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The word “IPA” has been known to conjure up some negative images for drinkers who dislike the style. They imagine face-puckering, aggressively bitter, piney monstrosities they’d like to avoid at all costs. But while there’s a market for the dankest of dank, resinous, hop bombs that make you feel like you’ve fallen headfirst into a Christmas tree farm, there’s more to the IPA than the West Coast style.

Specifically, New England-style IPAs with their juicy, tropical fruit, and barely any bitterness.

For those unaware, the New England-style IPA is all about hop aroma and flavor without the expected bitterness. The hops (and other ingredients) used (as well as dry-hopping) give the beer a hazy, cloudy appearance and aromas and flavors like caramelized pineapple, guava, mango, ripe peach, tangerine, and other citrus flavors. It’s known to be juicy, flavorful, and much lower in bitterness than its IPA counterparts.

The best part? Many exceptional, highly-rated New England-style IPAs are available at most grocery stores and beer stores. To help you on your hazy IPA journey, we picked eight of the best and ranked them below.

8.) Lagunitas Hazy Wonder

ABV: 6%

Average Price: $11 for a six-pack

The Beer:

With a name like Hazy Wonder, you better believe this is a juicy, hazy New England-style banger. It’s brewed with more hops than seems humanly possible. This includes Comet, Citra, Cashmere, Centennial, Chinook, Sabro, Mosaic, and Simcoe hops. To say this beer is loaded with hop aroma and flavor is an absolute understatement.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find aromas of ripe pineapple, guava, mango, passionfruit, and citrus peels. The palate has the same caramelized pineapple, mango, guava, and other tropic flavors but there are also hints of grapefruit, lemon, tangerine, grass, and light pine. The finish is sweet, fruit, and lightly bitter.

Bottom Line:

If you enjoy hazy IPAs, but can’t make up your mind about what hops you prefer. This is your beer. It pretty much has all of them.

7.) New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze

ABV: 7.5%

Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Brewed with American hefeweizen yeast as well as pale malt, C-80 malts, wheat, and oats, it gets its hop aroma and flavor from the liberal use of Nugget, Simcoe, Centennial, Cascade, and Citra hops. The result is a hazy, juicy beer known for its flavors of tropical fruits and zesty citrus peels.

Tasting Notes:

Before your first sip, you’ll be met with notes of grapefruit, pineapple, guava, mango, and tangerine. The palate is a mix of passionfruit, mango, pineapple, tangerine, lime, and just a hint of resinous pine. The finish is a nice mix of tropical fruits and spicy hops. There’s a gentle bitterness at the very end.

Bottom Line:

New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze is exactly as the name would make it appear. It’s a classic, juicy, tropical fruit-filled New England-style IPA.

6.) Dogfish Head Hazy Squall

ABV: 6.5%

Average Price: $11 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Normally, you’d want to avoid a squall. But not when it’s a hazy squall from Dogfish Head. As is the tradition at the Delaware-based brewery, this beer is continuously hopped with Cascade hops before being dry-hopped with a secret blend of hops. The result is a pineapple, tangerine, tropical fruit, and hop-filled explosion with little to no bitterness.

Tasting Notes:

Big aromas of lime peels, tangerine, mandarin, grapefruit, mango, pineapple, and ripe peach greet you before your first taste. Drinking it reveals notes of caramelized pineapple, ripe oranges, lemons, grapefruit, mango, passionfruit, and just a hint of hoppy, piney bitterness. It’s tempered perfectly by the overall sweetness.

Bottom Line:

As hazy IPAs go, this stormy squall is all about the citrus and tropical fruit flavors. It has very little bitterness and that’s a good thing.

5.) Oskar Blues Hazy Blues

ABV: 7%

Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Oskar Blues is a big name in the American beer world with such hits as Dale’s Pale Ale and Mama’s Little Yella Pils. Back in 2022, it launched a New England-style IPA called Hazy Blues. This readily available, year-round offering is dry-hopped with Strata, Galaxy, and Citra hops. The result is a beer bursting at the seams with tropical fruit aromas and flavors.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is a mix of ripe berries, pineapple, tangerine, apricot, passionfruit, oats, pine needles, and mango. The palate is swirling with notes of candied orange peels, lime, honeydew melon, strawberry, mango, peach, pineapple, caramel malts, and grassy, lightly piney hops. The finish is sweet, and fruity, and has just a hint of hop bitterness.

Bottom Line:

This is another hit from Colorado’s Oskar Blues. It’s a classic, balanced hazy IPA for true fans of the style.

4.) Rogue Batsquatch

ABV: 6.5%

Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

We’re not sure what a “batsquatch” is. We can only assume it’s some mythical creature that’s half bat and half sasquatch. Either way, it has a beer made in its name featuring 2-row base malt, malted wheat, oat, and flaked wheat as well as imperial juice yeast, Mosaic, El Dorado, and Belma hops.

Tasting Notes:

Complex aromas of strawberries, raspberries, tangerines, peaches, limes, honeydew melons, pineapple, caramel malts, mango, and pine needles are prevalent on the nose. Sipping it brings forth notes of grapefruit, pineapple, bready malts, apricots, raspberries, tangerines, and pine needles. The finish is sweet, juicy, and memorable.

Bottom Line:

While some hazy IPAs lean into one type of fruit, Batsquatch seems to have it all. Tropical fruits, citrus, melons, and even ripe berries.

3.) Sixpoint Stooper

ABV: 6.4%

Average Price: $11 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Sixpoint describes this New England-style IPA as an after-shift beer that is best enjoyed on an airy stoop. Known for its cloudy, hazy, creamy mouthfeel, it’s brewed with Galaxy and Citra hops. This results in an IPA loaded with tropical fruit, citrus, and bright pine flavors and aromas.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find aromas of bready malts, tangerines, grapefruit, pineapple, nectarine, mango, guava, honeydew melon, and light pine needles. There’s more of the same on the palate with a nice caramel malt backbone and juicy apricot, pineapple, grapefruit, mandarin orange, mango, and grassy, piney hops. The finish is a nice mix of juicy fruit and light, piney bitterness.

Bottom Line:

This is a sweet, hazy, juicy, crushable beer that is aptly named as it’s a great choice after a long day of work.

2.) Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing

ABV: 6.7%

Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

When it comes to grocery store New England-style IPAs, there are few as well-known as Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing. It’s cloudy, borderline unfiltered, fruity, and lightly bitterly hopped. It gets these aromas, flavors, and attributes because it’s brewed with ale yeast, Munich malt, two-row pale malt, oats, and wheat. It’s “aggressively” dry-hopped with El Dorado, Citra, Mosaic, Magnum, and Simcoe hops.

Tasting Notes:

A lot is going on with this beer’s nose. Ripe pineapple, grapefruit, peach, tangerine, caramel malt, passionfruit, berries, and pine are very noticeable. Drinking it reveals notes of peach, passionfruit, caramelized pineapple, bready malts, grapefruit, tangerine, mango, melons, and gently bitter hops. There’s a nice mix of astringency, fruit, and hop bitterness at the finish.

Bottom Line:

There’s something for every palate with this beer. Juicy fruit, astringency, and hop bitterness. It has it all.

1.) Firestone Walker Mind Haze

ABV: 6.2%

Average Price: $11 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Firestone Walker’s Mind Haze is so popular that it spawned a handful of offshoots. Still, there’s no beating the original. It’s brewed with two-row malt, Munich malt, wheat, torrified wheat, Blonde RoastOat malt, and oats. It’s hopped with Mandarina, Cascade, Azacca, El Dorado, Mosaic, Chinook, Cashmere, Callista, and Idaho 7 hops.

Tasting Notes:

Gentle aromas of tangerine, grapefruit, mango, peach, lemongrass, berries, passionfruit, pineapple, and pine start everything off on the right foot. The palate is loaded with caramel malts, juicy pineapple, grapefruit, apricot, passionfruit, guava, mango, orange peels, lemon, lime, grass, and pine needles. The finish is prickly, gently bitter, and filled with tropical fruit sweetness.

Bottom Line:

If you only purchase one grocery store New England-style IPA, make it Firestone Walker Mind Haze. It’s balanced, flavorful, and exceptionally drinkable any time of year.

Gin is already one of the most flavorful spirits. While its base is a neutral spirit made from wheat, barley, corn, or another grain, it’s infused with juniper berries, orris roots, coriander, licorice, and various other herbs and botanicals. And though gins vary based on style and the flavors distillers choose to add to them, you can guarantee when you open a bottle of gin, you’ll be greeted with a spirit loaded with pine and other floral and herbal aromas and flavors.

But even though most (if not all) gins are already exceptionally aromatic and flavorful on their own, some distilleries choose to add other flavors as well. We’re talking about ingredients like berries, elderflowers, jalapeno peppers, cherries, and of course citrus fruits. While we love all the other flavored gins, it’s the latter we’re most interested in today.

There are a bunch of noteworthy citrus-flavored gins on the market. Many are perfect for mixing into a gin & tonic, gimlet, or even a negroni. We found eight of the best, balanced, citrus gins and ranked them on overall flavor and mixability. Keep scrolling to see them all.

8.) Seersucker Southern Style Grapefruit Gin

ABV: 35%

Average Price: $20

The Gin:

When it comes to Southern style, there are few things as timeless as a seersucker suit. This gin gets its name from that iconic material. And while it makes a variety of gins, one of our favorites is its Southern Style Grapefruit Gin. This gin is flavored with juniper, cardamom, coriander, and rosemary, and gets its citrus element from zesty, tart grapefruit juice.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is a mix of classic piney juniper, coriander, aromatic rosemary, citrus peels, and other gentle, wintry spices. The palate begins with a nice kick of pine-forward juniper berries before making way for rosemary, cinnamon, cardamom, and a nice grapefruit flavor throughout. It has a nice mix of spice and tart, refreshing grapefruit.

Bottom Line:

This is not your average gin. It relies on a few flavors to get its point across but does it surprisingly well. If you enjoy gentle spices and a lot of grapefruit flavor, this is your gin.

7.) Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin with California Orange Citrus

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $36

The Gin:

Distilled in medieval copper pot stills, this gin is a blend of 8 pot still and 4 vapor-infused botanicals. It’s flavored with some classic gin ingredients as well as Oriental lemon, Oriental lime, fresh grapefruit, and Gunpowder tea. But this particular gin gets its unique, citrus profile from the use of California oranges.

Tasting Notes:

Before your first sip, you’ll be met with scents of herbal tea, pine, bright orange zest, and other citrus aromas. Drinking it reveals notes of juniper berries, spicy tea, candied orange peel, lemongrass, and gentle spices. It’s sweet, citrusy, and lightly spicy in the best way possible.

Bottom Line:

If your idea of a great start to a day is a tall glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, this is the gin for you. It’s herbal, spicy, and perfectly flavored with California oranges.

6.) Malfy Gin Con Limone

ABV: 41%

Average Price: $30

The Gin:

On top of the expected juniper-forward herbs and botanicals, Malfy Con Limone is flavored with Italian “sun-ripened” lemons and Amalfi lemon peel. The result is a lemon-centered gin perfect for mixing into your favorite cocktails.

Tasting Notes:

While there are noticeable aromas of piney juniper, this gin is definitely lemon and orange. The nose is loaded with citrus in the most welcoming way. There’s more of the same on the palate with a juniper backbone, anise, coriander, and a ton of lemon flavor.

Bottom Line:

This is one for the true lemon fans. While it’s balanced with juniper and other botanicals, the real star is the fragrant and flavorful lemon.

5.) Four Pillars Fresh Yuzu Gin

ABV: 41.8%

Average Price: $38

The Gin:

If you didn’t know it already, yuzu is a citrus fruit grown in various parts of the world, but with its origin in Asia. Instead of the usual grapefruit, lemon, or lime, the distillers at Four Pillars decided to flavor this gin with the aromatic, flavorful yuzu.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find aromas of piney juniper, light herbal spices, grass, and lemon peel. The palate is loaded with a mix of grapefruit, Mandarin orange, juniper berries, and a nice kick of lemon zest. The finish is sweet, warm, and filled with lemon goodness.

Bottom Line:

This is the gin was fans of Lemon Head candy. It’s sweet, lemony, and well-suited for mixing into Spanish gin tonics and other gin-based drinks.

4.) Sipsmith Lemon Drizzle Gin

ABV: 40.4%

Average Price: $32

The Gin:

In recent years, Sipsmith has become one of the more popular gin brands in the world. While it makes a handful of flavored gins, we believe the best is Sipsmith Lemon Drizzle. This citrus explosion is made with sundried lemon peels, lemon verbena, and vapor-infused fresh lemons.

Tasting Notes:

Complex aromas of pine needles, coriander, orange peels, and lemon zest start this gin off on a perfect foot. The palate has hints of juniper, pine, vanilla beans, tangerine, lemon peels, and gentle spices. The finish is a nice mix of warming spice and sweet and tart lemon.

Bottom Line:

This subtle lemon-centered gin deserves a permanent spot on your home bar. It’s the kind of bottle you’ll always want on hand for mixing.

3.) Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla Gin

ABV: 41.3%

Average Price: $22

The Gin:

You probably already have a bottle of Tanqueray London Dry Gin in your bar cart. But if you don’t have a bottle of Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla Gin, you’re missing out. The key is in its simplicity. It’s flavored with juniper, coriander, angelica, licorice, Sevilla oranges, and orange blossoms.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find pine, orange blossoms, cracked black pepper, licorice, and orange zest. Sipping it reveals notes of juniper, pepper, licorice, and juicy tangerine. Spicy, citrus-filled, and highly memorable.

Bottom Line:

This is a simple, delicious, surprisingly complex gin that’s well-suited for mixing into a gimlet or another gin cocktail.

2.) Bayab Burnt Orange and Marula Gin

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $33

The Gin:

This African gin is flavored with some of the most unique ingredients you’re likely to find in the gin world. It gets its unique flavor from the addition of the Marula fruit, baobab fruit, burnt orange peel, cinnamon, coriander, and sea salt (on top of classic juniper and other herbs and botanicals).

Tasting Notes:

Breathing in the nose, you’ll find hints of pine needles, coriander, cinnamon, and bright orange zest. Sipping it brings forth notes of juniper, cinnamon, coriander, ripe orange, and a nice kick of saline at the finish. Sweet, salty, and very mixable.

Bottom Line:

If you’re looking for a unique gin to mix into a gin & tonic, try this spiced, citrus-filled, and lightly salty gin.

1.) Las Californias Citrico

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $28

The Gin:

Las Californias makes its gins with herbs and botanicals sourced from both the US and Mexico. Its Citrico gin is flavored with California juniper berries, citrus leaves and peels, lemongrass, almond, grapevine leaves, fig, and even apricot.

Tasting Notes:

A lot is going on with this gin’s nose. There are hints of herbal tea, licorice, grapefruit, orange peels, and light floral aromas. The palate is a mix of juniper berries, fennel, mint, cracked black pepper, grapefruit, and a bold hint of orange zest.

Bottom Line:

If you only buy one gin on this list, make it this one. It’s a complex, aromatic, flavorful gin that might be centered on citrus but has a ton of other memorable flavors.

The sun is out, the sky is clear. We’re leaving jackets in the closet, and our sleeves are getting shorter. It’s iced coffee season babe! Yes, I just “babe’d” you. Sorry. Don’t screenshot me.

Anyway, iced coffee — it’s delicious, cheap, and for a reason no one can explain, it tastes even better before work. We all have that coworker who rolls in 15-20 minutes late with an iced coffee in hand, you might be that person, and if you are, you know that the move is completely justified.

Whether you’re a Starbucks or Dunkin’ person, there is great iced coffee to be had just about anywhere a drive-thru can be found, hell, even McDonald’s could hold its own in a blind taste test of iced coffees. No judgment on which drive-thru you like to frequent, but if you’ve ever found yourself crawling through an around-the-block line minutes before your shift starts, you might’ve wondered, “Is there another option out there that is just as good if not better than my fav?”

To help expand your options, we’re naming the best iced coffee in all of fast food and ranking them from good to great. For this ranking, we’ve defaulted to vanilla iced coffee. Why vanilla? Because it’s the one flavor that every brand has in common, so while it isn’t always my preference, this was the simplest way to keep the criteria consistent. Let’s dive in.

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10. Burger King — BK Café Vanilla Iced Coffee

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Every time that I’ve tried the BK Café Vanilla Iced Coffee, it’s been incredibly bitter and acidic. That leads me to believe the brand is over-roasting the beans. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough vanilla flavoring in the world to cover that up.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this drink isn’t sweet, it is. But while a lot of fast food iced coffees are designed to indulge your sweet tooth in the best way, there is a stomach-turning quality with this one that I can’t get behind.

The Bottom Line:

Like a lot of Burger King’s menu, the BK Café needs a massive revamp.

9. Taco Bell — Iced Cinnabon Delight

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Taco Bell’s Iced Cinnabon Delight gets to be on our list on a technicality. Yes, this is “Cinnabon flavored” (sort of), but it’s also sweetened with vanilla creamer. So technically, it’s a vanilla iced coffee. Unfortunately, twisting ourselves into a pretzel to include this on our list wasn’t even worth it at the end of the day.

I wanted this to be good, I like Taco Bell and I love Cinnabon, but the coffee base is straight-up awful. It’s sour, highly acidic, and has an off-putting aftertaste that stains the tongue. The drink is sweet, but there is nothing really resembling Cinnabon in its flavor profile. I definitely taste the vanilla though, so the inclusion on this list is justified.

The Bottom Line:

Absolutely no redeeming qualities here.

8. Wendy’s — Vanilla Frosty-ccino

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

On paper, the Frosty-ccino sounds interesting. It’s cold-brewed coffee sweetened with vanilla and creamer made from the famous Frosty base. Conceptually, I love it. In execution? It misses the mark. The coffee here is incredibly watered down, it tastes more like dirty water than a proper brew. Only on the aftertaste do you get any coffee flavor, and what is there is unwelcomingly bitter.

With 28 grams of sugar, I was expecting more of a vanilla prominence in the flavor profile but unfortunately, this one fails to deliver.

The Bottom Line:

Conceptually it’s a winner, but you’re better off just getting a Frosty. It’s not like you’re going to taste much of the coffee anyway.

7. Jack in the Box — Vanilla Sweet Cream

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

I’m a bit lukewarm on this one. On the one hand, I like the mix of cream and vanilla that gives this drink its sweetness. It’s delicate, slightly floral, and pleasing to the tastebuds. But the coffee itself tastes a bit burnt and over-roasted.

The coffee has a blunt taste to it with a lingering sour aftertaste that stains the breath.

The Bottom Line:

Jack in the Box is close to a decent iced coffee here, but they’ll have to up the quality of their coffee if they want to rank any higher than this.

6. Sonic — French Vanilla Cold Brew Iced Coffee

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Lately, Sonic has been placing pretty highly in our food rankings, so if you’ve written this chain off, you might want to give it a fair shot. This coffee is smooth with a delicate and creamy sweetness that finishes with a soothing earthy-bitter bite.

The coffee is very good with a sort of mocha-quality and subtle notes of cherry hovering over a sweet roasted flavor. If anything, the only thing holding this coffee back is the artificial French vanilla flavoring.

The Bottom Line:

The coffee is good, so skip the vanilla and just go for the base flavor with some sweet cream.

5. Dunkin’ — French Vanilla Swirl

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Wow is this stuff sweet! The French Vanilla Swirl has this delicious, buttery, homemade cookie vibe that is decadent and indulgent in the best way. Unfortunately, what you don’t taste is the coffee itself. The roasted, nutty, and bitter notes of coffee are impossible to decipher under the punishing sweetness.

Sometimes, that’s the vibe you’re looking for, but we’re going to have to rank this one lower because of its lack of balance.

The Bottom Line:

If what you’re really after is sugar, this one delivers. It’s so sweet you can’t even taste the coffee.

4. McDonald’s — Iced French Vanilla Coffee

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

By now I’m going to assume it’s common knowledge that McDonald’s iced coffee, and everything else on the McCafe menu, is pretty good. But I think there is something else at play here. The expectation is so low on McDonald’s coffee, that people tend to overrate the stuff. Yes it’s good, but better than Starbucks? Not a chance.

The coffee is smooth and refreshing with a nutty roasted quality while the vanilla is a bit flat and one-dimensional. It’s sweet, sweeter than it needs to be and while I think it’s pretty good overall, it lacks dimension and nuance.

The Bottom Line:

McDonald’s Iced French Vanilla Coffee will exceed expectations — but don’t mistake that thinking this is better than it is. It’s merely a pretty good iced coffee.

3. Starbucks — Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Starbucks probably can’t compete with your local independent coffee shop but compared to the competition in the fast food space this stuff tastes straight-up elevated. Over a soft and smooth coffee base with some bitter dark chocolate notes and rich cherry, sits a syrupy sweet vanilla that manages to actually capture some of the floral notes of a vanilla bean.

It’s not mind-blowingly delicious, and the aftertaste is a bit too sour for my liking, but it has an emphasis on the coffee that a lot of the other drinks on this list lack.

The Bottom Line:

Very good, but just shy of great.

2. Panera — Madagascar Vanilla Cream Cold Brew

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Believe me when I say people are sleeping on Panera’s coffee. Using a cold brew base, the drink has a great toasty depth to it with subtle notes of sweet cherry. The vanilla syrup is sweet, but not to the point of tasting like candy, instead, it’s natural, floral, and deep.

One big change with this drink compared to others on this list is the use of half and half in place of skim milk. It gives the drink a creamier body.

The Bottom Line:

Rich and complex with a coffee prominence that is a pleasure to taste.

1. Chick-fil-A — Vanilla Iced Coffee

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Chick-fil-A’s greatest secret weapon is its drinks menu. Soda aside, there isn’t a single drink, be it iced tea, lemonade, or the various seasonal juices on the Chick-fil-A menu, that hasn’t eclipsed everything else in the fast food universe. And that extends to the brand’s iced coffee as well.
The coffee is freshly brewed, you can taste it. The coffee has a rich and light butterscotch flavor with a smooth toasted body that is peppered with citrus top notes. All of that flavor, before the vanilla!

The vanilla syrup is sweet but most importantly, it complements the base coffee flavor, giving the drink a wonderful finish that erases any trace of bitterness.

The Bottom Line:

Rich, complex, sweet, and creamy, it’s everything a great iced coffee should be.

Welcome to SNX DLX, your weekly roundup of the best sneakers to hit the internet. Drake just can’t catch a break can he? Not only is he fighting a rap beef on multiple fronts — including being humiliated by Kendrick, over, and over again — but even in the world of sneakers, he has Bad Bunny to compete with.

This week’s big match-up is the NOCTA Hot Step 2 vs the Adidas Bad Bunny Last Campus. And as much as the NOCTA Hot Step 2 has grown on us, we’ve got to give this one to Bad Bunny. Benito has the cooler shoe.

Aside from those two sneakers, we’ve also got the welcome return of the Nike Cortez, in its classic red, white, and blue colorway, as well as the latest LeBron IV, a new women’s exclusive Vomero and a stealthy Jordan 1 Shadow. It’s a light drop week but everything here is really strong.

Let’s dive into this week’s best sneaker drops.

Nike Cortez Varsity Red, White & Blue

Price: $110

The LA classic is back! After sitting in the Nike vault for some time now — only coming out for special releases — it looks like the Cortez is back in the roster, and what better way to reintroduce the shoe than with its most classic colorway.

The sneaker features an all-leather upper with a warp-resistant build that is wider at the toe with firm side panels designed to weather abuse. You’re going to need a tough exterior so these sneakers last a long time, because who knows when Nike brings this colorway back from the vaults.

The Nike Cortez Varsity Red, White & Blue is out now for a retail price of $110. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Nike Zoom LeBron IV Black and Varsity Purple

Price: $250

We get an abundance of drops bearing LeBron’s name, but rarely do we get treated to one of the earlier models. Considering the ‘00s are in vogue right now, it makes sense that Nike would reach for the LeBron IV, which was first dropped in 2006 and features some of the retro-futuristic design details of the era.

The sneaker features a molded Foamposite upper with thick adjustable balances and an upper dressed in Black and Varsity Purple over a translucent outsole. We’re digging the metallic sheen on the upper, which gives the sneaker an alien-esque vibe.

The Nike Zoom LeBron IV Black and Varsity Purple is out now for a retail price of $250. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT and Flight Club.

Nike NOCTA Hot Step 2 White

Price: $200

The ongoing Kendrick-Drake beef is so hot that we feel some secondhand embarrassment for Drake. While his bars haven’t been up to par, the same can’t be said for his footwear game.

The NOCTA HOT STEP 2 is dope. It features a synthetic leather upper with reflective details throughout and an all-over white colorway.

It’s elegant, minimal, and ultra-clean. Everything a good sneaker should be. The only bad thing about picking up this sneaker is that everyone will know
you’re a Drake fan, so random people are probably going to go up to you and ask for your take on the battle.

The Nike NOCTA Hot Step 2 White is set to drop on May 9th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $200. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Nike Women’s Vomero 5 Premium Designed By Japan

Price: $180

Released as part of the “Designed by Japan,” series, Nike is dropping its best Vomero 5 colorway of the year. What makes this iteration of the sneaker special is the elevated construction. In place of the synthetic upper with plastic detailing we have a full-grain leather build with suede panels and an oversized swoosh.

It’s a simple change up but it gives the sneaker a different look and vibe. This just might be the greatest Vomero 5 ever released!

The Nike Women’s Vomero 5 Premium Designed by Japan is set to drop on May 10th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $180. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Adidas Bad Bunny Last Campus Dark Brown

Price: $160

Benito’s latest with Adidas looks to his Most Wanted Tour and new album for its design cues. Inspired by cowboy and western motifs, this Campus sports a suede upper in dark brown with white and pink accents, a double tongue and heel, and textile lining.

Breaking up the design is an overwrapped midsole that makes the shape of a gentle wave. It’s a strong design — as usual — from Adidas and their greatest collaborator right now, Bad Bunny.

The Adidas Bad Bunny Last Campus Dark Brown is set to drop on May 11th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $160. Pick up a pair via the Adidas CONFIRMED app or aftermarket sites like GOAT and Flight Club.

Air Jordan 1 Low OG Shadow

Price: $140

A stealthy low-top Jordan 1? Say less. Picking up this sneaker is a no-brainer, and if you’ve never owned a Jordan 1 but always wanted one, let this be your first.

The sneaker is designed to original specs and sports a premium leather upper with a stealthy color block black and grey colorway. This is one of the all-time greatest Jordan colorways, so it’s not a surprise that it’s the most hyped release of the week.

The Air Jordan 1 Low OG Shadow is set to drop on May 11th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $140. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT and Flight Club.

Disclaimer: While all of the products recommended here were chosen independently by our editorial staff, Uproxx may receive payment to direct readers to certain retail vendors who are offering these products for purchase.

When Caitlin Clark signed her massive sneaker contract with Nike earlier this year, which included the announcement of a signature shoe, many wondered if the rookie sensation had jumped some other top stars in line for their own sneaker.

The biggest name among them was A’ja Wilson, as the Aces star has a strong argument for being the best women’s basketball player on the planet, leading Vegas to back-to-back titles. There was some backlash that Clark was getting a shoe before Wilson, but that appears to have simply been a matter of announcement timing.

On Saturday, Nike and Wilson announced the 2025 release of the A’One, and dropped some images of Wilson working with Nike’s design team over the last year on the sneaker (helping show this wasn’t simply a response to the outcry but in the works long before Clark signed her pro deal).

They also cleverly titled the campaign Of Course I Have A Shoe, even launching a website for it.

We will have to wait a bit for full details and images on Wilson’s sneaker, but one would expect it to be another low top model. How they differentiate it from the other signatures will be interesting, but given A’ja’s unique style there should be plenty of ways for them to create something that stands out. The importance of Wilson getting a shoe is significant, as she will be the first Black WNBA player with a signature shoe since 2010.

Jack Ryan will likely remain forever on Amazon’s list of Best Original Shows for delivering exactly what it promises: John Krasinski in a meat-and-potatoes series adaptation of the Tom Clancy spy-thriller novels. To be perfect real also, this series also stands proud in Amazon’s Dad TV collection, for which Reacher and Outer Range are still going strong.

Krasinski famously turned in his Jack Ryan badge in 2023 after four seasons, but there is zero reason that the franchise needs to die. In fact, there have been persistent whispers that another Clancy character (who was introduced in the fourth season), Domingo “Ding” Chavez (as portrayed by Michael Peña), will be doing the honors going forward. However, that isn’t the only reported Rainbow Six project on the table in recent years. Let’s talk this out.

Plot

Well, this is awkward, but we need to first discuss those preexisting reports that a Rainbow Six movie could have happened as helmed by John Wick director Chad Stahelski. This would have been a Michael B. Jordan followup (from Paramount) with his Without Remorse character, John Clark, who was actually the predominant character in Clancy’s Rainbow Six novel (which also includes Chavez). That film was meant to land in theaters but turned into a pandemic casualty in 2021 with Paramount plopping it onto Amazon for streaming. Hollywood Reporter then relayed in January 2023 that plans existed for Jordan in a Rainbow Six-titled film, and that “Paramount intends to release Rainbow theatrically,” but “No plot details have been revealed.”

Did this project go anywhere? Not yet, and Stahelski has loads of projects in development. Those include a Ghosts Of Tsushima adaptation, but up next, Stahelski is tackling a Highlander film starring Henry Cavill. That project is part of a deal with Lionsgate “that grants him oversight over the ‘Highlander’ and ‘John Wick’ franchises across TV and film.”

So, it’s safe to say that Stahelski won’t have time for Rainbow Six for awhile, if ever, but Amazon already has a willing and ready audience for the Krasinski-Ryanverse version of Rainbow Six to exist as a TV show. Domingo Chavez is already installed into that TV world, and Deadline previously reported that Peña’s character entered Jack Ryan with “the potential spinoff [being] in early stages, with no firm concept or a script yet.” However, this character could bode well for a multiseason series, given that Chavez exists in 22 Jack Ryan Universe novels with seven titles from the core Jack Ryan book series.

Consider this, too: Domingo Chavez previously surfaced onscreen (portrayed by Raymond Cruz) in 1994’s Clear and Present Danger movie starring Harrison Ford. He’s a no-nonsese, well-traveled CIA agent who has undertaken worldwide missions and joined up with the secret counterterrorist Rainbow group in the U.K., where he became a Rainbow Six-designated executive officer. He helped finish the Krasinski characters’s final TV mission and even rescued Ryan, so perhaps Amazon really meant set him up for a spin off. However, Amazon appears to have gone radio silent on the issue, or at least, Peña wasn’t allowed to tell Collider about his lone wolf’s future plans:

“I don’t know … It’s up to the fans and up to Amazon. There are a lot of people that have to do certain things, but if people like it, maybe they’ll chime in and say, like, ‘Hey, we want some more!’ So, you know, we leave it in their hands.”

This sure is a fine mess, but the odds currently appear to be greater for a Peña-starring series rather than a Jordan-starring movie.

Cast

Michael Peña would obviously be the dude to carry on as TV’s Domingo Chavez. Presumably, John Krasinski would at least make an appearance to formally pass the baton, but from there, Amazon would have 20+ novels to choose from while planning out a show on the new leading man.

Release Date

If Amazon does greenlight this series, 2025 would be the soonest that we see this happen.

Trailer

There shall be no spin off footage yet! However, here’s a look back at Domingo Chavez’s no-nonsense presence in Jack Ryan.

To a stranger I met at a coffee shop a few years ago who introduced me to what my life as a parent would be like:

My “welcome to black fatherhood moment” happened five years ago, and I remember it like it happened yesterday.

I doubt you’ll remember it, though — so let me refresh your memory.

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It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Los Angeles in 2011, and I decided to walk my then 3-month-old daughter to the corner Starbucks. That’s when I met you — a stylish older white woman who happened to be ahead of me in line.

You were very friendly and offered up many compliments about how cute my daughter was, and I agreed wholeheartedly with you. She’s cute.

But after you picked up your drink, you delivered this parting shot:

“No offense, but it’s not often that I see black guys out with their kids, but it’s such a wonderful thing,” she said. “No matter what happens, I hope you stay involved in her life.”

And then you put on your designer sunglasses and left.

Meanwhile, I was like…

Here’s the thing: I’m not angry with you, but I want you to understand the impact you had on my life.

Do I think you’re a mean-spirited racist? No, I don’t. Actually, I bet you’re a really nice lady.

But let’s be real for a second: Your view on black dads was tough for me to stomach, and I want you to know a few things about what it’s really like to be me.

1. I want you to know that we have challenges that other dads don’t experience.

I know what you’re thinking: “Oh boy — let me brace myself while he ‘blacksplains’ how hard his life is while shaming me for ignoring my white privilege.”

But that would be missing the point. We all have our challenges in life, and I’m not about to bring a big bottle of whine to a pity party.

Instead, as you probably know, today’s dads are trying to shed the stigma of being clueless buffoons.

But black dads have an additional obstacle to hurdle in that we’re often seen as completely disinterested in fatherhood. Trust me, it gets old when people automatically assume you’re not good at something because of the color of your skin.

Our encounter was the first of many examples of this that I’ve witnessed, directly or indirectly, in my five and a half years of fatherhood, and I’m sure there will be more to come.

2. I want you to know that I’m not a shiny unicorn. There are plenty of black men just like me who love fatherhood.

During the months that followed our brief meeting, I felt a need to prove that you — a complete stranger — were wrong. I needed to prove there were plenty of black men just like me who loved being dads.

I knew a lot of these great men personally: My dad, my two brothers, and many others embraced fatherhood. But could any data back up how much black dads embraced fatherhood? Because the examples in mainstream media were few and far between.

Thankfully, the answer is yes.

A few years after I met you, a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 70% of black dads are likely to engage in common child-rearing activities such as diaper changing, bathing, toilet training, etc., on a daily basis. That’s a higher percentage than white or Hispanic fathers.

Full stop.

This isn’t about black dads being “the best” because parenthood isn’t a competition. It’s about showing that we’re not even remotely as bad as society makes us out to be.

And outside of the CDC study, I saw firsthand how hands-on black dads are when I was thrust into the public eye, too, because a lot of them reached out to me to tell their stories.

We nurture our kids.

We’re affectionate with our kids.

And we do whatever our kids need us to do.

And none of that should come as a surprise to anyone.

3. I want you to know that I believe you meant well when you praised me for being involved in my daughter’s life, but that’s what I’m programmed to do.

I will always be there for her and her baby sister.

Even though I just described how black dads are different from many dads, I hope the takeaway you have from this is that we have a lot of similarities, too.

Please don’t fall into the trap of saying that you want to live in a colorblind world because it makes it harder to identify with inequality when it happens. Instead, I hope you can recognize that we have the same hopes, dreams, and fears as other parents, but the roads we travel may not be the same.

And no, I don’t want an apology.

But I hope when you pick up your next latte and see a dad who looks like me that you’ll smile knowing he’s the rule rather than the exception.

This article originally appeared on 06.15.16

Nearly 12 percent of the U.S. population lives in poverty. That’s more than one in ten Americans—and the percent is even higher for children.

If you’re not up on the current numbers, the federal poverty line is $12,760 for an individuals and $26,200 for a family of four. If those annual incomes sound abysmally low, it’s because they are. And incredibly, the Trump administration has proposed lowering the poverty line further, which would make more poor Americans ineligible for needed assistance.

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However, debates over the poverty line don’t even capture the full extent of Americans struggling to make ends meet. For many people, living above the poverty line is actually worse. These are the folks who make too much to qualify for aid programs but not enough to actually get by—a situation millions of working American families find themselves stuck in.

Amy Jo Hutchison is a single mother of two living in West Virginia, and a community organizer for West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families and Our Future West Virginia. She has also lived in poverty and been part of the working poor herself. In an impassioned speech, she spoke to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform about what poverty really looks like for working families—and even called out Congress for being completely out of touch with what it takes for a family to live on while they’re spending $40,000 a year on office furniture.

Watch Hutchison’s testimony here (transcript included below):

Ms. Hutchison Testimony on Proposed Changes to the Poverty Line Calculation

“I’m here to help you better understand poverty because poverty is my lived experience. And I’m also here to acknowledge the biased beliefs that poor people are lazy and the poverty is their fault. But how do I make you understand things like working full-time for $10 an hour is only about $19,000 a year, even though it’s well above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour?

I want to tell you about a single mom I met who was working at a gas station. She was promoted to manager within 30 days. She had to report her new income the DHHR within 60 days. Her rent bumped from $475 to $950 a month, she lost her SNAP benefits and her family’s health insurance, so she did what poor people are forced to do all the time. She resigned her promotion and went back to working part-time, just so she and her family could survive.

Another single mom I know encouraged her kids to get jobs. For her DHHR review she had to claim their income as well. She lost her SNAP benefits and her insurance, so she weaned herself off of her blood pressure medicines because she—working full-time in a bank and part-time at a shop on the weekends—couldn’t afford to buy them. Eventually the girls quit their jobs because their part-time fast food income was literally killing their mother.

You see the thing is children aren’t going to escape poverty as long as they’re relying on a head of household who is poor. Poverty rolls off the backs of parents, right onto the shoulders of our children, despite how hard we try.

I can tell you about my own with food insecurity the nights I went to bed hungry so my kids could have seconds, and I was employed full time as a Head Start teacher. I can tell you about being above the poverty guideline, nursing my gallbladder with essential oils and prayer, chewing on cloves and eating ibuprofen like they’re Tic Tacs because I don’t have health insurance and I can’t afford a dentist. I have two jobs and a bachelor’s degree, and I struggle to make ends meet.

The federal poverty guidelines say that I’m not poor, but I cashed in a jar full of change the other night so my daughter could attend a high school band competition with her band. I can’t go grocery shopping without a calculator. I had to decide which bills not to pay to be here in this room today. Believe me, I’ve pulled myself up by the bootstraps so many damn times that I’ve ripped them off.

The current poverty guidelines are ridiculously out of touch. The poverty line for a family of three is $21,720. Where I live, because of the oil and gas boom, a 3-bedroom home runs for $1,200 a month. So if I made $22,000 a year, which could disqualify me from assistance, I would have $8000 left to raise two children and myself on. And yet the poverty guidelines wouldn’t classify me as poor.

I Googled ‘congressman salary’ the other day and according to Senate gov the salary for Senators representatives and delegates is $174,000 a year so a year of work for you is the equivalent of almost four years of work for me. I’m $24,000 above the federal poverty guidelines definition of poor. It would take nine people working full-time for a year at $10 an hour to match y’all’s salary. I also read that each senator has authorized $40,000 dollars for state office furniture and furnishings, and this amount is increased each year to reflect inflation.

That $40,000 a year for furniture is $360 more than the federal poverty guidelines for a family of seven, and yet here I am begging you on behalf of the 15 million children living in poverty in the United States—on behalf of the one in three kids under the age of five and nearly 100,000 children in my state of West Virginia living in poverty—to not change anything about these federal poverty guidelines until you can make them relevant and reflect what poverty really looks like today.

You have a $40,000 dollar furniture allotment. West Virginia has a median income of $43,000 and some change. People are working full-time and are hungry. Kids are about to be kicked off the free and reduced lunch rolls because of changes y’all want to make to SNAP, even though 62 percent of West Virginia SNAP recipients are families with children—the very same children who cannot take a part-time job because their parents will die without insurance. People are working full-time in this country for very little money.

They’re not poor enough to get help. They don’t make enough to get by. They’re working while their rationing their insulin and their skipping their meds because they can’t afford food and healthcare at the same time.

So shame on you. Shame on you, and shame on me, and shame on each and every one of us who haven’t rattled the windows of these buildings with cries of outrage at a government that thinks their office furniture is worthy of $40,000 a year and families and children aren’t.

I’m not asking you to apologize for your privilege but I’m asking you to see past it. There are 46 million Americans living in poverty doing the best they know how with what they have and we, in defense of children and families, cannot accept anything less from our very own government.”

In addition to Hutchison’s testimony, a coalition of 26 patient organizations, including the American Cancer Society Action Network, American Heart Association, and United Way, wrote a joint letter opposing the proposed lowering of the poverty line, stating:

“The current Official Poverty Measure (OPM) is based on an old formula that already does not fully capture those living in poverty and does not accurately reflect basic household expenses for families, including by underestimating child care and housing expenses. The proposed changes to the inflation calculation would reduce the annual adjustments to the poverty measure and therefore may exacerbate existing weaknesses, putting vulnerable Americans – including those with serious and chronic diseases – at great risk. Further lowering the poverty line would also give policymakers and the public less credible information about the number and characteristics of Americans living in poverty.”

This article originally appeared on 03.10.20

A pelvic floor doctor from Boston, Massachusetts, has caused a stir by explaining that something we all thought was good for our health can cause real problems. In a video that has more than 5.8 million views on TikTok, Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas says we shouldn’t go pee “just in case.”

How could this be? The moment we all learned to control our bladders we were also taught to pee before going on a car trip, sitting down to watch a movie or playing sports.

The doctor posted the video as a response to TikTok user Sidneyraz, who made a video urging people to go to the bathroom whenever they get the chance. Sidneyraz is known for posting videos about things he didn’t learn until his 30s. “If you think to yourself, ‘I don’t have to go,’ go.” SidneyRaz says in the video. It sounds like common sense but evidently, he was totally wrong, just like the rest of humanity.

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“Pelvic floor physical therapist here, and I work with a lot of people with overactive bladders, stress incontinence, urge incontinence, the whole nine yards,” Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas began her clip. “And here’s why you shouldn’t go ‘just in case.”‘

In the video, Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas explains the three levels of feeling the need to pee.

“The first one is just an awareness level that tells you that there’s some urine in the bladder,” she said. “The second one is the one that tells you to make a plan to use the toilet, and the third is kind of the panic button that says, ‘Get me there right now, I’m about to overflow.’”

@sidneyraz

on vacation and remembering #vacation #tips #bathroom #travel #tipsandtricks #todayilearned #todayyearsold #islandlife #traumabrain #roadtrip #inmy30s

Then she made her case by giving a visual explanation of how going when we don’t need to teaches our bodies to prematurely send signals that it’s time to pee. The simple explanation has a lot of people wondering if their pee sensor is still working correctly.

@thepelvicdancefloor

#stitch with @sidneyraz I know it sounds counterintuitive and goes against everything your momma taught you – just out here trying to save your bladder 🤍

In a rare display of humility on the internet, Sidneyraz saw the video and thanked the doctor for the correction. “Oh hey thanks for correcting me!” he wrote.

The video shocked a lot of people who feel like their entire lives have been based on a lie—at least when it comes to something most of us do six to eight times a day. “TikTok is basically just a bunch of videos telling me I’m doing life wrong,” joked one commenter. “Like Jesus, really? I’m peeing wrong?”

Yes, you are.

“Who else hears their mom in their head say ‘go just in case’ when you’re out and about and near a bathroom?” another commenter asked.

The good news is that if you’ve always been the type to go “just in case” and you constantly feel like you need to go pee, there is hope. With the help of a doctor, you can retrain your bladder so that you only feel the need to go when it’s time. Now, who’s going to be the first brave person who doesn’t go when they feel the need, just to see if their body’s pee sensor is off?

This article originally appeared on 05.12.22

Women are often saddled with the mental load of the household in romantic relationships, there are multiple articles covering the topic. It can be daunting to be in charge of remembering all of the things, essentially becoming a house manager by default. Many times this isn’t an arrangement that is discussed, it seems to be either an expectation due to parental modeling or falling into gender roles.

Morgan Strickell was not planning to fall into the trap of being her family’s sole organizer and distributer of information. This was a boundary she and her husband were clear about before getting married but recently had to reinforce. The soon-to-be mom, took to her TikTok page to explain that she is not interested in being her husband’s “kin keeper.”

Strickell is pregnant with her first child and after news was posed on social media, her mother in law’s feeling were hurt after finding out the news second hand. It was this situation that prompted the woman’s video.

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“I refuse to be the primary communicator with my husband’s side of the family,” Strickell starts. “A few weeks ago my mother-in-law was on the phone with us and she expressed that she was a little bit hurt because she keeps finding out things about our pregnancy from her sister who sees the posts on social media.”

The woman explains that this is news to her as she assumed her husband had been communicating the news to his mother. So when they had another ultrasound appointment she reminded her husband to send the information to his mom, to which he asked why she couldn’t inform his mom for him. That’s when Strickwell had to reinforce her boundary, reminding him that it is his job to inform his side of the family of important information.

Strickwell has a good relationship with her mother in-law and speaks to her on a fairly regular basis, so it’s not a matter of an unpleasant relationship. The soon-to-be mom is simply not adding additional things to her plate that then become the expectation. Many people in the comments agreed with her approach.

@morganstrickell #family #momsoftiktok #inlaws ♬ original sound – Morgan Elisa Strickell

I’m on your side and I’m actually the mom of three boys who don’t communicate with me, but it is their responsibility to keep me in the loop not their wives,” a commenter says.

“Last year my husband told me I was wrong for not including his mom in my Mother’s Day shopping and I kindly reminded him that we in fact do not share the same mom,” another writes.

“Stay strong on this, it only gets worse after the kid is born,” someone declares.

“You are correct and the next thing he’ll have you do is buying birthday presents birthday cards for his family and everything becomes your responsibility,” another person says.

In another video, Strickell clarified that her husband isn’t worried about his communication in with his mother. She also says this isn’t an issue that comes up often in their relationship because he is very good at communicating with his family. But Strickwell’s intention was to use that example as a means to make sure people are aware that the responsibility of communication doesn’t have to fall on the female partner in the relationship.