McDonald’s French fries are so good that just a few are enough to convince you that you’re eating the best fries in fast food. A year ago, I would’ve told you that this was just hype — McDonald’s taking the top spot because no one dares to doubt them. But we pitted McDonald’s fries against five other fast food favorites in a blind taste test and the winner was undeniable. There is just something special about McDonald’s fries that sets them apart.
Originally, I was convinced they added just a hint of sugar to make them so addictive (I still sort of believe this) and I know in the past McDonald’s fried their French fries in beef tallow, but that’s something they gave up in the ‘90s (for a recipe to try tallow fries yourself, see here). I made reference to my “sugar theory” in our original blind taste test and received a lot of emails from McDonald’s fans who were happy to tell me that the fries are still fried in some sort of beefy flavoring — so shout out to the readers for putting this on my radar: McDonald’s French fries are fried in vegetable oil and something called “Natural Beef Flavor.”
“Natural Beef Flavor” is a lot like the “natural flavors” you find on other food labels. It is an umbrella term designed to shorten ingredient lists and can generally contain a bunch of different ingredients or chemical additives that might otherwise confuse consumers. The rule is, as long as it’s recognized as safe by the FDA and doesn’t contain a common allergen, it’s all good. When Eater spoke to a food chemist Gary Reineccius, they learned that: “Natural beef flavoring isn’t necessarily from beef at all… Food scientists identified the amino acids found in beef, added some very common sugars — starch hydrolysate — put it in a pot, added some citric acid to drop the PH, controlled moisture content and heated it to the same temperature as meat.” And that gives you “natural beef flavor.”
Sounds… natural. Right?
If you’re a vegetarian or vegan who loves McDonald’s fries and now you’re jumping for joy, sit down, because according to McDonald’s ingredient list, the brand’s “natural beef flavor” contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk. In their own fine print, the brand states “We do not promote any of our US menu items as vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free.” So while we can’t say for sure if McDonald’s “natural beef flavor” actually has meat in it, the fact that they aren’t willing to say otherwise makes it pretty safe to assume that the food isn’t handled in a fully vegetarian or vegan manner.
This is unfortunate news if you’re a strict vegan or vegetarian. Luckily, there are a few fast food options that are safe for you to eat and just as delicious. Here are some of our favorites!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Food Rankings From The Last Month
Five Guys’ has an incredibly simple menu that features hot dogs, bacon, burgers, and French fries. That’s it, as such the fries aren’t sharing oil with any other food products and are fried in 100% peanut oil.
Although McDonald’s won our fast food French fries blind taste test, Five Guys were absent from that tasting, and had they been included I’m sure they would’ve taken the number one spot. These fries are perfect — fresh and cut on sight, perfectly crispy on the outside, and soft and buttery on the inside. Five Guys twice fry these things and it makes all the difference.
They might not be as eerily addictive as McDonald’s fries, but from a flavor, texture, and quantity standpoint, you get a whole lot more here. Unfortunately, they’re triple the price.
In-N-Out’s French fries are some of the most polarizing in all of fast food and call me crazy but, I don’t get it. Do you mean to tell me you have a problem with a potato that is peeled and cut daily and fried in 100% sunflower oil? Why? Who hurt you?
Yes, sometimes In-N-Out fries can be over or undercooked, especially when the restaurant is busy. This gives them a cardboard-like or mushy texture, that’s not ideal, but more often than not these are pretty solid French fries that just need a bit of black pepper and salt to turn them from bland to delicious.
Chick-fil-A is one of the rare chicken places that use a completely separate fryer for its fries and hash browns. The brand has an entire website page dedicated to identifying which of its menu items are vegetarian and vegan. Chick-fil-A is known for frying its chicken in peanut oil, the fries are actually fried in canola.
The results are still pretty damn good. They’re always hot and fresh, and have a buttery potato-forward flavor with a crunchy exterior and a soft fluffy inner.
Taco Bell’s nacho fries are fried in soybean oil and as of now, there aren’t any meat options in the menu that are sharing oil with the fries. This isn’t always the case though, Taco Bell has had wings on the menu in the past, and we’re willing to bet they’re going to have them again.
On those occasions, we think it’s pretty safe to assume Taco Bell isn’t adding a whole new fryer to fry the chicken in. So you’ll have to pay attention to the current promotions but if you’re willing to do that extra level of work, what you’ll get in return are some pretty good French fries!
The fries are seasoned with a mix of paprika, salt, garlic, onion powder, and cayenne pepper, which offers a zesty, slightly spicy, and sweet flavor that are as addictive as McDonald’s “natural beef flavor,” without all the mystery.
Is it the “natural beef flavor” that has made McDonald’s so dominant over Burger King? The brand was once McDonald’s greatest competitor and now the King consistently ranks among the worst restaurants in the fast food universe. I blame the burgers. But we’re not here to talk about how the Whopper falls short, we’re here for the fries, and BK’s are… pretty good.
They can be over-salted, but when they’re fresh they’re delicious. Slightly thicker than McDonald’s, Burger King’s fries are crispy and buttery, with a decadent greasy flavor that makes them pretty addicting if you like greasy food. The brand advertises these fries as ‘vegan’ and has separate fryers for the french fries, here is the but…
The fryers share an oil filtration system which “creates a risk of cross-contact when the oil passes through the filter.” So these fries are vegan and vegetarian but there may be the slightest amount of cross-contamination there. That won’t be a big deal for everyone, but it will for some so we felt like we had to point it out.
It’s remarkable, really, that the Succession team was able to keep Logan’s death a secret. (Please do not yell at me for “spoiling” the big man’s death now. It’s been a month.) It wasn’t an easy endeavorer.
“HBO were fantastic with their resources and the advice they gave with the benefit of their experience, trying to keep a secret in the social media universe,” director Mark Mylod told the Hollywood Reporter following Logan’s funeral episode. To prevent his death from leaking, Team Succession replaced every “Logan” in the scripts with “Ewan,” his brother played by James Cromwell. “We played it as if Jamie’s character had passed. When it came to the funeral in episode nine, we billed it in all of our scripts, and even in posters outside the church, as if it was Ewan’s funeral,” Mylod said. “That was phase one.”
Phase two involved hundreds of non-disclosure agreements.
“The next thing was the classic non-disclosure agreements we asked all of our background actors to sign. When you have literally many hundreds of background people for several days, their ability to stick an anonymous Reddit post up … there are ways, I’m sure. But nobody did.”
Mylod appealed to their humanity. “Let’s not spoil the enjoyment for fans of the show. Let’s have this as our little secret. Let’s not tell anybody. Keep it quiet. Obviously, tell your partners at home, but please keep it under your hats,” he told the extras. It worked. Probably because if they said anything, HBO would sue them for everything they’ve got. But, sure, the other reason, too.
Late last year and early this year, Matty Healy was making headlines for various on-stage antics. Now, The 1975’s singer is all the rage as rumors about a Taylor Swift relationship swirl. The whole situation is a major conversation topic online, which prompted a parody from Lewis Capaldi on TikTok.
Text superimposed on the video reads, “Random people on the internet preparing to give their thoughts on the ‘Taylor swift/Matty Healy discourse.’” As Carl Orff’s iconic “O Fortuna” symphony plays, Capaldi adopts an overly serious disposition as a number of clips with various video effects applied rapidly and hectically transition from one to the next. Capaldi captioned the post, “the world must hear what i have to say.”
For the record, Capaldi is clearly a Swift fan. He covered “Love Story” at a gig earlier this year, saying, “I was going to sing one of my songs next, but I thought it would just be better to play a Taylor Swift song.” He’s also declared that he “would LOVE” to collaborate with her.
Capaldi also spoke highly of Healy in a December 2022 interview, noting that they collaborated on material that ultimately didn’t make his latest album, last week’s Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent. He said, “Listen, we wrote together for this album. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before. So I love 1975. I think my favorite band just now. I just love how he is and how they are as a band in terms of the way he is now especially, he doesn’t give a f*ck.”
Once again, the people are furious and fast, though this time, they are doing it in Italy so they can grab some gelato on the way out. The latest Fast movie, Fast X, crashed into theaters last week, and now that you’ve seen it 14 times, you probably know about the two big cameos that made it into the final cut which feature The Rock and Gal Gadot returning to play Hobbs and Gisele, respectively.
The cameos were mostly kept a secret until now, though Vin Diesel is just happy that he cant finally talk about it. “I’m so excited to have them back home and even more excited to see fan reactions and to see how happy it makes people,” Diesel said. He truly is so happy.
But having the crew back home was a long time in the making. Michelle Rodriguez said that Gadot’s “back from the dead” storyline had been in the works for some time, which Diesel confirmed. Gadot even went as far as filming scenes for past Fast movies (after her death in Fast and Furious 6), though they ended up on the cutting room floor.
“We have shot other things a long time ago that might not have fit that specific movie as a finale,” Diesel told Variety. “Doing tags is a very tricky thing because you want your great talent but at the same time you have to be very careful to maintain the emotional state of your audience at the end of the movie. So that’s what you’re juggling,” he added. It seems like considering the emotional state of your audience is rare these days, so it’s nice that Diesel is giving the people what they want, but not too much.
Now that Fast X is finally here, fans can look forward to the next generation of Fast movies, including a female-led spinoff that’s currently in the works. Where will they go next? Speeding down Route 66? Launching cars into space? There really is no limit here.
88rising’s Head In The Clouds Festival is returning to Los Angeles for its 5th event on August 5 and 6, once again taking over Brookside at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena with a lineup featuring DPR Live, DPR Ian, Jackson Wang, NIKI, Rich Brian, and Rina Sawayama. A number of regulars for the Asian-focused festival return as well, including Keith Ape, Warren Hue, Milli, and more. There’s even a special guest: DJ/producer Zedd, fresh off his appearance in The Muppets Mayhem.
Tickets for this year’s event go on sale next Tuesday, May 30, with a presale on Thursday, May 25 at 10 am. You can preregister for the presale now at the festival’s website. The festival is also bringing back 626 Night Market as its official food partner, ensuring that there will be just as many awesome eats as there are entertaining musical acts.
88rising recently expanded Head In The Clouds to the East Coast with its inaugural festival in Queens, New York, as well as overseas with an event in Jakarta. At last year’s Los Angeles Head In The Clouds, stars like Audrey Nuna, Deb Never, Jay Park, and Raveena helped advance 88rising’s mission to highlight Asian talent in the music world, and this year’s lineup aims to do the same. Don’t miss out.
Woody Allen found time in his busy schedule of watching basketball, playing the clarinet, and continuing to make movies, for some reason, to save someone’s life. Page Six reports that the 87-year-old filmmaker “leapt from his seat” at Manhattan restaurant Caravaggio to give his friend, Andrew Stein, the Heimlich maneuver while he was choking on a piece of pork.
“I am embarrassed to say it, but Woody actually saved my life,” he said. “I normally order fish, but this time I went for the pork, and soon after we started to eat, a piece of the meat became lodged in my throat and I was struggling to breathe. I started to panic. I was terrified. And then Woody came to my rescue.” Stein called it “like a scene from one of his movies. If it wasn’t for his quick thinking, I fear I may have died. I owe him my life.”
This is apparently the second time Allen has saved someone from choking, but that’s not my favorite detail about this story. This is:
While their dinner companions — famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz and Allen’s wife, Soon-Yi Previn— looked on in horror, Stein, who was New York City Council President from 1986 until 1994, turned red and struggled to breathe.
No offense to Tom and Greg, but Dershowitz and Allen are New York’s true “disgusting” brothers.
There’s no getting around the hiked-up prices of rare and delicious bourbon whiskeys these days. A lot of great but very limited releases (“allocated” if you want to get all technical about it) bourbons are not only hard to find but inflated price-wise when you do stumble across them. Retailers (in non-state-run states) will put seemingly insane price tags on the most sought-after bottles of, say, Weller 12-Year or Pappy Van Winkle 15-Year even though those whiskeys are supposed to cost $40 and $99, respectively. Add in that aftermarket sellers will also sell you those same bottles at ridiculously higher prices, and you have the perfect storm of what should be accessible and excellent whiskey ending up as prohibitively expensive (if you can even find it).
That begs the question, do bourbons that theoretically ought to cost $50 but really cost $500 or stack up against bourbons that actually cost $500 at MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price)? That’s what today’s blind taste test hopes to find out.
Before we dive in, let’s get some context out of the way. This inflation of price in rare and heavily desired bourbon is the system we live in this world. It’s no different than Nikes, Rolexes, Supreme gear, wine, scotch, or any other product that has the perfect balance of rarity, quality, and consumer desire. Thinking that bourbon should somehow be exempt from this system is, well, naive at best and delusional at worst (it’s a simple misunderstanding of how our economy works on a fundamental level). We live in a world/economy where rarity, desirability, and quality are going to drive the market and therefore explode prices into the stratosphere. I’m not saying it’s fair but point to a single thing in this world that is.
Still, are the $50 bottles getting that massively inflated price point really so good? Are those bourbons truly as good or even better than bottles of rare whiskey that actually cost $500 (due to true rarity or age and not just hype)? I gathered some bottles that touch on this exact conundrum and had my wife shuffle and pour them so I could answer exactly that.
That makes our lineup today the following bourbons:
Old Rip Van Winkle Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 10 Years ($69 MSRP)
Weller The Original Wheated Bourbon Aged 12 Years Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey ($40 MSRP)
Heaven’s Door The Bootleg Series Volume IV Wheated Bourbon Finished in Islay Scotch Casks Aged 11 Years Cask Strength ($499 MSRP)
Yes, a couple of these are $60 and above and one is below. It all averages out in the end and they all top out at or over $500 in the real world. Moreover, the actual prices on these bottles at retail are going to range pretty far and wide but are always around $500.
One huge reason for that is that most of these whiskeys have vintages. Finding a, say, Old Rip 10-Year from 2022 is going to be cheaper than finding one from 2019 or even 2010. Likewise, that Rare Hare release is actually cheaper than its MSRP (because few people care about it). To sum up, there are a million factors that influence the exact price that you might find from the vintage (year released) to local taxes/allocations to the literal whims of local retailers.
Lastly, when it comes to ranking these bourbons, it’s about one thing only: Taste. What tastes best is my modus operandi. I’m ranking them accordingly and we will all see if those $40-$60 bottles that cost around $500 actually stand up to the real-deal $500 bourbons. Let’s dive in!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
Nose: The nose opens with a sense of old barrels next to rum-raisin folded into a honey-nut creamy fudge cluster with pecans and walnuts and dusted with powdered sugar, sweet cinnamon, and orange zest.
Palate: The palate leans into salted caramel with vanilla cream next to stewed apples with maple doughnut frosting and a twinge of old dates soaked in black tea.
Finish: The end has a moment of black pepperiness before heading toward woody winter spices, old piles of orchard wood with a hint of black mold, and soft leaves of chewy tobacco laced with dark chocolate, salted caramel, and marzipan.
Initial Thoughts:
This is pretty good bourbon. It was a little tannic (old barrels) on the nose but delved deeply into stone-cold classic Kentucky bourbon vibes after that.
Overall, it didn’t feel “special” though. It felt like a “really good and very classic” bourbon.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is supple and full of creamed honey, moist marzipan, peaches and cream ice cream with a hint of waffle cone, and fresh plums dashed with clove and star anise.
Palate: The palate leans into the plums with a spiced cake vibe next to rich Black Forest Cake, candied dates, rum-raisin, and banana bread with plenty of butter, cinnamon, and walnut with a twist of fresh orange zest.
Finish: The end embraces the orange and adds in salted dark chocolate tobacco with a hint of brown butter, pecan shells, and cedar boughs.
Initial Thoughts:
This feels special. There’s a depth that just goes and goes with a classic vibe overall. It’s also amazingly well-balanced.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Dried dark fruits and a hint of vanilla wafers mingle with fig fruit leather, a touch of orchard wood, and a deep caramel on the nose that leads to this very nostalgic sense of sunny backyards on lazy summer days of childhood. It’s almost mesmerizing.
Palate: The palate holds onto those notes while layering in dark berry tobacco with sharp winter spices, new leather, and a singed cotton candy next to a cedar box filled with that tobacco.
Finish: The finish lingers on your senses for a while and leaves the spice behind for that dark, almost savory fruit note with an echo of blackberry Hostess pies next to soft leather pouches that have held chewy tobacco for decades and a final hint of old porch wicker in the middle of summer.
Initial Thoughts:
This is excellent bourbon that also feels very special. There’s real depth here and it plays like a one-of-a-kind experience that’s somehow super comforting thanks to a deep familiarity.
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is like walking into a health food store and setting up camp on the vitamin aisle before dark fruit leather next to brandy-soaked raisins arrive next to a clear yet soft graininess that’s very Tennessee hollow on a cold fall day.
Palate: There’s a hint of clove and toffee on the nose that leads into the palate with a sense of sharp cinnamon spice next to a touch of black licorice that’s kind of like a black Necco Wafer.
Finish: The end leans back into that autumnal forest with a barky chewiness that’s slightly sweet and fruity next to a final note of salted toffee drizzle over a thin line of sour cherry tobacco leaf.
Initial Thoughts:
This is boldly a Tennessee whiskey that really leans into the multi-vitamin and chalkiness of it all. It was really hard to get into and a little light overall.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a pecan pie vibe that’s nutty, dry, and full of dark Caro syrup sweetness with a hint of candied orange peels, a touch of cinnamon, and dry cedar bark.
Palate: The palate holds onto the sweetness as it leans towards a campfire roasted marshmallow, a touch of saffron and clove-stewed pears, a pile of sappy firewood, and creamy nuances of vanilla pudding all meander through your senses.
Finish: The end has a light savory nature that leads back to the pear, vanilla, and marshmallow on a very slow fade toward a pile of fresh firewood piled high on soft black soil.
Initial Thoughts:
This is very nice but a bit of an outlier thanks to the deep nuttiness and the dryness that comes along with that. Still, it’s balanced excellently with soft fruits and creamy sweetness.
If I had to guess, this is a cheaper whiskey that costs a lot of money thanks to that balancing act and the uniqueness of the overall profile.
Taste 6
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a sense of wet oak staves (think rained on barrels) next to freshly pressed sugar cane juice, damp, almost still unharvested cherry tobacco leaves, the seeds from a vanilla pod, rainwater, stringy cedar bark, and fresh apricot next to Bing cherry.
Palate: Dark cherry leads to candied ginger on the opening of the taste as orange marmalade mingles with toasted sourdough, sticky yet subtle fir resin, and creamy key lime pie filling with just a hint of the butter in the crust of that pie. The mid-palate leans into the sugar in that pie filling as the cherry kicks back in with a sliver of tartness next to overripe peaches, dried hibiscus, mild anise, allspice berries, sassafras, and dried cacao nibs.
Finish: The finish gently steps through a field full of orange blossoms as that cacao dries out more, leaving you with dried choco-cherry tobacco that’s been inside a cedar box wrapped in decades-old leather.
Initial Thoughts:
This pour was almost mind-blowingly better than the rest. The depth alone was fantastic while the balance of both pure nostalgic classic bourbon with so much more and interesting notes really drove home that this was not only special but quintessential.
Taste 7
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose hits softly with bruised peaches and old pears next to fresh wool sweaters, vanilla pancake batter, and moist marzipan next to orange oils, worn-out wicker deck furniture, and old Buffalo Trace leather with a faint hint of dried roses.
Palate: The palate kicks around cherry bark and apple-cider-soaked cinnamon sticks with spiced cranberry sauce over buttermilk biscuits and gingerbread.
Finish: The end leans into the sharp brown spices with a mild sense of vanilla cake with apple cider and cinnamon frosting, a touch of burnt orange, and more of that moist marzipan covered in salted dark chocolate with this faint hint of proofing water at the very end.
Initial Thoughts:
This was nice and classic whiskey but ended a little thinly. That’s a shame because this is good stuff but not particularly memorable.
Taste 8
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Old lawn wicker and worn-out leather tobacco pouches mingle with Christmas plum pudding, rich and most marzipan, and campfire-kissed marshmallow with this faint trace of burnt incense ash.
Palate: There’s a sense of old corn husks that leads to old oak staves, orchards full of dead leaves, sour cherry, marzipan cut with dark orange oils, and this fleeting speck of beef tallow.
Finish: That whisper of umami leads back to the dark orchard fruits, soft nuttiness, and mild medley of botanical winter spices with a chewy fresh tobacco vibe.
Initial Thoughts:
Again, this is mind-blowingly better than everything except taste six. It’s deep, complex, vibrant, textured, classic, fresh, and just sublime to sip.
I’m going to have to go back to this and taste six a few times if I’m going to pick a winner between them. They’re both far and away the best pours.
Part 2 — The $500 Bourhon Ranking
Zach Johnston
8. Rare Hare 1953 Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in XXO Cognac Casks ($585 MSRP) — Taste 4
The juice in the bottle is a blend of 17-year-old bourbons from undisclosed sources in Tennessee. Those 17-year-old barrels were blended and then re-barreled into XXO Cognac casks (barrels that held brandy for at least 14 years in Cognac, France) for an additional 12 months of mellowing. Finally, that juice is vatted and bottled as-is into 1,953 bottles.
Bottom Line:
This is very Tennessee whiskey in that health store multi-vitamin chalkiness. That’s going to be hard to get over for a lot of people out there. And let’s be honest, you shouldn’t have to get past anything if you’re paying $500. That probably explains why this is one sale everywhere for almost $100 cheaper.
7. Weller The Original Wheated Bourbon Aged 12 Years Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey ($40 MSRP) — Taste 7
This Buffalo Trace whiskey rests in the warehouse for 12 long years, in the same barrels and warehouses as Pappy van Winkle whiskeys. The difference between this and Pappy 12 — good ol’ “Lot B” — is pretty simple actually. If the barrel doesn’t hit the exact flavor profile needed for a Pappy, it’s sent to the blending house to become a Weller (as long as it hits Weller’s flavor profile, of course). So yes, this could have been a Pappy 12 had the flavor profile been slightly different in the barrel. Regardless, this is then batched and proofed down for bottling.
Bottom Line:
The low proof really drew this one back on this tasting panel. This whiskey tasted the most inexpensive by far. It’s still a great-tasting whiskey, but not for anything close to that price point. If you could get this at $40 or $50 at retail, then we’d be having a completely different conversation.
Michter’s originally dropped this back in 2014; it has since become a mainstay of their release schedule. The whiskey is standard bourbon that’s then finished in a toasted barrel from the famed Kelvin Cooperage in Louisville. They build these barrels by hand from 18-month air-dried white oak and then lightly toast (not char) the inside before the aged whiskey goes in.
Bottom Line:
This was very good but didn’t quite pop. There was a lot going on, it all made sense, and this tasted very good. It just didn’t feel like a $500 pour at all. It did, however, feel like a great $50 pour with a truly one-of-a-kind flavor profile that just works, especially if you’re an oak-head.
5. Old Rip Van Winkle Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 10 Years ($69 MSRP) — Taste 1
This is Pappy at 10 years old but not “technically” Pappy (this is a “Van Winkle” expression, which are the entry-point expressions from the brand). Semantics aside, this is the same wheated juice that hits its prime at 10 years instead of 12, 15, or 20 years. The main difference here — besides the younger age — is the proof. This goes into the bottle with only a touch of water, keeping it far closer to barrel-proof at 107 proof.
Bottom Line:
You can find these for around $520 (I have) but it’s rare. Price aside, I really like this one. It feels like a solid 10-year-old bourbon but I cannot say it’s that much better than an Eagle Rare 10-year which only costs $50.
If this was only $70 a bottle and sitting next to a $50 Eagle Rare 10 on the shelf, I’d buy both — one for sipping and one for mixing — and be very happy. This is delicious. Don’t for a second get me wrong.
This super rare whiskey is made from a classic mash of 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley. That whiskey was aged for an undisclosed amount of years before it was re-barreled into 32 French cognac barrels. Those 32 barrels were then batched, proofed, and bottled as-is for this release.
Bottom Line:
This is where we get into the “wow” pours. This instantly was just better. I liked a few pours a bit more (they just had a tad more depth), but this was excellent bourbon that truly tasted like you were getting something deeply special and unique.
3. E. H. Taylor, Jr. Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Bottled In Bond ($60 MSRP) — Taste 3
This whiskey is aged in the famed Warehouse C at Buffalo Trace from their Mash Bill No. 1. In this case, single barrels are picked for their perfect Taylor flavor profile and bottled one at a time with a slight touch of water to bring them down to bottled-in-bond proof.
Bottom Line:
This is really, really good bourbon. In fact, this felt and tasted special while being probably the most “classic” bourbon pour on the list. It just goes to show that you can be “classic” while still offering so much more.
I honestly couldn’t tell if this was truly expensive or just “marked up” expensive. That said, it didn’t touch the next two when it comes to true brilliance.
This whiskey is a blend of Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky bourbons. Each barrel in that blend is a minimum of 16 years old. The barrels were specifically chosen for their cherry, nutty, high-proof, and chocolate profiles. Half of those barrels were then finished in new American oak for a final touch of maturation before vatting and bottling as-is.
Bottom Line:
This was so good that it was almost unbelievable. There was a depth and balance that was just unparalleled (in six out of the eight pours on this panel). This was so clearly a rare and expensive bourbon because it just tasted, well, really f*cking special.
The only reason that it’s not tied for number one is that the next pour was a little more of a surprise on the palate. Still, this is stellar.
1. Heaven’s Door The Bootleg Series Volume IV Wheated Bourbon Finished in Islay Scotch Casks Aged 11 Years Cask Strength ($499 MSRP) — Taste 8
This late 2022 release from Heaven’s Door carries on the tradition of the Bootleg Series being stellar. The whiskey in the bottle is a wheated bourbon that spent 11 years mellowing before being re-casked in old Islay Scotch whisky casks. After a final rest, those barrels were batched and bottled as-is.
Bottom Line:
This has everything you could ever want in a complex, enticing, and delicious whiskey — nuance, balance, and enough flavor notes to draw you in without seeming muddy or overwhelming.
Truly, this is a whiskey where you smell it and know immediately that you’re in the presence of something truly great. Moreover, that was blatantly obvious from the first moment of interacting with the glass. It just instantly read more refined and deeper and never let up while providing a wonderful experience from beginning to end. This is real first-class whiskey.
Part 3 — Final Thoughts on $500 Bourbons
Zach Johnston
The top two whiskeys on this list are something truly special. I cannot overemphasize that. Are they worth their real $500 price tag? Yes. No question. I’d also argue that the Chicken Cock release is worthy.
Amazingly, the only $50 bourbon that I would also say is worth its inflated price point is the E.H. Taylor, Jr., Single Barrel. It’s pretty much a perfect classic Kentucky bourbon.
The rest… meh. Not really. The Old Rip 10-Year is perfectly fine but not the best option if you’re looking for a Pappy to fall in love with — that’d be Pappy Van Winkle 15-year. The Weller and Michter’s are also perfectly fine pours but don’t have the special pop that merits those prices. The Rare Hare is a hard pass (on this panel).
So there you have it. For the most part, the price and worth of these whiskeys just depends. There are $500 whiskeys that don’t live up to their high prices. There are $50 whiskeys that should cost way more and do. But let’s be real, three of the top four were all true $500 bottles. That should tell you everything you need to know.
The world of Michelle Zauner’sCrying In H Mart started as a relatively intimate thing, but it just continued to grow. The Japanese Breakfast musician wrote an essay for the New Yorker, which landed Zauner a book deal to expand on the essay. Zauner released the memoir in 2021 and it was a major success that ended up being one of the year’s most talked-about books. Not long after the book came out, it was announced that Crying In H Mart would be adapted into a movie.
Now, he have a new update about the film, specifically who will play the role of Zauner. Well, we don’t know who will get the part yet, but we do know that it could be just about anybody, as Zauner has announced an open casting call for the role.
On social media today (May 22), Zauner shared a poster that reads, “ISO 18-25 year old Korean American to play the role of Michelle in the film adaptation of the #1 NYTimes Bestseller Crying in H Mart. Please send a creative video introduction that includes where you’re located.” The email for submissions is [email protected].
Gone are the days when you could pop into the movie theater for a quick afternoon showing of your favorite animated feature because now movies are big events that need to take up nearly half of your day and require a bathroom break. But it’s fun!
The latest blockbuster to make a splash on the big screen will be the live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid which hits theaters just in time to make your Memorial Day weekend memorable. The original 1989 animated film clocked in at an hour and 25 minutes of singing, swimming, and dancing (both humans and fish alike) but the 2023 remake seems to have more of a story to tell.
This year’s Mermaid will run 2 hours and 15 minutes, according to the AMC website, meaning there is another full hour of aquatic adventures and evil sea witch shenanigans. It will be hard to time your bathroom breaks with all of that water imagery, so be prepared.
The Little Mermaid stars Halle Bailey as the protagonist who wishes to live above water, where there are people and, more importantly, an absence of sea wenches. The evil Ursula is played by Melissa McCarthy, while Eric will be portrayed by Jonah Hauer-King, which is a great name for a prince. Daveed Digs, Awkwafina, Javier Bardem, and Jacob Tremblay also star.
You can catch The Little Mermaid in theaters on May 26th.
Bill Maher has heaped a huge amount of praise on Joe Rogan. During the latest episode of Maher’s podcast, the Real Time host gushed to Kathy Griffin that Rogan is basically “our generation’s Larry King.”
“He’s not looking for a fight and he is willing to open the mic to people,” Maher said to Griffin. “Even the ones that the establishment of some kind or another says, ‘How dare you let that person speak?’”
While Griffin argued that Rogan basically is “establishment” due to his broad reach and massive audience, Maher continued to speak glowingly of the controversial podcaster.
What Joe does, he kind of opens that mic like Larry did. Elon Musk will do that show and like the biggest people in the world because they know of the reach. And I just think also Joe earned that. It’s like this is just a regular guy smarter than the average bear, but is not gonna be intimidated first of all by you saying, don’t platform this guy or don’t listen to this and will let anybody speak and usually has a common sense view of it, of his own.
Eventually, Maher came back down to earth and offered at least one bit of criticism about Rogan. Emphasis on “bit.”
“You know, he’s a little to the right of where I am on things,” Maher conceded. Dang, dude, don’t hold back.
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