• Single Malt Whiskeys From Around The World, Blind Tasted And Ranked
• We Blind Tasted Single Malt Whiskies From All Over The World To Find A Champion

Part 1 — The Value Scotch Whisky Tasting

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

Nose: This is peaty but not ridiculously so, thanks to the subtlety of the Caol Ila in the mix that presents as a soft campfire in the distance with notes of oyster liqueur and pear beneath it all.

Palate: There’s a really rich and sweet apple/pear vibe that cuts through the earthy peat while a vanilla cream brings about a velvet mouthfeel.

Finish: The smoke returns but is tied to the fruit — like a bushel of smoked apples, pears, and apricots next to a touch of ashy smoke — on the finish.

Initial Thoughts:

This is really nice. The peat is certainly there but not overpowering. It’s nicely balanced.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Subtle winter spices and apple hand pies drive the palate toward rum-macerated blackberry, cloves stuck in orange peels, and cinnamon-heavy raisin bread.

Palate: The palate is classically sweet malt dipped in toffee and vanilla sauce with a counterpoint of star anise and clove wrapped in black tea leaves with a whisper of fall briskness.

Finish: The end has a nice honeyed malt vibe with more rich toffee, caramel malts, and mossy bark in a winter apple orchard feel.

Initial Thoughts:

Again, this is a very nice whisky. It’s subtle but delivers a pleasant overall experience.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

Nose: There’s a subtle beachside campfire peatiness that leads to dried cranberries and raspberries dipped in salted dark chocolate with a hint of orange oils.

Palate: Those orange oils burn on the palate and then get very creamy with a sense of dark chocolate oranges, figs, and prunes with a hint of sticky toffee pudding that’s just starting to burn in the oven.

Finish: The burnt toffee and date vibe drives the spice on the finish toward a soft yet warming end with a hint more fig and dark chocolate.

Initial Thoughts:

This was very nice but a little thin at the end. I wasn’t 100% sold on the “burnt” edges — but it might work better over rocks?

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose draws you in with a sense of burnt orange layered into dark chocolate and then melted over a singed marshmallow with a hint of malted vanilla cookie tying it all together.

Palate: That dark chocolate drives the palate with a hint of waxiness and woody winter spice next to whole black peppercorns, fresh tangerine, and a whisper of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Finish: The dark chocolate, woody spice, bright orange, and sharp spearmint all collide on the finish with a sense of soft malted sweetness and faint old oak staves.

Initial Thoughts:

Well, this is just delicious unpeated malt. It’s basically everything you want from that category — deep and lush with a sweet base that tastes so specific from top to bottom. Again, delicious.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Wildflowers and granola bars draw you in on the nose as a hint of brine and salted caramel linger on the back end with orange oils and softwood.

Palate: That brine becomes a full rush of seaspray as tart apples lead towards a Caro syrup mid-palate sweetness.

Finish: That sweetness fades into a spicy malt as sea salt and sweet oak dominated the finish.

Initial Thoughts:

This was shockingly succinct and just really easy to sip. I liked this a lot too, but more as a “I don’t have to think about this to enjoy it” sort of vibe.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Soft and floral honey mixed with a hint of vanilla extract, sweet red berries, and wine-soaked oak.

Palate: The palate meanders through light touches of marzipan with a hint of cinnamon and fields of plum trees with a whisper of tree bark and leather lurking in the background.

Finish: The finish lets the spicy malt kick in with a dose of hot cinnamon and honey tobacco.

Initial Thoughts:

This was even more dialed than the last pour but very much in the same “don’t have to think about it” category. It’s just tasty.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Sweet caramel malts draw you in the nose with a mincemeat pie and nutty fruit cake aura with a solid toffee sweetness.

Palate: The taste leans into grilled pineapple with plenty of nutmeg and cinnamon that edges toward sharp ginger and maybe some rum raisin.

Finish: That ginger really pops on the spicy end with a rock candy feel as this Nutella lushness takes over at the very end.

Initial Thoughts:

This was pretty good but really all over the place. I like it but it took a little time for me to figure it out.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose opens with this soft sense of pitted orchard fruits next to a thin line of beach campfire smoke far off in the distance with a hint of minerality and bright spiced malts.

Palate: The palate has a hint of an oyster shell that leads to dried pears and apricot with a hint of warmth and spice malt next to dry sweetgrass.

Finish: The end is full of lightly smoked plums with a touch of cardamom and cinnamon next to sea salt and a final whiff of that beach campfire way down the beach somewhere.

Initial Thoughts:

I mean, I can smell that this is a Talisker from, like, across the room. I love this pour. It’s so subtle yet so freaking deep.

Taste 9

Tasting Notes:

Nose: This has a bourbon vanilla vibe on the nose with a bunch of cinnamon sticks soaked in apple cider and then cut with orange oils.

Palate: That cinnamon takes a sharp turn toward chili spice on the palate with a soft caramel maltiness and a hint of apple candy.

Finish: The end sort of meanders through apple cider and used cinnamon sticks with a vanilla and caramel malted cookie base.

Initial Thoughts:

This is nice but a little thin overall.

Taste 10

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose feels like it’s almost salted with a sense of smoked apples and plums next to vanilla cream cut with fresh lemon zest.

Palate: The citrus turns into lemon meringue pie on the palate as caramel malts sweet toward digestive cookies with a hint of chocolate lurking somewhere deep in the palate.

Finish: The end kind of thins out the lemon pie toward a soft sweet grain roundness and a hint of salted vanilla sauce.

Initial Thoughts:

This was nice enough but not overly memorable outside of the salinity.

Part 2 — The Value Scotch Whisky Ranking

10. Mossburn Blended Malt Scotch Whisky Island Smoke & Spice — Taste 10

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $44

The Whisky:

This blended malt (that means only single malts are in the blend and not single malts and single grain whiskies) is made from a mix of whiskies aged in American oak. Those barrels came from the “Island” region of Scotland which is very wide-reaching. Mossburn vatted those barrels and then re-barreled the whisky into ex-bourbon barrels that were refitted with toasted new European oak heads for a final rest.

Bottom Line:

This was fine. I didn’t really get that much “smoke” on the profile which feels odd. Anyway, I’d easily use this to mix cocktails or highballs.

9. Elements Of Islay Sherry Cask Islay Blended Malt Scotch Whisky — Taste 3

ABV: 54.5%

Average Price: $87

The Whisky:

This whisky from the Elements of Islay bottlers focuses on sherry casks. Essentially, we’re looking at orphan sherry casks from Islay distilleries that go into a wide-ranging blend that focuses on sherry as the primary flavor profile.

Bottom Line:

This was a perfectly nice sherry-cask finish whisky. It didn’t stand out that much on the panel but there was nothing wrong with it at all. I can see mixing cocktails with this. It feels like a good building block.

8. Arran Single Malt Scotch Whisky 10 Years Old — Taste 9

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $65

The Whisky:

This is Arran’s entry-point bottle. This is classic unpeated malt that’s left in ex-bourbon to age for a decade before vatting, proofing, and bottling as-is.

Bottom Line:

This was nice. If you’re looking for a bourbon-adjacent malt pour, this is a good place to start. Just don’t expect to be wowed.

7. Kingsbarns Balcomie Lowland Single Malt Scotch Whisky — Taste 7

ABV: 59.9%

Average Price: $51

The Whisky:

This new blood from the Lowlands of Scotland is a quality single malt. The vat of whisky here is from 100% ex-Oloroso sherry casks. Once vatted, that whisky is bottled completely as-is at cask strength, letting the whisky in the barrel shine on through.

Bottom Line:

This was nice too. It feels like an easy everyday pour-over ice or a crackin’ cocktail base with some serious depth.

6. Macbeth Bloody Sergeant Household Series Act One Blair Athol Aged 10 Years — Taste 2

ABV: 51.8%

Average Price: $100

The Whisky:

This expression from the new Macbeth series celebrates Blair Athol whisky — a true whiskey nerds distillery. The actual whisky is a blend of ex-bourbon and red wine casks that are vatted and then bottled at cask strength.

Bottom Line:

This is getting into the really good stuff. This is a very well-rounded whisky that hits high flavor notes while still feeling approachable. This is going to be nice anyway that you want to enjoy it.

5. Compass Box The Peat Monster Blended Malt Scotch Whisky — Taste 1

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $69

The Whisky:

Compass Box is one of the most interesting blenders/bottlers working today. This expression is the perfect example of the craft of whisky blending, with six masterfully married peaty barrels coming together, focusing on Caol Ila and Laphroaig. A touch of Highland malt is added to bring in hints of dark spice to balance all that Islay peat.

Bottom Line:

This was nicely peated with a great balance. That said, it wasn’t the best peated whisky on the panel. Still, if you’re looking for a peaty that doesn’t blow your senses out on first nose and sip, this is what you’re looking for. It’s subtle and balanced in all the right ways.

4. Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie Scottish Barley Unpeated Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky — Taste 5

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $56

The Whisky:

Bruichladdich’s philosophy on whisky making is pretty unique. Each batch highlights local, unpeated Scottish barley that’s fermented and distilled. That juice then goes into some combination of ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and ex-wine casks for a varied amount of time. That means each batch is unique. Bruichladdich then provides a code on their bottles so that you can go to their website and find out what makes the bottle in your hand special.

Bottom Line:

This is so dailed that it’s hard not to love. This might be the epitome of “I don’t have to think about this” whiskies on the list. It’s just good and easy to sip. Sometimes that’s enough. This makes a great cocktail too.

3. The Balvenie DoubleWood Single Malt Scotch Whisky Aged 12 Years — Taste 6

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $64

The Whisky:

This is the whisky that launched the “double aging” trend back in 1982. This unpeated single malt spends 12 years mellowing in ex-bourbon casks before it’s transferred to ex-sherry casks for a final maturation of nine months. Finally, the whisky is vatted in a “tun” where it rests for three to four months before proofing and bottling.

Bottom Line:

Again, this is just good. There are no bells or whistles but it doesn’t need it. This feels like the perfect bottle to have around for everyday pours (neat or on the rocks) or for making your favorite whisky-forward cocktails.

2. Glenmorangie The Quinta Ruban Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky Aged 14 Years — Taste 4

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $46

The Whisky:

Glenmorangie’s 14-Year expression spends 10 years resting in used American oak casks. Those barrels are vatted and the whisky is re-barreled into Quinta Ruban port wine casks from Portugal for another four years of mellowing before batching, proofing, and bottling as-is.

Bottom Line:

The only reason this isn’t in first place today is that it felt more Christmas-y and it’s summer. It’s thick and luscious. It’s delicious. I’ll break it out in October.

1. Talisker Single Malt Scotch Whisky Aged 10 Years — Taste 8

ABV: 45.8%

Average Price: $66

The Whisky:

This is one of the most awarded single malts ever. The juice is matured in ex-bourbon casks in Talisker’s warehouse which is literally feet away from the sea. The subtly peated malts take on a real seaside feel as those years tick past, creating a whisky that will not disappoint.

Bottom Line:

This is just so f*cking delicious for what it is. This is a bottle of 10-year-old lightly peated malt from a small island off the coast of Scotland that you can get everywhere without paying dearly for it. That’s kind of a miracle, especially when you consider how damn tasty it is. This also feels like a malt that you can drink year-round. Summer seafood spreads, wintery desserts, backyard cookouts, falling leaves — it works with it all in one way or another.

Part 3 — Final Thoughts on the “Value” Scotch Whisky

Yeah, Talisker 10 is probably one of the best deals that you can get in Scotch whisky right now. I’d also put The Balvenie 12 right there with it if you want to go the unpeated route for a great year-round whisky to have on hand.

I love the Glenmorangie but it really presented as a thick and lush winter pour on this panel. So maybe grab a bottle and save it until the leaves start turning.

As for the rest, there’s some quality and good-value whisky on the list. You can’t go wrong with any of them. So look back at those tasting notes and see if anything jumps out at you and then click those price links to get some.

Part of the reason Victor Wembanyama is such an exciting prospect as he prepares to enter the NBA revolves around his ability to do things that come straight out of a video game. One example came earlier this season when he pulled up from three, missed, and executed a putback dunk on his own miss. It is one of the more wild things someone has done on the basketball court, and during his recent cameo on “The Old Man and the Three,” Wembanyama explained that this helped win an old teammate a bet.

As Wembanyama tells it, during his time with Nanterre 92, a pair of teammates were laughing and looking over at him. He asked what was going on, and he was told that a bet was placed where money was put on the line over whether he could miss a three and then do a putback dunk. This is, of course, an insane thing to bet on, but fast forward to this season and Wembanyama managed to do just that.

“I actually did it this year!” he said. “I didn’t try to do it, it was just natural. So, a couple days after the game, I called one of these teammates and I told him, ‘Yeah, it happened.’ He was like, what? ‘What? You don’t remember? You just won a thousand bucks, this bet with that teammate that I would do that in my career, it happened sooner than expected.”

My question is how this idea could even pop into a person’s head, but credit to that ex-teammate for cooking this up, and credit for Wembanyama for helping them win some cash.