Category: Worldwide

Our tireless pursuit to find the best bottles of scotch whisky at every price point has landed us in one of the first prime price points. Bottles of scotch between $40 and $50 are where things really start to get interesting. This is the range where the blended scotch gets really good and the single malts start to pop.

Granted, those single malts are still pretty young. But they’re solid and offer a nice baseline for newcomers to sippable Scotch whisky.

As for the prices of each of these bottles, well, that’s going to vary greatly depending on which coast you’re on (it simply costs more money to get this stuff to the West Coast, folks), which state you’re buying the bottle (local taxes range wildly), and which store you’re in. Because as Pappy proves, stores can charge whatever they want for this stuff depending on demand.

All of that being said, these bottles are going to be worth the search and the cash. The defining factor for each bottle’s inclusion on the list is that it is a great tasting bottle of scotch at a fairly accessible price point. Sure, you can get two quality bottles of bourbon for the price of most of these bottles. But where’s the fun in that?

The Singleton of Glendullan 12

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $40

The Whisky:

This single malt from Diageo is a great gateway to single malt. The juice is aged for 12 years mostly in ex-bourbon barrels and blended with a few ex-sherry cask-matured whiskies before it’s cut with that iconic Speyside water and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

This is a delicate sip of whisky that leans into notes of dried florals and sweet fruits counterpointed by spicy oak and worn leather. The palate lets the spice amp up a bit while the fruit touches on both orange oils and orange blossoms with whispers of bourbon vanilla, dried fruits, and fresh honey. The end really holds onto that lightness while fading fairly quickly, leaving you with a cedary leather, more of that sweet fruit, and almost creamy vanilla.

Bottom Line:

This Diageo single malt was originally conceived for the travel market, meaning it was only found at duty-free shops. Its wild popularity allowed this one to go worldwide and we’re all luckier for it. Try it in a highball and cocktail. It also works really well as an easy-sipping scotch on the rocks.

SIA Blended Scotch Whisky

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $43

The Whisky:

SIA Whisky is the result of Carin Luna-Ostaseski’s passion for the good stuff from Scotland. Luna-Ostaseski successfully launched this whisky through Kickstarter, making the first crowd-sourced whisky. The actual juice in the bottle is a blend of Speyside, Highland, and Islay juices with a 60/40 grain whisky or malt whisky ratio.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a marrying of bright orange zest with a five-spice matrix lurking underneath. The citrus really brightens things up as hints of vanilla pudding, honey, buttery toffee, and fatty nuts balance out the flavor with a very distant wisp of that Islay smoke. The end is well-rounded, nutty, and full of vanilla cream, all finishing on a slightly sweet smoky note.

Bottom Line:

This really is a solid newcomer to the world of blended scotch. It’s very sippable on the rocks but also builds a nice cocktail.

Johnnie Walker Green Label

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $43

The Whisky:

The blend is a “pure malt” blended whisky, meaning that it’s made only with single malts (usually blended scotch is made with both grain and malt whisky). In this case, the juice is pulled from all over Scotland with a focus on Speyside, Highland, Lowland, and Island malts, including a minimum of 15-year-old Talisker, Caol Ila, Cragganmore, and Linkwood.

Tasting Notes:

This sip draws you in with the smells of an old, soft cedar box that’s held black pepper, sweet fruits, and oily vanilla pods next to a hint of green grass. The taste really holds onto the cedar as the fruits lean tropical with a hint of dried roses pinging in the background. The end builds on that by adding a note of spicy tobacco, a splash of sea spray, and a distant billow of campfire smoke.

Bottom Line:

A lot of people love this bottle (us included). If you can find it, it makes one of the best highballs you’ll ever taste while also working perfectly well as a sipper on the rocks or a cocktail base.

Jura 10

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $44

The Whisky:

This Island whisky from the Inner Hebrides is designed to marry the sea to the earth. The juice spends ten years resting in ex-bourbon barrels literally next to the sea. The juice is then married and put into ex-sherry barrels for a finishing maturation. The result is proofed with local water and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

Slight wafts of apricots and plum lead towards a sharp black pepper spiciness and a very distant whiff of sweet smoke. The stonefruit keeps a throughline in the sip as the spiciness leans more fresh ginger and choco-coffee bitterness peeks in (especially when water is added). The medium-length end touches on the fruit, spice, and bitter notes with a final touch of that smoke ending the sip.

Bottom Line:

This is a really easy-drinking dram thanks to that fruity nature. Pour it over some rocks and sip or mix it into a killer cocktail.

Ardbeg 10

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $45

The Whisky:

This is a classic bottle of peated malt. The Islay whisky is made with locally peated smoky malts and then primarily matured in ex-sherry casks for the years. Those casks are married and then cut with local lake water before bottling.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a clear sense of stonefruit, orange oils, and earthen peaty smoke that greets you. The palate leans into the iodine and earthiness with plenty of campfire smoke next to black pepper, vanilla, and an underlying nuttiness. With a little water, a coffee bitterness arises next to a hint of black licorice. The end really embraces the smoke, adding fattiness like an old meat smoker as the fruit and nuts make a final appearance on the very slow fade.

Bottom Line:

This is the ultimate peat introduction. It’s bold, forceful, and imbued with Islay peat at every level. It’s also going to vary pretty wildly where the price is concerned. Try it on the rocks first to take the harsher edges off and go from there.

Aberfeldy 12

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $45

The Whisky:

This Highland malt is the cornerstone of the much-beloved Dewar’s Blended Scotch. This whisky is a very accessible single malt that spends 12 years resting before it’s married and proofed with that soft Highland water and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

The heart of the nose is in the mingling of pear and honey with a hint of Christmas spice, especially nutmeg. The palate expands on that with a lush maltiness, creamy vanilla, mild spice, and more of that honey and orchard fruit. The end gets slightly nutty and bitter with a little water as the honey, fruit, and spice linger on the senses.

Bottom Line:

This is a solid sipper but really shines as a cocktail base.

The Glenrothes 12

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $46

The Whisky:

This Speyside whisky really exemplifies the Spanish sherry tradition. The juice is aged in ex-sherry casks and then built to highlight the plummy, nutty, and dried fruit depths of those flavors in blending and proofing.

Tasting Notes:

Imagine ripe bananas fried in butter with a vanilla pod next to a touch of ginger and sherry mustiness. The palate really lets the dried fruit kick in as the mouthfeel leans creamy vanilla as hints of roasted nuts, spicy stewed prunes, and pipe tobacco mingle with a slight note of lemon oil. The finish is long with a bit of that plummy sherry leading the fade as a final note of savory fruit pops at the very end.

Bottom Line:

This is a really interesting sipper in this age range. It does need a little water (which will reveal some coffee and dark chocolate bitterness with a herbal edge). Still, take your time with this one.

Glenmorangie The Original 10

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $46

The Whisky:

Glenmorangie The Original is the ultimate gateway scotch, especially to the Highland brand’s long list of specialty finished whiskies. This juice spends ten long years resting in ex-bourbon casks before blending, proofing, and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

Peaches swimming in creamy vanilla are countered by a rush of bright lemon zest. The palate really lets the vanilla shine with a mild maltiness next to hints of dried flowers and orange rinds. That orange lightens on the medium-length end as the vanilla fades with a hint of spice and wood, leaving you with a final burst of that bright citrus and creamy peach.

Bottom Line:

While this is a really solid “on the rocks” sipper, it’s best used in cocktails. Try it in your next Rob Roy.

GlenDronach 12

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $47

The Whisky:

This Highland expression has made a big comeback after a hiatus. The whisky is all about the sherry casking, having spent 12 years maturing in both Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry casks. The juice is then married and proofed with soft Highland waters and bottled with no other fussing.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a hint of spicy stewed pears up top next to a creamy vanilla pudding that’s been cut with a touch of fresh ginger. The palate goes full mulled wine with plummy sweetness — Christmas spices, hazelnuts, and dried fruits. The end is very jammy and spicy while fading slowly through the senses.

Bottom Line:

This makes an awesome Manhattan (well, Rob Roy technically) or old fashioned while also being a perfectly fine sipper with a little water.

BenRiach The Original 10

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $48

The Whisky:

Master Blender Dr. Rachel Barrie helped reinvent Speyside’s BenRiach last year with a whole new batch of releases, including this one. The juice is triple-barreled in ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and new (or virgin) oak. Those whiskies are then blended to create this very drinkable dram.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a subtle vanilla cake foundation that’s tinged with orange oils, cedar, and lemon custard. The taste touches on red berries, peaches and cream, and more of that cedar while also reveling in cinnamon spice with a baked buttermilk biscuit body. The stonefruit and creaminess last the longest, as the sip fades fairly quickly and surprisingly lightly through your senses.

Bottom Line:

This has no business being as sippable as it is at this price. It’s really well-rounded and barely needs any water to take the edges off.

Denver Nuggets rookie R.J. Hampton entered the NBA with considerable talent. While he hasn’t been able to showcase his skills frequently at the highest levels just yet, that comes as no surprise, simply because Hampton was drafted by a ready-made team and placed in a position to develop his skills in a future-facing manner. To that end, Hampton hasn’t been making a ton of news in the early going, appearing for only 36 minutes in the first month-plus of his NBA career, but he offered a surprising and amusing reveal in an interview this week.

Hampton’s godfather is Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back and Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders. For any child, it might be pretty cool to have a certified legend as a close family friend but, well, Hampton had no idea until later than you may think.

“For the first eight or nine years of my life, I never knew why I called him Uncle Prime,” Hampton told Rohan Nadkarni of Sports Illustrated. “And then one day, my dad was out of town. I think my mom was at work. And [Sanders] comes to pick me up from school. He’s in the carpool line, and my teachers are going crazy. I’m nine years old like, what are they talking about?”

In addition to the confusion in his early life, Hampton said that it didn’t really hit home until he was “12 or 13” years old and his recognition of Sanders’ fame came via a television reveal.

“I was about 12 or 13, and I was at my friend’s house and we’re watching NFL Network,” Hampton said. “They were counting down the 100 greatest players, and they had [Sanders] at like number eight. I was like, ‘Whoa, I did not know this.’ I had no idea the first 12 years of my life this is one of the greatest football players to step on the field.”

This is actually refreshing in some ways, simply because Hampton was able to simply have a mentor in Sanders and it didn’t matter to him whether his godfather was one of the most famous athletes in the country. At the same time, it is admittedly funny to think about everyone around Hampton knowing Sanders’ gravity, all while he just didn’t put it all together.

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are in the Super Bowl for a second consecutive year after beating the 49ers last year in a thriller for their first Super Bowl title in decades.

The defensive coordinator tasked with slowing Mahomes and the Chiefs’ spectacular offense that day was Robert Saleh, who is now the New York Jets head coach, and he remembers vivid details about watching Mahomes go to work in the fourth quarter, erasing a 20-10 Niners lead with 21 fourth quarter points on them. Saleh was asked recently what advice he’d give to the Bucs as they look into trying to contain Mahomes, and he offered up a rather hilarious description of Mahomes’ “little old man jog” between plays that can lull a defense into thinking he’s tired or his feet hurt.

Mahomes saw that description and even the former MVP couldn’t help but laugh at how his shuffle was depicted by Saleh.

It really is an accurate statement, as Mahomes goes from shuffling his feet as he moves from play to play, appearing to walk gingerly, to going full speed, eluding and evading defenders to extend plays to either throw downfield or taking off for a big gain on the ground. It is certainly something to make sure you don’t allow to creep in mentally and think you have him worn out, and given the Bucs’ best weapon as a pass defense is their pass rush, it’ll be critical to their chances of winning that they go full bore all game to disrupt Mahomes (and not get demoralized when he makes something out of nothing).

The GameStop saga on the stock market has already brought unlikely things to fruition, like Ted Cruz agreeing with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And now it may have brought Jon Stewart to Twitter to complain about Wall Street sticking it to the little guy.

Thursday’s news that free stock trading apps like Robinhood were preventing customers from buying shares of heavily shorted companies like GameStop and AMC drew outrage from all corners of the internet and the real world. The coming days will likely see investigations and hearings on Capitol Hill and perhaps some consequences for impeding the finances of millions of customers, likely for the benefit of the extremely wealthy. But one unexpected potential consequence of all this mess was the former host of The Daily Show joining the social media network where Donald Trump is no longer allowed.

On Thursday, many pointed to a tweet from an account called “@jon_actual” that many felt was Jon Stewart. And, yes, whoever it was used their first tweet to complain about the GameStop situation.

“This is bullshit. The Redditors aren’t cheating, they’re joining a party Wall Street insiders have been enjoying for years,” the tweet said. “Don’t shut them down…maybe sue them for copyright infringement instead!!”

The tweet also said “we’ve learned nothing from 2008,” a reference to the financial crisis started largely by cascading debt and defaults in the housing industry. The tweet was signed with “love” from “Stewbeef,” which made many believe it was, indeed, Stewart behind the account.

That speculation certainly grew when one-time member of The Daily Show and noted friend of Stewart, Stephen Colbert, retweeted the lone tweet and said “a friend of mine joined Twitter.”

Despite the evidence suggesting this is Jon Stewart finally on Twitter, it’s important to know there isn’t any solid confirmation here. And Twitter’s own verification system is currently on pause, so don’t expect a blue checkmark to confirm your suspicions anytime soon. Still, it seems logical that it’s Stewart, which is why the account with a single tweet as of Thursday night is followed by hundreds of thousands of people eager to see him rip into Wall Street via a new medium.

There’s a lot that GameStop’s wild ride has caused that’s impossible to anticipate, and that will continue in the coming days, but Stewart joining Twitter is certainly one of the most unexpected ones we’ve seen yet.

As the Robinhood investment trading app became a hot topic on Thursday morning after it made a controversial decision to bar users from buying GameStop stocks due to “volatility,” Twitter users have apparently been landing on the account for the World Wide Robin Hood Society, which has been using the @robinhood handle since 2016. It’s an honest mixup, and whoever runs the social media account decided to give the throng of new followers a heads up in a tweet that’s already racked up over 56,000 Likes.

“Lovely to have all these new followers,” the account wrote. “Can we just check that you know that you’re following The World Wide Robin Hood Society in Nottingham and not the Robin Hood App .. if so .. a big welcome from Sherwood.”

Naturally, it didn’t take long before someone jokingly asked for stock tips, and the account was quick to shut the topic down with a cheeky reply:

While the Robin Hood Society’s tweet went viral only started going viral on Thursday, it appears that the society has been dealing with people confusing it for the investment app since the beginning of the year. The account posted a friendly notice on January 7 that it is not the trading app,and left the correct Twitter handles for users to contact.

As for what exactly The Robin Hood Society does, it appears to promote tourism to the English town of Nottingham. The account is populated with scenic destinations and the occasional photo of Robin Hood statues. True to its word, the society is not engaged in a massive stock scheme, nor does it have any connection to Wall Street.

(Via Robin Hood on Twitter)

Over the course of his 30-year career, the late MF DOOM had numerous collaborators, many of whom remain just as mysterious as the masked man himself. One, however, was likely the most prominent — and a big part of the reason DOOM was so beloved fans outside of the New York underground hip-hop scene he inhabited.

When DOOM and LA producer Madlib teamed up for the 2004 collaborative album Madvillainy, they had no idea the impact it would ultimately have on the pop culture landscape. But as Adult Swim-viewing cartoon fans discovered the producer and the rapper from the programming block’s commercial break bumps and the internet made sharing music as easy as downloading the latest single from Limewire, Madlib and MF DOOM became close to being household names — at least among households that really loved obscure hip-hop and stoner-centric animation.

Unfortunately, they were only able to release the one project collectively, although they had plans to release a sequel. The situation was complicated by DOOM’s immigration status, which caused him to be barred from re-entering the US after an international tour in 2010 because he was never naturalized as a citizen, despite moving to New York from London with his parents as a young child, similarly to what happened with 21 Savage.

Madlib recently spoke about his collaborator’s death with NPR, saying he found out about DOOM’s passing “when everybody else did, on social media.” DOOM passed on Halloween last year, but his wife/manager Jasmine didn’t reveal that he’d died until New Year’s Eve. Madlib, who said that the two checked in on each other from time-to-time, doesn’t have any hard feelings, though. “His family’s very private, so they probably didn’t know how to approach that one,” he said.

“I still can’t believe that he died. That’s weird.”

If you’ve ever eaten a Subway tuna sub and thought to yourself “something about this tastes fishy — and not in a way that resembles an actual fish sandwich” well, you might be on to something! According to the Washington Post, a new lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleges that Subway’s tuna doesn’t actually contain tuna at all, but rather “a mixture of various concoctions that do not constitute tuna” and are merely “blended together… to imitate the appearance of tuna.”

That already sounds disgusting enough, but prepare yourself. It gets worse.

Shalini Dogra, an attorney for one of the two plaintiffs named in the suit, told the Washington Post that independent lab tests taken of multiple samples from California Subway locations found that “the ingredients were not tuna and not fish,” though declined to reveal the exact results of the lab tests.

So if it’s not tuna and it’s not fish… what the hell is it? Soy? Kelp?

Karen Dhanowa and Nilima Amin, two residents of Alameda County in Northern California’s Bay Area are the two plaintiffs currently identified in the complaint and are suing Subway for a number of claims under federal and state laws including fraud, intentional misrepresentation, and unjust enrichment. Their attorneys hope to widen the scope of the claim to a class action suit, which means if you’ve purchased a tuna sandwich from Subway anytime after January 21st, 2017, you might actually see a few bucks out of this.

This isn’t the first time Subway has been sued for making false claims — they’ve gotten heat in the past for lying about the size of their footlongs (how embarrassing). And in recent years people have really been sweating their ingredients; you may recall that the chain’s bread isn’t legally considered bread in Ireland. Something fishy indeed.

As the GameStop stock surge continues to wreak havoc on Wall Street, Lee Cooperman, the billionaire CEO of hedge fund investment firm Omega Advisors went on CNBC on Thursday to complain about the Reddit day traders behind this week’s stock market shenanigans. While the narrative that the GameStop situation is a battle between tiny David retail investors and hedge fund Goliaths isn’t entirely accurate, Cooperman certainly didn’t hurt that facade by going on live TV and cursing up a storm about his belief that the rich are being unfairly targeted because of the pandemic. He was all wound up. Via CNBC:

“The reason the market is doing what it’s doing is, people are sitting at home, getting their checks from the government, basically trading for no commissions and no interest rates. I’m not saying they’re stupid. Show me a guy with a good record consistently, and I’ll show you a smart guy.”

You’ll probably (not) be surprised to know that Cooperman hates that people are collecting stimulus checks, and he fired off a profanity when talking about how he’s required to pay his “fair share” of taxes now that Joe Biden is in office. “I hate that expression with a passion!” Cooperman yelled. “This fair share is a bullsh*t concept! It’s just a way of attacking wealthy people.”

While Cooperman is confident that the GameStop situation “will end in tears,” the hedge fund veteran does know a thing or two about questionable deals. In 2016, he paid a $4.9 million fine after settling with the SEC over allegations of insider trading. The SEC wanted to ban Cooperman from trading stocks for five years, but his lawyers fought the case down. Because it’s so hard out there for billionaires.

(Via CNBC)

Deante’ Hitchcock may well be kicking off the next wave of pandemic-busting strategies for hip-hop artists, releasing a live version of his debut album, Better, along with a batch of performance videos shot during his quarantine. Since he can’t go on tour to promote the album and he’s already put out a trendy deluxe edition, producing a live version of the project actually seems like the logical next step, combining the usual tactic of touring to promote it with the stream-boosting re-release.

A lot of production value went into the shoot, as well, with Deante’ employing a four-piece band and a full set complete with a stage, light bars, and a disco ball. His performance is showcased through individual videos, allowing fans to watch them in any order or straight through as a playlist. It’s polished and professional and despite the lack of an in-person audience, he really gives his all, contradicting the commonly-held belief that livestreamed concerts are a little boring.

Hitchcock has quickly proven himself to be one of the more engaging up-and-coming rappers from his hometown of Atlanta, distinguishing himself with his appearance on Dreamville’s Revenge Of The Dreamers III compilation and his own quirky, charismatic, and visually arresting videos, such as “Attitude,” “I Got Money Now,” and “Plug Me In.” Now might be the perfect to buy your stock in Deante’ because his innovative approach and genuinely good music is going to ensure that it has nowhere to go but up.

Watch the live performance of “How TF” above and get the full live version of Better here.

I’m not proud to admit this, but I know virtually nothing about the stock market. I mean, I know what it is and on a very, very basic level know how it works. Kinda. Maybe. I don’t even know.

That’s a problem when some huge news about the stock market comes along. While clearly a big deal, this news about GameStop stock skyrocketing because a bunch of Reddit users did something and a bunch of billionaire hedge funders got screwed over by it has been a little lost of me.

I’m sure I’m not alone in this. In fact, I know I’m not, based on the virality of this “normal person” explainer video shared on Twitter. Prior to two days ago, this is pretty much exactly how I would have explained what’s going on:

There are a whole lot of us who don’t understand the stock market and usually don’t care that we don’t understand it. Then a big, important David and Goliath story like this comes along, making it clear we should know more than we do.

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Part of the problem is that there’s so much “inside baseball” terminology to wade through when you dive in. I graduated from college with honors, for the love, but every time I try to read a news story about this GameStop thing, I have to stop every other sentence to look up words that financial writers assume we all know and understand. (I still don’t even get what a hedge fund is, much less how short selling would affect one. And WTF is a “position” in a stock market context? Zero idea.)

What I need is someone to translate all that finance-speak into layman’s terms, super simply, like I’m in kindergarten. I don’t need all the nitty-gritty details of exactly how it all works, I just need enough so that I “get it.” I read a bunch of posts and explainer articles, some more helpful than others, but nothing has synopsized it all quite as concisely and clearly as this 3-minute video shared by Now This. Enjoy:

Okay, so I still don’t know exactly what a position is, but I get the gist.

Not only does this story explain a bit about how the game of Wall Street is played, but it also helps explain how the filthy rich have managed to get filthy richer during a pandemic when millions are struggling. On one level, businesses struggling is actually good for investors as they can take advantage of the falling prices.

Pretty gross to purposefully profit off of pandemic fallout, if you ask me. But what I know? Like I said, not much. I will say, this whole thing is a good incentive to learn more about how that part of the U.S. economic system works. Knowing that it’s actually not untouchable, that it’s not just elite economic geniuses who know what they’re doing, that there are ways for the average person to influence wealth distribution is intriguing to say the least. And anything that makes predatory billionaires shake in their boots is good fun.

We could all benefit from greater financial literacy, especially when it’s clear that the rules of the game are in flux. We’ll see how it all shakes out in the end, but it seems that these Redditors may prove that David has a chance against Goliath after all.