Sometimes what people may consider to be a compliment is actually horribly offensive.
This is one of those times.
An incredible woman has the perfect response for someone who says, “You speak so well … for a black girl.”
But that’s not all. Ernestine Johnson is just getting warmed up. She has plenty more to say about what speaking, looking, and acting like an average black girl really means.
And nope, this isn’t another lesson in political correctness; it’s more about common sense.
She clearly explains it all 42 seconds in the video below:
Oh, and my favorite quote that I’m taking and framing?
This one.
“See, the average black girl that I know, the average black girl that I know were Egyptian queens like Hatshepsut and Nitocris who were ruling dynasties and whole armies of men, excuse me while I set fire to this poem on my pen because I am tired. Tired of the stereotypes black girls have fallen into because of American mentality. Oh, but not half as tired as Ella Baker, Diane Nash, Septima Poinsette-Clark. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired, Miss Fannie Lou Hamer, Daisy Bates, Anna Arnold Hedgeman, and Dorothy Height are far more tired than I am.” — Ernestine Johnson
Imagine you’re working at a school and one of the kids is starting to act up. What do you do?
Traditionally, the answer would be to give the unruly kid detention or suspension.
But in my memory, detention tended to involve staring at walls, bored out of my mind, trying to either surreptitiously talk to the kids around me without getting caught or trying to read a book. If it was designed to make me think about my actions, it didn’t really work. It just made everything feel stupid and unfair.
But Robert W. Coleman Elementary School has been doing something different when students act out: offering meditation.
Instead of punishing disruptive kids or sending them to the principal’s office, the Baltimore school has something called the Mindful Moment Room instead.
The room looks nothing like your standard windowless detention room. Instead, it’s filled with lamps, decorations, and plush purple pillows. Misbehaving kids are encouraged to sit in the room and go through practices like breathing or meditation, helping them calm down and re-center. They are also asked to talk through what happened.
Meditation and mindfulness are pretty interesting, scientifically.
Mindful meditation has been around in some form or another for thousands of years. Recently, though, science has started looking at its effects on our minds and bodies, and it’s finding some interesting effects.
One study, for example, suggested that mindful meditation could give practicing soldiers a kind of mental armor against disruptive emotions, and it can improve memory too. Another suggested mindful meditation could improve a person’s attention span and focus.
Individual studies should be taken with a grain of salt (results don’t always carry in every single situation), but overall, science is starting to build up a really interesting picture of how awesome meditation can be. Mindfulness in particular has even become part of certain fairly successful psychotherapies.
Back at the school, the Mindful Moment Room isn’t the only way Robert W. Coleman Elementary has been encouraging its kids.
The meditation room was created as a partnership with the Holistic Life Foundation, a local nonprofit that runs other programs as well. For more than 10 years the foundation has been offering the after-school program Holistic Me, where kids from pre-K through the fifth grade practice mindfulness exercises and yoga.
“It’s amazing,” said Kirk Philips, the Holistic Me coordinator at Robert W. Coleman. “You wouldn’t think that little kids would meditate in silence. And they do.”
There was a Christmas party, for example, where the kids knew they were going to get presents but were still expected to do meditation first.”As a little kid, that’s got to be hard to sit down and meditate when you know you’re about to get a bag of gifts, and they did it! It was beautiful, we were all smiling at each other watching them,” said Philips.
The kids may even be bringing that mindfulness back home with them. In the August 2016 issue of Oprah Magazine, Holistic Life Foundation co-founder Andres Gonzalez said: “We’ve had parents tell us, ‘I came home the other day stressed out, and my daughter said, “Hey, Mom, you need to sit down. I need to teach you how to breathe.'”
The program also helps mentor and tutor the kids, as well as teach them about the environment.
They help clean up local parks, build gardens, and visit nearby farms. Philips said they even teach kids to be co-teachers, letting them run the yoga sessions.
This isn’t just happening at one school, either. Lots of schools are trying this kind of holistic thinking, and it’s producing incredible results.
In the U.K., for example, the Mindfulness in Schools Project is teaching adults how to set up programs. Mindful Schools, another nonprofit, is helping to set up similar programs in the United States.
Oh, and by the way, the schools are seeing a tangible benefit from this program, too.
Philips said that at Robert W. Coleman Elementary, there have been exactly zero suspensions last year and so far this year. Meanwhile, nearby Patterson Park High School, which also uses the mindfulness programs, said suspension rates dropped and attendance increased as well.
Is that wholly from the mindfulness practices? It’s impossible to say, but those are pretty remarkable numbers, all the same.
Imagine you’re working at a school and one of the kids is starting to act up. What do you do?
Traditionally, the answer would be to give the unruly kid detention or suspension.
But in my memory, detention tended to involve staring at walls, bored out of my mind, trying to either surreptitiously talk to the kids around me without getting caught or trying to read a book. If it was designed to make me think about my actions, it didn’t really work. It just made everything feel stupid and unfair.
But Robert W. Coleman Elementary School has been doing something different when students act out: offering meditation.
Instead of punishing disruptive kids or sending them to the principal’s office, the Baltimore school has something called the Mindful Moment Room instead.
The room looks nothing like your standard windowless detention room. Instead, it’s filled with lamps, decorations, and plush purple pillows. Misbehaving kids are encouraged to sit in the room and go through practices like breathing or meditation, helping them calm down and re-center. They are also asked to talk through what happened.
Meditation and mindfulness are pretty interesting, scientifically.
Mindful meditation has been around in some form or another for thousands of years. Recently, though, science has started looking at its effects on our minds and bodies, and it’s finding some interesting effects.
One study, for example, suggested that mindful meditation could give practicing soldiers a kind of mental armor against disruptive emotions, and it can improve memory too. Another suggested mindful meditation could improve a person’s attention span and focus.
Individual studies should be taken with a grain of salt (results don’t always carry in every single situation), but overall, science is starting to build up a really interesting picture of how awesome meditation can be. Mindfulness in particular has even become part of certain fairly successful psychotherapies.
Back at the school, the Mindful Moment Room isn’t the only way Robert W. Coleman Elementary has been encouraging its kids.
The meditation room was created as a partnership with the Holistic Life Foundation, a local nonprofit that runs other programs as well. For more than 10 years the foundation has been offering the after-school program Holistic Me, where kids from pre-K through the fifth grade practice mindfulness exercises and yoga.
“It’s amazing,” said Kirk Philips, the Holistic Me coordinator at Robert W. Coleman. “You wouldn’t think that little kids would meditate in silence. And they do.”
There was a Christmas party, for example, where the kids knew they were going to get presents but were still expected to do meditation first.”As a little kid, that’s got to be hard to sit down and meditate when you know you’re about to get a bag of gifts, and they did it! It was beautiful, we were all smiling at each other watching them,” said Philips.
The kids may even be bringing that mindfulness back home with them. In the August 2016 issue of Oprah Magazine, Holistic Life Foundation co-founder Andres Gonzalez said: “We’ve had parents tell us, ‘I came home the other day stressed out, and my daughter said, “Hey, Mom, you need to sit down. I need to teach you how to breathe.'”
The program also helps mentor and tutor the kids, as well as teach them about the environment.
They help clean up local parks, build gardens, and visit nearby farms. Philips said they even teach kids to be co-teachers, letting them run the yoga sessions.
This isn’t just happening at one school, either. Lots of schools are trying this kind of holistic thinking, and it’s producing incredible results.
In the U.K., for example, the Mindfulness in Schools Project is teaching adults how to set up programs. Mindful Schools, another nonprofit, is helping to set up similar programs in the United States.
Oh, and by the way, the schools are seeing a tangible benefit from this program, too.
Philips said that at Robert W. Coleman Elementary, there have been exactly zero suspensions last year and so far this year. Meanwhile, nearby Patterson Park High School, which also uses the mindfulness programs, said suspension rates dropped and attendance increased as well.
Is that wholly from the mindfulness practices? It’s impossible to say, but those are pretty remarkable numbers, all the same.
Christmas and Chanukah may be known as holidays that are part of the season of giving, but let’s not forget that one of the greatest joys of Halloween is handing out candy to neighborhood children.
Well, a guy on Reddit could be the perfect candidate for the Scrooge of Halloween because he has a real problem with children from disadvantaged neighborhoods trick-or-treating in his “affluent” suburb.
Seriously, who gets mad about kids trick-or-treating on Halloween?
The aggrieved man shared his story on the AITA page, asking if he was in the wrong for being hostile towards the trick-or-treaters that come to his neighborhood every year.
“For the past few years, the neighbors and I have seen a growing amount of people come to our neighborhood for Halloween. This has caused a lot of people to ‘turn off’ for Halloween, which you’d think would get the crowd to lessen but it keeps growing,” hewrote.
“I was openly annoyed with this leading up to Halloween, and my girlfriend would condemn it every time I brought it up because ‘Halloween’s all about sharing,’ saying it shouldn’t matter whether the kids are from the neighborhood or not,” he continued.
The girlfriend also noted that kids who come to their neighborhood may be unable to trick-or-treat where they live because it’s too dangerous. “Not surprisingly, this year at both entrances to the neighborhood, cars line the streets.. some with out-of-state plates (I live in a suburb of a city which is just over the state line.),” he continued.
When asked if he was wrong for “getting annoyed with parents who truck carloads full of kids to a neighborhood they don’t live,” the commenters overwhelmingly agreed he was. The most popular comment was simple and devastating. “Yep, and sorry about your privilege,” one commenter wrote.
Another popular commenter went to great lengths to describe why he was wrong.
“You are not required to hand out candy. You are not required to hand out more candy than you are willing to buy. If you don’t feel like participating or when you are out of candy, you can hang a sign and turn off your porch light and go on with your night,” Spectrum2081 wrote.
“However, when you start picking which kids are worthy of your Halloween treats, you are indeed an a**hole,” they continued. “Imagine being a kid, dressing up, knocking on a door on Halloween and saying, trick-or-treat to someone visibly annoyed by your presence. Imagine it is because of something like the color of your skin or because you are overweight. That would feel pretty bad. Now imagine it’s because you are too poor.”
Another person noted that it’s much more difficult to trick-or-treat in an urban setting.
“Most of these families likely live in neighborhoods that are predominantly apartment buildings and businesses with few single family dwellings. This means that the ratio of homes handing out candy vs buildings in general is low. Secondly, these kids are not less deserving of the candy from your neighborhood than children who have parents in a higher income bracket. The fact that you seem to think they are hints at a bias that you probably haven’t examined too closely but probably should,” SleepUntilTomorrow wrote.
However, a few people thought he could be right.
“I know this is the unpopular opinion,” Glatog wrote. “But when it is just a handful of kids extra it isn’t a big deal, and I’m sure you’d have no problem. But there is a neighborhood here that gets thousands of extra kids. That’s a little absurd. Not all of those kids live in apartments or bad neighborhoods. The sense of entitlement is wrong.”
It’s a little unnerving to think there are people of means who scoff at giving candy to kids from underprivileged neighborhoods. But it’s encouraging to see everyone step up and say that giving is a big part of the Halloween season, and it’s not a child’s fault if they live in a neighborhood where they can’t trick-or-treat.
The great thing about holidays is that, when celebrated correctly, they are a wonderful way to bring people together. The spirit of Halloween may be a celebration of spookiness, but at its heart, it’s the joy of seeing kids proudly filling their pillowcases with candy and toys given to them by people they hardly know. Adults should love that wonderful glint of mischief a child gets in their eyes while being out on a spooky night regardless of their parents’ tax bracket.
Arguments are an inevitable part of parenting. And whether or not to let kids witness those disputes in an interesting conversation that we don’t hear about very often.
When disagreements turn into full on fights, with name calling and yelling, it can be a very painful and stressful experience for the kid. But if handled well, it could be a chance to see how mom and dad can navigate through inevitable difficulties, instilling an example for the future.
Nika Diwa and her husband seem to share the latter stance, sharing in a now viral TikTok that they do “fight” in front of their kids, and in their “unpopular opinion” think other parents should do the same.
In the clip, it seems that Diwa and her husband are having a disagreement, but one that never results in any kind of abusive behavior, and instead seems to end on a fairly positive note. All while their child rests in her lap.
“It’s important for kids to learn how to navigate healthy conflict,” Diwa writes. “We let them watch mom and dad disagree respectfully and work towards unity and resolution. This helps set them up for healthy conflict resolution as they grow up.”
And here’s where we get into a bit of discourse over semantics. Diwa’s video soon spurned comments arguing that what she and her husband actually showed was a disagreement, not a fight at all. Which folks generally concurred was the healthy option. But actual fighting would have been another story.
Others noted how even non-hostile arguments could still be triggering depending on the topic. One person wrote, “I think it depends. I have a lot of trauma from listening to my parents argue about finances.”
Still, many viewers noted how this was a refreshing take compared to how they grew up. “As some whose parents always tried to hide their arguments, this is SO wonderful. Healthy conflict resolution. It’s ok to disagree,” one person commented.
And what do experts think? In her contributing article for the Gottman Institute, Melissa Benaroya, MSW, LICSW, writes that indeed, arguing in front of your kid can actually be beneficial, depending on HOW the argument is handled.
“If arguments happen frequently or they are hostile, physical, aggressive, or include stonewalling, silent treatment, or insults, it can definitely be harmful to children,” she says. “Children who are exposed to this type of conflict will often become anxious, distressed, sad, angry, and depressed.”
However, she notes that “children learn to manage conflict by observing how the adults in their life manage disagreements and strong emotions,” suggesting that if parents do develop good communication strategies, ones that focus on collaboration, empathy and perspective-taking, listening and validating feelings, that it can help kids understand how to emulate a similar behavior.
No parent is going to be perfect at all times. And perhaps seeing how to handle all those inevitable imperfections of adulthood with grace and compassion is one of the greatest gifts parents can pass down to children.
Christmas and Chanukah may be known as holidays that are part of the season of giving, but let’s not forget that one of the greatest joys of Halloween is handing out candy to neighborhood children.
Well, a guy on Reddit could be the perfect candidate for the Scrooge of Halloween because he has a real problem with children from disadvantaged neighborhoods trick-or-treating in his “affluent” suburb.
Seriously, who gets mad about kids trick-or-treating on Halloween?
The aggrieved man shared his story on the AITA page, asking if he was in the wrong for being hostile towards the trick-or-treaters that come to his neighborhood every year.
“For the past few years, the neighbors and I have seen a growing amount of people come to our neighborhood for Halloween. This has caused a lot of people to ‘turn off’ for Halloween, which you’d think would get the crowd to lessen but it keeps growing,” hewrote.
“I was openly annoyed with this leading up to Halloween, and my girlfriend would condemn it every time I brought it up because ‘Halloween’s all about sharing,’ saying it shouldn’t matter whether the kids are from the neighborhood or not,” he continued.
The girlfriend also noted that kids who come to their neighborhood may be unable to trick-or-treat where they live because it’s too dangerous. “Not surprisingly, this year at both entrances to the neighborhood, cars line the streets.. some with out-of-state plates (I live in a suburb of a city which is just over the state line.),” he continued.
When asked if he was wrong for “getting annoyed with parents who truck carloads full of kids to a neighborhood they don’t live,” the commenters overwhelmingly agreed he was. The most popular comment was simple and devastating. “Yep, and sorry about your privilege,” one commenter wrote.
Another popular commenter went to great lengths to describe why he was wrong.
“You are not required to hand out candy. You are not required to hand out more candy than you are willing to buy. If you don’t feel like participating or when you are out of candy, you can hang a sign and turn off your porch light and go on with your night,” Spectrum2081 wrote.
“However, when you start picking which kids are worthy of your Halloween treats, you are indeed an a**hole,” they continued. “Imagine being a kid, dressing up, knocking on a door on Halloween and saying, trick-or-treat to someone visibly annoyed by your presence. Imagine it is because of something like the color of your skin or because you are overweight. That would feel pretty bad. Now imagine it’s because you are too poor.”
Another person noted that it’s much more difficult to trick-or-treat in an urban setting.
“Most of these families likely live in neighborhoods that are predominantly apartment buildings and businesses with few single family dwellings. This means that the ratio of homes handing out candy vs buildings in general is low. Secondly, these kids are not less deserving of the candy from your neighborhood than children who have parents in a higher income bracket. The fact that you seem to think they are hints at a bias that you probably haven’t examined too closely but probably should,” SleepUntilTomorrow wrote.
However, a few people thought he could be right.
“I know this is the unpopular opinion,” Glatog wrote. “But when it is just a handful of kids extra it isn’t a big deal, and I’m sure you’d have no problem. But there is a neighborhood here that gets thousands of extra kids. That’s a little absurd. Not all of those kids live in apartments or bad neighborhoods. The sense of entitlement is wrong.”
It’s a little unnerving to think there are people of means who scoff at giving candy to kids from underprivileged neighborhoods. But it’s encouraging to see everyone step up and say that giving is a big part of the Halloween season, and it’s not a child’s fault if they live in a neighborhood where they can’t trick-or-treat.
The great thing about holidays is that, when celebrated correctly, they are a wonderful way to bring people together. The spirit of Halloween may be a celebration of spookiness, but at its heart, it’s the joy of seeing kids proudly filling their pillowcases with candy and toys given to them by people they hardly know. Adults should love that wonderful glint of mischief a child gets in their eyes while being out on a spooky night regardless of their parents’ tax bracket.
Arguments are an inevitable part of parenting. And whether or not to let kids witness those disputes in an interesting conversation that we don’t hear about very often.
When disagreements turn into full on fights, with name calling and yelling, it can be a very painful and stressful experience for the kid. But if handled well, it could be a chance to see how mom and dad can navigate through inevitable difficulties, instilling an example for the future.
Nika Diwa and her husband seem to share the latter stance, sharing in a now viral TikTok that they do “fight” in front of their kids, and in their “unpopular opinion” think other parents should do the same.
In the clip, it seems that Diwa and her husband are having a disagreement, but one that never results in any kind of abusive behavior, and instead seems to end on a fairly positive note. All while their child rests in her lap.
“It’s important for kids to learn how to navigate healthy conflict,” Diwa writes. “We let them watch mom and dad disagree respectfully and work towards unity and resolution. This helps set them up for healthy conflict resolution as they grow up.”
And here’s where we get into a bit of discourse over semantics. Diwa’s video soon spurned comments arguing that what she and her husband actually showed was a disagreement, not a fight at all. Which folks generally concurred was the healthy option. But actual fighting would have been another story.
Others noted how even non-hostile arguments could still be triggering depending on the topic. One person wrote, “I think it depends. I have a lot of trauma from listening to my parents argue about finances.”
Still, many viewers noted how this was a refreshing take compared to how they grew up. “As some whose parents always tried to hide their arguments, this is SO wonderful. Healthy conflict resolution. It’s ok to disagree,” one person commented.
And what do experts think? In her contributing article for the Gottman Institute, Melissa Benaroya, MSW, LICSW, writes that indeed, arguing in front of your kid can actually be beneficial, depending on HOW the argument is handled.
“If arguments happen frequently or they are hostile, physical, aggressive, or include stonewalling, silent treatment, or insults, it can definitely be harmful to children,” she says. “Children who are exposed to this type of conflict will often become anxious, distressed, sad, angry, and depressed.”
However, she notes that “children learn to manage conflict by observing how the adults in their life manage disagreements and strong emotions,” suggesting that if parents do develop good communication strategies, ones that focus on collaboration, empathy and perspective-taking, listening and validating feelings, that it can help kids understand how to emulate a similar behavior.
No parent is going to be perfect at all times. And perhaps seeing how to handle all those inevitable imperfections of adulthood with grace and compassion is one of the greatest gifts parents can pass down to children.
I occasionally get asked by mothers of young children what the secret is to raising great teenagers.
My initial response is that I have absolutely no clue. My kids are who they are IN SPITE of having me as a mother. (The young moms don’t find that answer too helpful.)
Really, the first thing that I will tell you is to disbelieve the myth that teenagers are sullen, angry creatures who slam doors and hate their parents. Some do that, but the overwhelming majority do not. Every one of my kids’ friends are just as happy and fun as my kids are, so I know it’s not just us.
Teenagers are incredible. They are funny, smart, eager to please, and up for just about anything as long as food is involved. They have the most generous hearts and want desperately to be loved and validated. They are quirky and messy and have the best sense of humor.
So, here is my list of “rules” for raising teens. These are the secrets we have found to be successful.
1. Love them fiercely.
Love everything about them, even the annoying stuff. Love them for their actions AND their intentions. Let them know in word and deed how much you adore them. Daily. Love their wrinkled shirts and Axe-body-spray-covered selves. Love their bad handwriting and pimpled cheeks. Love their scattered brains and long limbs. All these seemingly insignificant details are an amazing, magical process at work. It’s like being witness to the miracle of a diamond mid-formation. All this imperfection is going to one day yield a responsible, serious adult. A loving husband and father. Or a wonderful wife and mother. It’s a privilege to be witness to such glorious growth.
See your teenagers as a privilege, don’t see them as a burden. They’re more perceptive than you can imagine. How you feel about them will be no secret. So just love ‘em.
2. Listen and pay attention.
When they walk in the door after school, you have a precious few minutes when they will divulge the secrets of their day with you. Be excited to see them. Put down the cell phone. Don’t waste this time making dinner or taking a phone call. Look them in the eye and hear what they are saying. Make their victories your victories. Be empathetic. It is really hard to navigate high school and middle school. Don’t offer advice at this time unless they ask for it. Don’t lecture. Just listen. It makes them feel important and valued. We all need to feel that way.
3. Say yes more than you say no.
The world is forever going to tell them no. For the rest of their lives, they will be swimming in a stormy sea with wave after wave of “you’re not good enough” and “you can’t do this” crashing down on their heads. If nothing else, I want to be the opposite voice in their lives for as long as I can. I want to instill in them the belief that they are not limited and they can do anything if they’re willing to work hard enough for it. I want to be the YES, YOU CAN in their lives. I want them to leave my house every day feeling invincible.
4. Say no often.
You need to say no to experiences and situations that will set your child up for harm or unhappiness. Don’t let them go to the parties where they will be forced to make a choice about alcohol at age 16 in front of their peers . Don’t let them stay out until three in the morning with a member of the opposite sex. Be the parent. Set up rules for their safety, both physical and moral. You would think this rule goes without saying, but we have known a shockingly large number of parents who don’t.
5. Feed them. A lot.
And not only them, but their friends too. These bodies are growing and developing at an astonishing rate and need fuel to do so — most of which they prefer to be loaded with processed sugar and hydrogenated-something-or-others. When their friends know your pantry is stocked to the gills with treats, they will beg your kid to hang out at your place. This allows you to not only meet and know their friends, but to keep an eye on your teen as well.
6. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
When living with teenagers, it can be so easy to see the backpack dropped in the middle of the living room as laziness. Or the bedroom scattered with dirty clothes as irresponsible. Instead, and before you open your mouth to yell at them, put yourself in their shoes. Find out about their day first. Maybe they are feeling beaten down, and they just need to unwind for a minute and tell you about it. Ignore the mess for a bit and put your arms around that big, sweaty kid and give him a hug. Talk to him about his world. Find out what he did, wants to do, and dreams of doing. THEN, and only then, ask him to pick it up and put it away.
That being said, do I completely ignore the state of my boys’ bedrooms all the time? No, I do not. But I pick my battles, and I pick the appropriate time to fight them. Once every seven to 10 days or so, I tell them their bedrooms need to be picked up. Which they do happily because it’s not the running loop of a nagging mom. They know when I ask, it needs to be done.
7. Stand back and watch the magic happen.
If you let them, these glorious creatures will open their hearts and love you more fiercely than you could possibly imagine. They are brilliant, capable, strong spirits who bring with them a flurry of happiness. They are hilarious and clever. They are thoughtful and sensitive. They want us to adore them. They need us to adore them. They love deeply and are keenly in touch with the feelings of others.
They are just about the greatest gift God gave to parents.
This article was written by Christie Halversson and originally appeared on 08.20.19
When you’re a tequila writer, you risk falling too far down certain rabbit holes sometimes. Writing about tequila, I’ve come across all kinds of different bottles — limited run expressions, the world of additive vs. additive-free tequilas, and the occasional rare bottle. Wich is a lot of fun but it can sometimes put you out of touch with what people see at their local grocer, liquor store, or bar.
I can give you a great gifting option, point you in the direction of bottles that are worth chasing down, and even introduce you to bottles that might shift how you perceive “good tequila.” But ask me my opinion on some of the best-selling tequilas on the market and… I might need a quick drink to jog my memory. So we thought it would be fun to put some of the top-selling expressions on the market to the blind taste test and ranked the results.
This article is as mainstream as it gets, baby!
Methodology:
To determine which brands were “best sellers” we referenced the online retailer Drizly’s latest list of the top-selling tequilas of 2023. Our tasting class in order from #1 best seller to #10 best seller is:
Casamigos Blanco
Clase Azul Reposado
Espolón Blanco
Casamigos Reposado
Don Julio 1942Añejo
Patrón Silver
Jose Curvo Especial Silver
Don Julio Blanco
1800 Silver
Espolòn Tequila Reposado
Once we had all ten bottles, I took a seat in my dining room and had my girlfriend prepare 10 unmarked pours in a random order. Here’s what resonated for my unique palate and… what didn’t.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Tequila Posts Of The Last Six Months
Nose: A medley of roasted agave and vanilla bean on the nose, it almost has a slight baking spice quality to it. Very inviting, like fresh cookies out of the oven.
Palate: A warm chocolate quality begins our journey, it starts sweet and then quickly turns into a spicy burn with green tea and green pepper flavors dancing on the tongue.
Finish: Peppery celery and zesty citrus dominate the finish. Highly vegetal and almost juicy.
Taste 2:
Dane Rivera
Nose: I see a faint straw color and the scent is dominated by nutmeg and the slightest hint of oak.
Palate: Slightly fruity coffee and cloves splash on the tastebuds with a slight earthy burn, a hint of tropical fruit, and a touch of grass.
Finish: A quick finish, there is a nice oaky vibe with a bit of roasted agave, but it doesn’t stick around.
Taste 3:
Dane Rivera
Nose: All over the place, I can smell some roasted agave, but there is a noticeable sweetness here as well, and a strong almost kerosene-like quality to it.
Palate: Silky with a mix of tart pineapple and juicy orange juice, with some bitter lettuce-like flavors keeping the sweetness from being too out of control.
Finish: Black pepper with an artificial lime finish. Goes down incredibly smooth.
Taste 4:
Dane Rivera
Nose: I wouldn’t know it by the color, the pour is too shallow, but from the smell alone I can tell this is an añejo. And since there is only one añejo on this list, I know it’s Don Julio 1942.
The nose is pure dessert — chocolate, caramel, and vanilla mingled with a warm roasted agave scent and a bit of the barrel.
Palate: Smooth and cinnamon spicy, the vanilla is a strong and dominating presence with rich toffee notes. I keep coming back to one word here: dessert. There is a noticeable luxuriousness here that is a joy to drink.
Finish: The finish is pure oak and agave, most of the sweetness dissipates at the end but it has a pleasing smoothness. This is wince-free tequila.
Taste 5:
Dane Rivera
Nose: Sweet vanilla frosting with gentle notes of honey and very slight whispers of oak.
Palate: Stunningly sweet, that vanilla frosting smell translates into the flavor heavily, along with some caramel notes and a lot of white sugar. Tastes straight-up sweetened by something that doesn’t belong in the bottle.
Finish: Smooth, silky and sweet. I’m not getting a whole lot of agave here, but I can still taste just a hint of it along with some very mellow oak notes.
Taste 6:
Dane Rivera
Nose: Black pepper, green grass and agave dominate the nose. There is a subtle harshness to the scent that makes my eyes water a bit, especially after the sweetness of the last pour.
Palate: Very nice on the palate, I’m tasting strong asparagus notes mixed with a zesty orange rind flavor, a bit of vanilla sweetness, and more black pepper.
Finish: I like the finish here, it’s harsh and spicy, but in the best way. It continues to burn on the tongue once you’re done with it. A cool sensation.
Taste 7:
Dane Rivera
Nose: Harsh on the nose, I’m getting a heavy dose of kerosene, burnt plastic, and nail polish remover.
Palate: A lot of spice with white pepper. It has a cheap vodka-like burn to it.
Finish: The burn is intense, which makes it a bit hard to latch on to any flavors on the finish. I’m tasting a touch of agave under all the alcohol harshness, enough to know that this is tequila and not something else.
Taste 8:
Dane Rivera
Nose: There is a strong, almost artificial vanilla presence on the nose kissed with warm roasted agave notes, and a bit of brown sugar.
Palate: That agave in the nose is present on the palate mixed with an almost bitter vanilla flavor, a hint of cinnamon, and soft barrel notes.
Finish: Buttery with some citrus zest, and some earthy black pepper giving it a nice spicy kick.
Taste 9:
Dane Rivera
Nose: Agave and acetone, a weird chemical cleaner quality here that wafts from the glass.
Palate: A strong and pronounced burn followed by a mix of black pepper and citrus notes and a touch of mint.
Finish: Very harsh on the finish with a strong burn that takes away a lot of the character. I’m getting an artificial sweetness lurking on the backend.
Taste 10:
Dane Rivera
Nose: This last run of tequila has been a bit tough. I’m getting alcohol on the nose again but this time there is some cooked agave here as well and a bit of citrus zest that tickles the nose. Almost sneeze-inducing.
Palate: Much better on the palate, I’m getting strong roasted agave notes, black pepper, a touch of butter, and a lot of green grass.
Finish: Very butter, with a vegetal quality that is quite nice. The nose fooled me on this one, I thought I was in for a rough ride.
Not at all surprised to see that Jose Cuervo’s Silver ranked last for me. This is the sort of tequila you’re going to want to reserve for big-batch mixes and frozen margarita machines. It’s harsh and not very pleasing, I wouldn’t even suggest you shoot the stuff — it’s rough!
I’m surprised it remains a best seller when for just a few dollars more there are more drinkable bottles out there. The agave goes through acid thermal hydrolysis cooking (yum?) and is a mixto — meaning it’s not made from 100% blue agave.
The Bottom Line:
This is frat-house, stomach-burning, tastebud-melting tequila. It’s dirt cheap, though — so if you’re throwing a party and need a lot of tequila but don’t want to break the bank, this is the play.
You hate to see the cheap stuff rank at the bottom of the list (it would be fun to be surprised!), but it is what it is. This has some of the same harsh qualities as the Cuervo but is considerably more drinkable in my opinion, with a more clear agave flavor. The tequila is produced at NOM 1122, Casa Cuervo, where the agave is cooked in a high-pressure autoclave, roller mill extracted, and fermented in stainless steel tanks.
Yes, it’s a bit pricier than the Cuervo Especial but this is a significant step up in flavor.
The Bottom Line:
It’s a lot more pleasing than the below $20 bottles. A cheap tequila that you can shoot without worrying about your tastebuds burning off.
I’m shocked that Patrón ranked this low for me. Ultimately it was that artificial quality on the nose and the finish that held it back for me.
Patrón’s Silver is made with blue agave cooked in stone brick ovens and tahona extracted, fermented in wood fermentation tanks, and carbon filtered at NOM 1492, Patrón Spirits. There was a time when most of the general public considered Patrón to be top-shelf tequila, I think that’s down to its sweetness and drinkability.
The Bottom Line:
Sweet and easily drinkable, perhaps too much so. It disappears in a cocktail.
Another surprise for me, I would’ve assumed Espolón would have held its own a bit better in this lineup but it looks like it’s not going to crack the top five. Again, that had to do with a pronounced harshness on the nose.
This tequila blanco is produced at NOM 1440, Campari Mexico, using agave cooked in a low-pressure autoclave and roller mill extracted before being fermented in stainless steel tanks and cold filtered. Espolón likes to bill itself as ‘additive-free’ because it’s fermented without fibers but that designation has not been recognized by Tequila Matchmaker.
The Bottom Line:
For the price, I think it’s the best tequila you’re going to find. Unfortunately, it couldn’t hold its own against some of the pricier bottles in this taste test.
This was the biggest surprise of the tasting and hopefully serves as an argument that higher prices don’t always equal better tequila. Clase Azul is one of the most hyped brands in the scene and that’s due to this admittedly beautiful bottle it comes in. I won’t lie, it makes for a great gift, and its easy drinkability will lead a lot of people to think this is what good tequila should taste like but… I’m going to push back on that.
It’s entirely too sweet. All the bright and beautiful characteristics of agave feel like they’re missing here. It’s hard not to like it because it’s so easy to drink but you’re paying for the bottle design here.
Clase Azul is produced at NOM 1595, Casa Tradición using agave that is cooked in stone brick ovens and roller mill extracted before being aged in American White Oak barrels for up to eight months.
The Bottom Line:
It makes for a great gift and is a conversation starter, but it is so sweetened that it masks all the bite and character of agave.
Don Julio’s Blanco is pretty solid, I think for the price I could find a lot of options that I’d recommend above this, but I’m happy to see that the general public is buying this brand in droves, because at the end of the day its still good tequila.
Don Julio’s blanco is made from 100% blue agave cooked in stone brick ovens, roller mill extracted, and fermented in stainless steel tanks at NOM 1449.
The Bottom Line:
A significant step up from the flavors of the bottles ranked below this one. You get a lot of agave notes and grassy sensations with this clean unaged expression.
Clooney’s Casamigos continues to wow me! This is the top-selling bottle of tequila according to Drizly, and while I’d like people to lean away from celebrity-backed brands (Clooney sold his share long ago) in favor of less corporate entities, from a flavor standpoint, this is solid tequila.
It’s produced at NOM 1609, part of Diageo, where the agave is cooked in stone brick ovens, roller mill extracted and fermented, and rested in stainless steel tanks. This tequila is made with deep well water which gives it a lot of minerality.
The Bottom Line:
This isn’t the best-selling tequila just because Clooney’s name is on the bottle, it has an addictive bright and ~ sort of… spikey ~ flavor profile.
I didn’t want to put the two bottles of Casamigos side by side but that’s just the way the cookie crumbled. The main difference between Casamigos’ blanco and repo is the more mellow flavor and silkier texture of the latter.
To make the reposado, Casamigos ages its blanco tequila for 7 months in American white oak barrels, which give it a soft straw color.
The Bottom Line:
A slight step up from the Casamigos Blanco. I like the mellow vibe and barrel notes it adds to a margarita vs the unaged version.
I figured Espolón would hold its own against the bottles in this lineup, but I never imagined it would make it to the number two spot. Ultimately, what I like about this over the Casamigos version is the more complex character — I’m tasting a lot of fruity notes, more grass, more burn, more of everything! Yet it still has that mellow easy-on-the-palate finish that brings you back for more.
Produced at NOM 1440, Campari, Espolón’s reposado is aged for a very brief 3 months in American white oak barrels.
The Bottom Line:
Mellow and drinkable, but with a lot of bright agave characteristics. An astounding bottle for the price.
It’s not entirely a surprise that Don Julio 1942’s Añejo took the top spot here. Not only is it the priciest bottle on the list, but I pretty much knew from the first sip that this was going to be the number one choice. There is just an elevated quality here that sets it in another class from the rest of the bottles in this blind taste test.
I do wonder how this would stack up to a strictly añejo-focused blind taste test. As as enjoyable as it is, it’s a bit sweeter than the typical tequila I go for. I am not sure I would choose it amongst a similar grouping of bottles.
The tequila here is produced at NOM 1449 and uses agave cooked in stone brick ovens before being roller mill extracted, fermented in stainless steel, and aged in bourbon barrels for two and a half years, giving it some noticeable whisky-esque qualities. If you love that smooth whiskey experience, you’re going to love Don Julio.
The Bottom Line:
A great sipping tequila and a bottle that I think almost everyone would enjoy, from tequila-drinking novices to people with a more experienced palate. The real question is, how does this stack up with other aged expressions in this price range? We’ll need to investigate!
Through her career, Britney Spears has gone through hell and back. And now, she’s telling all in her upcoming memoir, The Woman In Me. Over the course of the past few years, fans have played a big role in Spears’ newfound freedom, after launching the #FreeBritney movement, which ultimately led to courts ending her 13-year conservatorship in 2021.
In the book, Spears speaks about her time in a rehabilitation facility, according to New York Times, who reported receiving excerpts of the book. She spoke about how her father forced her to go the facility, and threatened to take her to court if she didn’t.
It was in this facility that she learned about the #FreeBritney movement.
“That was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen in my life,” Spears said. “I don’t think people knew how much the #FreeBritney movement meant to me, especially in the beginning.”
Elsewhere in the memoir, she opened up about the aftermath of her conservatorship and the long-term emotional and physical consequences.
“Migraines are just one part of the physical and emotional damage I have now that I’m out of the conservatorship,” said Spears. “I don’t think my family understands the real damage that they did.”
The Woman In Me is out 10/24 via Simon And Schuster. Find more information here.
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