When David Harbour was asked to play Santa Claus in Violent Night, he had about the same reaction as everyone else did when they found out he was going to play Santa Claus, which was: wtf?
“My initial thoughts were like, ‘What the hell is this? I don’t know what you guys are talking about,’” Harbour told Variety at the premiere of Violent Night this week. “It was pitched to me as an action-comedy Christmas movie with Santa Claus at the center — who had a very different past and 10,000 years ago was a very different man — and that he has acquired a certain set of skills that he must use to fight bad guys in the future. I thought, ‘Wow, this is… I don’t know about this.’”
But once Harbour met with the film’s director Tommy Wirkola, his mind was changed, and he gladly accepted the role as Santa, but Liam Neeson in Taken. “There was something so special about the attempt that I thought, ‘Wow, if we can hit the right sweet spot with this, it’d be quite a leap — it’d be quite an achievement,’” Harbour said.
Here’s the film’s official synopsis:
An elite team of mercenaries breaks into a family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone hostage inside. However, they aren’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint.
Along with Harbour, Violent Nightstars John Leguizamo, Cam Gigandet, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, Edi Patterson, Leah Brady, André Eriksen and Beverly D’Angelo. It comes to theaters Friday, December 2.
How much money is Jay-Z’s D’Usse Cognac brand worth? Apparently much more than any reasonably-minded person could have imagined. Jay-Z owns a 50/50 share of the cognac brand in a partnership with Bacardi, and according to new documents obtained by TMZ, the rapper and mogul reportedly offered to buy out Bacardi’s half of the venture for $1.5 billion in December of 2021, but they rejected him. There’s more to this story that’s actually a bit messy. So what’s really going on here?
Back in October, Jay-Z and his company, SC Liquor, had reportedly sued Bacardi, requesting “total financial clarity” on the venture. It seems as though Hov and the spirits giant were far apart in their valuation of the D’usse brand, which they’ve co-owned since 2011. While Jay-Z asserted that D’Usse was worth $2.5 billion, Bacardi countered with a $460 million valuation.
The TMZ report insinuates that because Bacardi rejected a $1.5 billion bid for a brand that they valued for much less here, they haven’t been fully transparent about the inner workings of D’Usse, hence the initial lawsuit for full disclosure of documents. This is an interesting advancement, considering that it was Jay-Z and SC Liquor who were trying to sell their half of D’Usse back to Bacardi, to begin with. Now they make a bid to buy the brand in full and get rejected? Furthermore, they allege that Bacardi meddled with a third-party appraiser on the valuation and nothing is as it seems on the valuations at all. Stay tuned for what happens, but in the meantime, perhaps Jay-Z is better served focusing on robots who make pizza.
Two of the best teams in the sport will watch the knockout stage of the 2022 World Cup from home. Belgium, which entered the tournament ranked as the second-best team in the world by FIFA, and Germany, the 2014 World Cup winners and FIFA’s 11th-best squad, were both eliminated on the final day of their respective group stages on Thursday.
Belgium was the first European power to see its World Cup come to an end on Thursday. Their mission was simple: They needed to pick up a win over Croatia, the reigning runners-up at the tournament, in order to move on out of Group F. The story of their game was the play of the team’s standout striker, Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku, who has struggled with injuries this year and did not play in the team’s first two games at the tournament.
Lukaku couldn’t start against Croatia, but he did come in at the half and had a number of chances that he’d normally bury. Instead, Lukaku missed chance after chance, while no one else on Belgium’s team was able to put themselves into a position to score a goal.
Because of this, Belgium left the tournament before the knockout stage, with Morocco and Croatia moving on in Group F.
Several hours later, things got crazier. All four teams in Group E — Spain, Japan, Costa Rica, and Germany — had the opportunity to get out of the group. Spain entered the day on four points and had to play Japan, which was on three. Costa Rica entered with an upper hand on the Germans, as they had three points to Die Mannschaft’s one.
Things looked like they were heading in the direction of the two European giants going into the half. Germany’s Serge Gnabry put one past indomitable Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas in the 10th minute, while Spain’s Álvaro Morata found the back of the net in the 11th. This meant that Spain was slated to win the group with seven points, while Germany was in line to finish in second with four.
And then, pandemonium. Japan’s Ritsu Doan and Ao Tanaka both scored within six minutes of the start of the second half, which put Japan on top of the group and Spain in second.
The other game was just as insane. Costa Rica’s Yeltsin Tejeda scored in the 58th minute. Twelve minutes later, Juan Pablo Vargas scored for the Ticos. This meant that Spain was slated to join Germany on an early vacation.
COSTA RICA TIES IT
As it stands, IF Costa Rica earns a win over Germany, both Spain and Germany would be eliminated pic.twitter.com/rTevEdfhqm
A substitute gave Germany new life, though, as Kai Havertz beat Navas twice to put the Germans ahead on the scoreboard … but not in the table, where they were considerably behind Spain on goal differential.
GERMANY FINDS THE EQUALIZER
As it stands, Japan and Spain are through to the knockout stage!
Germany got a fourth goal by way of Niclas Füllkrug, which opened the door for them to move on via goal differential over Japan if Spain was able to draw level. But it was all for naught, as Japan held on and prevented Spain for getting an equalizer. The loss means that the Germans crash out of the group stage for the second World Cup in a row, while Japan won the group and Spain earned the distinction of being runners-up.
Both of these groups had an impact on one another, as the two are matched up in the first round of the knockouts. As a result, Japan will play Croatia on Monday at 10 a.m., while Morocco will play Spain 24 hours later. Both games will air on Fox.
When Kaash Paige first went viral in 2019 with her song “Love Songs,” she was poised to be one of the next big acts in R&B. Having found fans in the likes of Don Toliver and Kylie Jenner, she rode the wave and moved to LA, with a freshly signed deal with Def Jam, a vision laid out, and her eyes on the prize. Though the world shut down due to the pandemic shortly after she moved to LA, the Dallas native never lost her momentum.
She frequently shared clips of herself in the studio on Instagram and put out her debut album, Teenage Fever, in summer of 2020. While the pandemic kept her from performing shows and at festivals, her move proved to have been worth her while. She collaborated with some of her longtime favorite artists, including Tinashe, 6lack, and Isaiah Rashad, and even appeared in a campaign for Beyoncé’s Icy Park winter wear line, alongside Gucci Mane.
This October, Kaash moved back to Dallas, with a mission to help put the city on the map, and to realign herself – both with her family and friends, as well as spiritually.
“When you’re in LA, you’re around so many different energies, and so many different people,” Kaash says. “You’re working every day, you feel like you have something to prove, like you have to work every day. I just needed a break.”
Now that she’s back home, she’s looking forward to finding a sense of stability, setting up activations and pop-ups for herself and other artists, and simply not having to “run around all the time.”
When Kaash was first coming up in Dallas as a teenager, she remembers being very sheltered. Much of her pre-fame days were spent sneaking out of her Grand Prairie home to go record vocals and attend shows. Now, just weeks away from turning 22, Kaash is ready to experience Dallas from a grown-up standpoint.
Before moving to LA, Kaash didn’t get the chance to perform at any Dallas venues. In the weeks she’s been back, she’s held a listening party for her sophomore album S2ML, and is gearing up for a tour, during which, she will perform at House Of Blues Dallas.
“I used to tell myself ‘You can’t pop if you stay in your hometown.’ You have so many different people around you saying ‘You gotta go to New York,’ or ‘You gotta go to LA,’ and it’s like, no. Whatever is meant for you is always gonna happen,” Kaash says. “I feel like [being back] out here, it’s allowed me to connect with the people that didn’t get a chance to connect with whenever I was first out here.”
There’s no question as to whether or not her city is holding her down. Promo posters for S2ML are in just about every major Dallas neighborhood, from downtown to Deep Ellum to Lower Greenville. And for good reason, too. Not just because she’s a Dallas artist, but because S2ML is Kaash’s most introspective, relatable project to date.
Kaash’s debut album, Teenage Fever, featured her playing the role of the heartbreaker as she let her several contenders know that she doesn’t have any intentions to leave put her goals or her superstar lifestyle behind. This results in emotional consequences, which set her up for the things she’s forced to reckon with as she grows into adulthood.
This is where S2ML picks up, where she dwells in both the upsides and downsides of stardom and its subsequent heartbreaks, by way of trippy, alt-R&B beats, and dreamy, soft-sung vocals. The album features Kaash tapping into the producer role for the first time for some of the tracks.
“We’ll play a beat, and I’ll be like, ‘How does it make you feel?’ and everybody’s like, ‘Oh, it made makes me feel like I’m lost in space’ or something,” Kaash says. “And then I’ll put down something in my notes, and come up with a caption or something, and that’s how we’ll start off the song.”
This technique – coming up with a short phrase to use for an Instagram caption, and building from there – is something Kaash says was inspired by Lil Wayne. “I feel like captions are where my heart goes the most, because it’s something that people can relate to, and post,” she says.
Much of the album’s lyrics were freestyled, as Kaash says this is how she is able to create something that feels natural in the moment, and reflects how she feels at the time.
“I feel like whenever I write down lyrics, it takes up a lot of my time in the studio,” Kaash says. “And, I get mad at myself, because I feel like ‘this word isn’t strong enough.’ And everybody’s like, ‘Bro, sometimes music can be simple.’ It can be minimalistic, it doesn’t have to be the deepest thing you’ve ever heard in your life. Of course, you need substance. But sometimes the best records come from when the artist didn’t think too much of it.”
A particular song, “Self Esteem” came to Kaash during a two-week period when she wasn’t smoking weed. On the bass-heavy track, the openly bisexual singer recalls a romance where her energy wasn’t being reciprocated.
“I was in my feelings about some girl,” Kaash says. “She was so bougie, she’d be like ‘Oh, I don’t eat chicken. I eat yellowtail jalapeno,’” Kaash recalls, speaking in a hilarious LA accent.
“In LA, I was so caught up and keeping up with the Joneses. I was like ‘I’ve gotta impress her’ and then I’m like, ‘Bro, she’s messing with your self-esteem. You’re literally lowering everything about yourself trying to impress somebody else.’ I’m looking in a mirror, like, ‘Am I not fly? What is it about this girl and why’s she not attracted to me?’ I actually got that clarity from not [smoking].”
Thankfully, Kaash gets her confidence back on the synthy party track, “Awesome,” a celebratory anthem on which she’s feeling herself during a night of drinking.
“I turn up the building, my hair on Brazilian, but you know I’m chillin’ / I walk in the booth, I’m making a hit, just look at the ceiling,” she sings on the self-empowering, club-ready anthem.
Though weed is her venom of choice, Kaash says she enjoys rum cocktails now and then, but tries to avoid Casamigos, which she says is “a crazy drink.”
“When you do shots, that’s when you mess yourself up, and you’re dancing with the devil at that point,” Kaash says. “That’s the devil in Prada.”
Over the past three years, Kaash has let go of her people-pleasing tendencies. She knows that some people are going to love her music, and some people aren’t, but she is at a point where she’s okay with that. Especially as she’s performed with Lil Tjay and other artists, and has heard the crowd cheering back her collaborator’s names.
She also says she has let go of toxicity, and no longer wishes to be labeled as such.
“I’m not trying to be toxic,” Kaash says. “I might just have a little bit too much honesty in me, and it comes off [toxic] to certain people. But I feel like when people call me ‘toxic R&B princess’ or whatever – that was a cool era, but right now I’m in my rockstar era. I’m in my alternative R&B era where it’s like, if you still think it’s toxic, that’s how you perceive it. But I’m not going for that.”
Kaash’s mission is to experience Dallas at the legal age to go to shows in some of the city’s iconic venues. In the future, she hopes to open a lounge-style restaurant from her mom, who loves to cook. She also wants to open a recording studio of her own.
But right now, she plans to work with local producers and musicians, and see what she missed out on when she was younger.
“I’m gonna make sure that everybody knows I’m in the city, and I’m back here,” Kaash says. “And it’s always love.”
The Boys season four just snagged one of Mad Men’s best recurring guest stars. Deadlinereports that Rosemarie DeWitt, who played Midge on the AMC drama and more recently, slayed in a blonde wig as Candace Zamperini on HBO’s The Staircase, has been cast in season four of Amazon’s superhero satire The Boys. Simon Pegg, who played the father to Jack Quaid’s Hughie with a regular role in season one and an appearance in one season three episode is set to return. Rob Benedict of Supernatural and Elliot Knighthave also joined season four. DeWitt is playing Hughie’s mother, indicating that the upcoming season will dive even more into Hughie’s background and childhood.
Other previously announced additions to The Boysseason four cast include Jeffrey Dean Morgan, whose character is still a secret. A new Supe named Sister Sage will be played by Susan Heyward of Orange Is the New Black, and Firecracker will be played by Valorie Curry of The Following. Cameron Crovetti, the young actor who plays Ryan Butcher, aka Homelander’s son, will return to season four in a larger role.
In August, Quaid told Entertainment Weekly that season four will be the best season of the series so far. The general framework of this season has been told to me, and it’s shaping up to be very cool, very timely,” he added. “I can’t wait to see exactly how it plays out because I don’t have every script yet, but this is that special time where I get to just be a fan and see every script as it comes in and have my own reaction to the insane things that we do.”
Season four of The Boys is currently in production and is likely to come out on Amazon sometime next year.
(Via Deadline)
Adam Sandler is a one-man franchise. He doesn’t need the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars — he’s got Happy Madison (when he’s not working with the Safdie brothers). But would he, one of the increasingly few A-list Hollywood stars without a superhero movie in his filmography, ever consider it? When presented with this question during a live interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Sandler replied, “I never thought about it. Maybe because no one’s ever asked.” He mumbled a few respectful “I don’t know”s before adding, “It hasn’t happened, and probably won’t happen.”
Sandler can star in movies without having to get shredded. What a concept!
In the interview, Sandler also discussed “Chris Farley Song,” his musical tribute to the late Chris Farley. “The first few times we played that song, I would tear up, and I couldn’t really sing it well because I get so emotional,” he said. “And then I got kind of like, I felt it and was able to get it out there.” Sandler loves hearing the crowd “go nuts for Farley. Every show I do, by far the biggest applause of the night is talking about Farley. Every time I mention his name here and the audience goes nuts, it feels great.”
Try it the next time you’re in public. Yell “Chris Farley” and if someone in the crowd starts singing “fat guy in a little coat,” become friends with them immediately.
You’ve surely heard of the Tom Cruise Christmas cake. Everyone knows about this cake. Everyone covets the treat. I don’t even like coconut and wouldn’t mind trying this thing out. It’s the toast of Hollywood and perhaps the only time that something ultimately unhealthy graces certain people’s plates. If Tom Cruise sends you a damn cake, then you eat that cake, you know?
Top Gun: Maverickace pilot Glen Powell knows that this requirement is true. He’s one of the lucky recipients of this annual treat, and as he revealed on The Jennifer Hudson Show, the cake rollout is actually a huge production in and of itself. Tom has his team put a lot of effort into the sugary celebration, and so, Glen believes that the suitable reaction is to hold a little party and share the wealth. As he told Hudson, people actually pester him every year to ask if it’s time to eat that cake yet, so he invites people over, and everyone can have a few bites.
Glen confirms that this coconut-adorned bundt confection is the most delicious cake that he’s ever tasted, and Hudson admitted that she’d like a piece of that action. Get in line, Jennifer!
The holiday shopping season is upon us. If you’re looking to really make someone happy this season, liquor is always a good idea. It’s easy, fun, and generally hits every price point you’re looking for. To that end, we’ve assembled a handy spirits gift guide with our favorite bottles of booze, kits, books, and even bar gear. It’s a one-stop shop for pleasing any imbiber on your shopping list.
For this year’s spirits gift guide, we’re breaking down the gifts by price category. The cheap gifts are up top and the crazy expensive ones are down at the bottom. In between, you’ll find everything from special bottle collections to great cocktail kits to silly whiskey-themed holiday gear. Some of it is for the very serious alcohol aficionado and other gifts are for the passive drinker. It’s a wide net, is what we’re getting at, and we’ve made sure to tell you exactly who each item is perfect for.
Let’s dive in and find you that perfect spirits-related gift!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This is a great pack of ingredients. Filthy leans into non-GMO and sustainable practices while making a killer set of bar/cocktail garnishes, mixers, and accouterments. In this set, you’ll find: three pouches of Filthy Olive Brine, one Filthy jar of 12 olives stuffed with Wisconsin blue cheese, one Filthy jar of 12 olives stuffed with Spanish pimento pepper, and four Filthy stainless steel cocktail picks.
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is great for the burgeoning home cocktail mixer who’s looking to really up their game with the good stuff to mix with. These are refined and tasty garnishes that’ll really amp up any martini from good to great.
Twist: Your Guide to Creating Inspired Craft Cocktails by Jordan Hughes
Jordan Hughes
The Gift:
Jordan Hughes — better known as the High Proof Preacher on social media — just dropped his first book. The tome to at-home cocktail culture offers just over 75 recipes that range from classics to “create-your-own” riffs on modern craft cocktails. The book takes an easy approach that slowly builds your skills and bar cart as you learn along with the book.
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is a great book for starter at-home cocktail lovers that also works nicely for those who’ve mastered an old fashioned but want to go deeper. There are great recipes for making your own ingredients and integrating commonly learned kitchen skills into your home bar as well, which is a fantastic level-up for anyone’s home bartending game.
These are classic and really hit a nostalgic spot for anyone looking for a little bit of booze in their holiday candy. The dark chocolate squares are filled with premium German Asbach brandy made with wine grapes along the Rhine River. The squares are dusted with sugar before getting individually wrapped up in gold foil.
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is a really good gift for anyone with a sweet tooth on your list. The dark chocolate offers the perfect counterbalance to the brightly-hued and dried fruit vibes of the brandy. It’s like taking a bite of bitter dark cacao and then getting hit with a burst of soft and boozy brandy with a hint of sugary sweetness tying it all together.
Sticking with brandy, Cardenal Mendoza Solera Gran Reserva is one of the best holiday brandy pours out there. It has a delightfully deep character (and color) that leans into holiday spice cakes, brandy-soaked raisins, and plum puddings next to sticky toffee pudding with a hint of nog spices underneath.
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is for the brandy/cognac lover in your life. This is kind of like cognac taken up a notch to thick and juicy heights with a true holiday vibe from top to bottom. Check out our tasting notes here.
12 Days of Cocktails Cocktail Syrup Advent Calendar
12 Days of Cocktails
The Gift:
This gift contains 12 unique cocktail syrups — for the 12 days of Christmas — and a 32-page cocktail book full of recipes for those syrups. Some of those syrups include wassail, cucumber lemon balm, tonic, and roasted pineapple with chili peppers. Each bottle of syrup makes about four cocktails, giving you about 48 total to enjoy over the holiday season.
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is what you get for the cocktail lover in your life. It’s an easy way to amp up any cocktail with a unique and very tasty bar syrup that’ll help any spirit shine.
Editor’s Pick: Crystal Head Limited Edition Pride Bottle
Crystal Head Vodka
The Gift:
Dan Akroyd’s vodka is as Canadian as the comedian himself. The vodka is made from Peaches and Cream Corn in Newfoundland. The distillate is filtered through a crystal known as a Herkimer diamond. The vodka is then cut with glacial water from Newfoundland and is bottled in a bespoke crystal head, colored with a rainbow to celebrate Pride worldwide.
Who It’s Perfect For:
Whether it’s the pride bottle or new Aurora bottle, these bottles are a statement piece and soon become the center of any stylish bar. Better still, the conversation point isn’t just about the bottle — the vodka itself has fared wonderfully in Uproxx’s blind taste tests. You’re getting a quality product in a bottle that grabs eyes, that’s a hell of a gift and a wonderful way to connect with new friends at any holiday party.
This is a wonderful box for anyone looking to expand their spirits and whiskey knowledge/palate. The Benromach sample is worth the price of entry alone since it’s usually over $100 easily these days for a full bottle.
Eagle Rare Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey with The Glencairn Whisky Glass Set
Reserve Bar
The Gift:
This is a very straightforward gift. It’s a bottle of Eagle Rare 10-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (our review) with a set of two Glencairn crystal glasses, which are the best sipping/tasting glasses money can buy.
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is a foolproof gift for the bourbon lover in your life. If the giftee truly loves a good pour of the brown juice, then they’ll love this, especially since this is a semi-hard-to-find bottle (in some regions) that comes with the perfect glass to experience it with.
The Boulevardier is the bourbon-y sibling of the gin-y Negroni. It’s a little subtler and sweeter and doesn’t hit the same hard bitter and botanical notes of the latter cocktail. This kit is a simple assembly of Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon, 1757 Vermouth di Torino Rosso (1-liter bottle), and classic Campari.
Who It’s Perfect For:
This really works for the cocktail lover in the now or someone just starting out. The flavors are bold. So there may be a little palate adjustment if Negronis aren’t already beloved. That said, this is an equal-part cocktail that needs little to no effort to make, making it easy on the novice home mixer.
This kit is a dailed-in set of mixers and flavored salts for making some great tequila cocktails at home. The mixers are Casamigos’ Blackberry Basil Smash Cocktail Mixer and Signature Margarita Cocktail Mixer with two salt canisters, Salty Sweet Orange Cocktail Rimmer and Pink Himalayan Salt Rimmer.
Who It’s Perfect For:
It’s always time for a light and fruity tequila cocktail, especially during the doldrums of winter when we wish we were on a sunny beach. This kit really helps the at-home cocktail wannabe amp up their game with quality ingredients that help them create truly refreshing tequila cocktails.
For this rare collection of bourbons, Master Blender Trey Zoeller worked on 13 different maturation experiments. Zoeller tinkered with char levels of oak casks, integrating wine casks, adding wood staves and cubes to barrels of whiskey, and other treatments to find something truly unique. The results were these five experimental whiskeys from Jefferson’s Bourbon.
The five bottles are:
Experiment No. 3: “Crème Brûlée” – Aged in New American oak wine barrels with a low, deep impact toast profile which gives off a vanilla nut finish and smoky undertones.
Experiment No. 4: “Chocolate Caramel” – Aged in new, standard whiskey barrels with a medium char, infused with heavily charred American oak cubes that exert flavors of mocha, dark chocolate, and caramel with hints of tobacco and leather.
Experiment No. 6: “Vanilla Smoke” – Aged in new standard whiskey barrels that have a light-medium char and infused with lightly toasted American oak cubes that emit smoky honey and vanilla flavors.
Experiment No. 10: “Southern Spice” – Aged in a custom French & American hybrid wine barrel with a low, deep impact toast profile that presents big, bold flavors of burnt caramel, plum, black pepper, and maple.
Experiment No. 12: “Cinnamon Apple” – Aged in the original bourbon barrel with oak inserts that have been toasted over a long period of time to exert flavors of caramelized apples and plums with a bold cinnamon finish.
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is the gift you get for the whiskey drinker who’s always looking for something new and different. These whiskeys offer the gift recipient a chance to taste how various oak applications can greatly alter the final product, which is a great learning experience for any whiskey admirer.
Barillio Bartender Travel Bartender Kit Bag with Bar Tools
Amazon
The Gift:
This is just cool. It’s a travel bartending kit that has everything you need for a home bar too. Plus, it comes with a Boston cocktail shaker, which is what the real pros use. Moreover, you can use all of this stuff at a home bar and then pack it up for easy transportation to that winter cookout, summer camping trip, out on a boat, etc.
The kit includes:
18/28 oz. Boston shaker
European mixing spoon
Muddler
3 pourers
0.75/1.5 oz jigger
Julep strainer
Hawthorne strainer
Fine mesh strainer
Zester
Citrus squeezer
Peeler
Corkscrew
Tongs
Tweezers
Who It’s Perfect For:
This has the benefit of being great for a beginner or pro. The gear is legit and transportable in a slick aged canvas roll (like a knife roll that chefs use). At the same time, this is a really solid starter kit as it has everything you really need to get a start at making cocktails at home … or on a boat, at a campsite, in the woods, in your backyard … anywhere.
The Jameson tree is back, baby! This a small table-topper holiday tree made from empty Jameson bottles. To keep this from being just a decoration, this year’s tree comes with a bottle of Jameson Black Barrel Irish Whiskey to sip on as you light your Irish whiskey tree this year.
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is a prop, sure. But it’s a fun prop, especially for anyone looking to get that dorm-life vibe in their living room or kitchen this year. Or maybe you know someone who’s ride or die for Jameson. If so, get them this. They’ll probably keep it up all year or for the rest of their life in their basement whiskey bar.
You can never go wrong with giving the gift of Scotch whisky. This set includes four of the most iconic blended Scotch whiskies, well, ever. The set includes four 200ml bottles of Johnnie Walker Black Label, Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve, Johnnie Walker Platinum, and Johnnie Walker Blue Label.
This is for the regular Scotch whisky drinker in your life. A true diehard would probably prefer single malt whisky, but an easy-going Scotch drinker will appreciate these. That said, this included Johnnie Walker Blue Label which every whiskey drinker will like, it’s that good.
Cigars and whiskey are old partners. The tobacco flavor notes of a higher-proof whiskey often complement the spicier notes of a fine tobacco product almost too well. This set includes a full bottle of Knob Creek Small Batch 9-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey with an Ebony Humidor and a set of five cigars from five different tobacco houses across Central America and the Caribbean.
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is for anyone for whom the whiskey isn’t quite enough. The added humidor and cigars make for a great sharing gift if you’re into that as well.
This gift falls into the ol’ “kill two birds with one stone” column. This is an instant home bar filler that’ll get someone’s bar cart on the right path.
The bottles/gear included are:
Kavalan Classic Single Malt
Dingle Artisan Vodka
H by Hine
Caorunn Gin
Hirsch Bourbon Whiskey
Denizen Aged White Rum 3 Years Old
Pike Creek Canadian Whiskey
Luxardo Original Maraschino Cherries
4 Markham Marquis by Waterford Double Old Fashioned Glasses
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is great for someone who always talks about getting a home bar set up but never really has invested the time (or money) to do so. In one fell swoop, you’ll have gifted someone with booze they’ll need to get mixing and pouring immediately.
Artingstall’s Brilliant London Dry Gin With Limited Edition Cocktail Kit
Artingstall
The Gift:
This set, from director Paul Feig’s gin company, is a classy AF gift. This feels (and looks) bespoke. There’s a gilded edge that works with the heavy wooden box, black velvet, and quality gear and gin.
The box includes:
2 gleaming martini glasses
Matching cocktail shaker with strainer
A golden bar spoon
A stylish pocket square
A beautiful cut glass decanter filled with hArtingstall’s Brilliant London Dry Gin
Who It’s Perfect For:
This gift is for the stylish cocktail drinker in your life. If you know someone who wears a chic suit regularly (and not just for work), this is the set for them.
Rye whiskey and American craft distilling are great partners in creating some seriously good rye whiskey these days. At the forefront of that movement is Sagamore Spirits. This kit includes three of their iconic bottles — Sagamore Spirit Signature Rye Whiskey, Sagamore Spirit Cask Strength Rye Whiskey, and Sagamore Spirit Double Oak Rye Whiskey — with a four-piece set of Markham Marquis by Waterford Double Old Fashioned Glasses.
Who It’s Perfect For:
If you know someone who really digs craft whiskey, then this is the play. Sagamore Spirits always delivers a great product that takes rye whiskey well beyond the “spicy notes” that it’s been known for since the 1990s.
This is a pretty expensive and awesome whiskey/spirit gift. This advent calendar is filled with 24 handmade wax-sealed 30ml bottles of whisk(e)y from Scotland and Ireland.
The incredible pours in this advent calendar are as follows:
Balvenie 21-Year-Old Portwood Finish
Caol Ila 18-Year-Old
Glenfarclas 21-Year-Old
Johnnie Walker Blue Label
Talisker 18-Year-Old
Dalmore Cigar Malt
Singleton of Dufftown 18-Year-Old
Glen Scotia 18-Year-Old
Ledaig 18-Year-Old
Loch Lomond 18-Year-Old
House of Hazelwood 18-Year-Old
The Glenrothes 18-Year-Old Soleo Collection
Mortlach 20-Year-Old
Tamdhu 15-Year-Old
The Perspective Series 21-Year-Old, Berry Bros. & Rudd
Jura 21-Year-Old Tide
Arran Master of Distilling II, The Man with the Golden Glass
J.J. Corry Anfa
Whisky Works Quartermaster 11-Year-Old
Crabbie 15-Year-Old
Gulliver’s 47 10-Year-Old
Egan’s Centenary
Teeling 18-Year-Old The Renaissance Series 3
Glenallachie 12-Year-Old 2009 (cask #5551) Drinks By the Dram Exclusive
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is the gift you get for the true, hardcore, deep-in-their-soul whisky devotee in your life. The pours in this advent calendar are spectacular. The Mortlach 20, Talisker 18, and Dalmore Cigar Malt alone are worth the price of entry, and then you still have 21 more truly great pours to go over with this one gift.
Speaking of crazy good advent calendars, this one kind of takes the cake. The calendar is populated with 24 200ml (that’s just above a 1/4 bottle size) of super rare, limited, and refined mezcals from the much beloved and lauded Bozal. The advent calendar also comes with two hand-made tasting copitas and two tealight candles for lighting when you’ve finished the calendar’s contents on the last day. This is to honor the mezcaleros who made this smoky spirit.
Who It’s Perfect For:
This is a great gift that will impress someone who knows their shit when it comes to booze. There’s a serious wow factor here that transcends the highest echelons of spirits knowledge and takes it somewhere new.
Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Lineup Collection Bundle
Sazerac Company
The Gift:
This is the whole Pappy line in one box. That’s wild, rare, and probably the best spirits gift on the planet right now — well, at least in American whiskey circles anyway.
That means the gift box will have the following bottles:
The whiskey investor or drinker. These bottles will increase in value, so there’s that. They’re also goddamn tasty, so there’s that too. This really is the ultimate bourbon gift that you can possibly buy in 2022.
It’s normal to space out while buying groceries. We’ve all done it: at a certain point, you’re just going through the motions. But have you ever been so out it buying groceries that you accidentally spend over one grand on cucumbers? One TikToker, @rebeccaofsunnybrookfarms, was this person. Inflation, which DJ Pauly D knows all about, has made the simple task of buying groceries a harrowing experience but this TikToker who was not paying attention during checkout accidentally paid $1700 for cucumbers at Whole Foods. Whole Foods is expensive, but not that expensive. Inflation is bad, but not that bad (yet).
The victim (a very generous word) described the incident in a video shared on TikTok with the caption, “definitely always look at the total before checking out, I was bagging my stuff and didn’t notice this 1000 dollar mistake.”
Upon getting to their car, the TikToker realized that they were charged for 593 cucumbers. They were too busy placing their groceries in bags to notice the erroneous charge. The cashier accidentally punched in 593 as the number of cucumbers being purchased, and must have not realized anything was out of the ordinary since the shopper didn’t notice anything, either.
“Whole Foods almost got me,” the TikToker said in their video, which showed the receipt. “I didn’t realize until I was looking at my receipt in the car and I was like, ‘I didn’t buy this much stuff? I didn’t buy 644 items.’ I did get my money back, though.” Over $1700 is an awful lot of money to spend without realizing it. If they never looked at the receipt, would they even know?
Lesson learned: pay attention to how much money you are being charged when you are buying things, even cucumbers. Thought this was obvious, but apparently not.
GloRilla’s meteoric rise to fame just became more inspirational. Like all of us, until her dreams came to fruition, the Memphis rapper worked a regular job. Recently a clip surfaced online where the rapper can be seen taking orders while working the drive-thru of a fast food restaurant.
Earlier this week, a TikTok user named primeape09 shared a throwback video of Big Glo on Instagram Live while taking orders at the drive-thru. In the footage, we can see a young GloRilla, before the fame, joking with the people watching her Live before clapping back at someone who tried to make a joke about the gap in her teeth.
“‘What’s up, gap?’ Boy, you better get your ugly ass back before I block your little ugly lame ass,” GloRilla said before quickly switching over into professional mode to talk to a customer.
Before her rap career took off, the “FNF” rapper revealed that she worked at Checkers in Memphis throughout her senior year of high school in 2016.
“A lot of people think ts happened for me overnight, not knowing the hard work & passion I been putting in for years to get here!!” she wrote in an Instagram post this past June. “I went thru humiliation, no support allat! I done cried so many nights in my pillow because i felt like I wasn’t elevating but I never gave up !!”
A lot has changed since her drive-thru days.
Since then, GloRilla has dropped her debut album, Anyways Life’s Great… and snagged two of the top songs from the year with “FNF,” earning a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance, and “Tomorrow 2” featuring Cardi B.
You can watch the video of GloRilla working the drive-thru at Checkers above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
Bruh she been funny all her life