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Over the past year, I’ve been on a quest. Exploring the deep reaches of the fast food universe to rank everything from the best chicken sandwiches to the best double cheeseburgers. French fries, shakes, and even napkins have fallen under my gaze.

It’s been a wild journey, and in my travels, I’ve noticed a few trends. Foremost among these being that Burger King, home of the world’s creepiest fast food mascot (which is saying something when you have Ronald McDonald, who is not only a clown but frighteningly tall ), consistently ranks near the bottom. Every time.

Does that mean I have something against Burger King? No, not at all.

In fact, I actively root for BK, hoping to be surprised to find that they’ve actually done something right. I long to have my preconceived notions upended. But it hasn’t happened yet. Burger King is bad at almost everything. Even shakes, which… how?! So when my editor called me on the first day back from a brief vacation to alert me that Burger King had just unveiled a brand new chicken sandwich and I’d need to return from my self-imposed fried chicken sandwich eating retirement to tackle one last job (last, who am I kidding), something broke inside of me.

Once I hit the internet, I found out that it’s actually not one sandwich but two (four, technically). The Ch’King sandwich, which is topped with pickles and sauce, and the Spicy Ch’King, which has pickles, sauce, and a hot glaze, and two deluxe versions of those sandwiches featuring lettuce and tomatoes. This news reignited a passion in me for fried chicken sandwiches that I thought was lost forever, like Laika the dog (it’s a grim reference, don’t click the link).

Why did it get me hyped? You mean to tell me that Burger King felt so confident in this new sandwich, that they doubled down? Count me in!

Then I watched the commercial, titled “Nightmare” featuring narration from Paul Giamatti. And, cool as a Giamatti cameo is, I was right back to thinking Burger King doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing. Sometimes I feel like these fast food companies forget that they’re supposed to be selling us food, not making weird internet content. Why are you advertising a chicken sandwich with this f*cking image?

Fever-dream-and-vaguely-Get Out-inspired commercial aside, at least the internet got this sick Chick-fil-A burn from Burger King’s Twitter account out of it.

Got ’em Burger King! Donating the money first and not tying it to the sale of a chicken sandwich would’ve been better, but hey, as far as shallow gestures from big corporations during Pride month go, this one was at least suitably petty.

Without further ado, let’s get into these sandwiches and see if Burger King has finally done the thing and introduced a new food item that we can actually proudly recommend you spend your money on. Though again, judging from that commercial I didn’t go into the ranking optimistic.

In fact, I was downright frightened.

Crispy Ch’King Sandwich

Calories: 800

Price: $4.99

The Sandwich:

The Crispy Ch’King consists of a hand-breaded chicken breast filet, thick crinkle-cut pickle chips, and a smattering of savory sauce on the top and bottom halves of a potato bun. So far so good, at least on paper, and while the actual sandwich doesn’t look quite as grand as the way Burger King pretends it looks in advertisements, it’s pretty damn close. Visually, I’m happy with this sandwich, it doesn’t look quite as presentable as a Chick-fil-A sandwich and doesn’t have that mouth-watering eye-candy quality of Popeyes, but it looks good, if not a bit overcooked.

Biting into this thing I’m welcomed by a pleasingly audible crunch, thanks to the thick batter the chicken is encrusted in. It’s noticeably crunchier and more flavorful than Burger King’s old Crispy Chicken Sandwich. I wouldn’t say you could tell that it’s “hand-breaded” but it does feel like some definite attention was put into it — it’s the highlight of the sandwich. The chicken, on the other hand, was a bit on the dry side. The meat flaked apart like dry breast meat tends to do. I don’t know if this was a result of my sandwich being left in the fryer a bit too long, but after you get that initial flavor of black pepper there was little else to hold onto.

I’m assuming BK is aware of this, which is why they double sauced their buns, spreading a mayo-based “savory” sauce on both ends to create the illusion of juiciness. As far as I can tell, this doesn’t taste too different than your standard mayo, it has a slightly sweetened vibe to it but if I didn’t know it was “savory sauce” then I would’ve just assumed it was mayo. Get wild Burger King, put a dash of Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and garlic in there and you’d have a sauce worthy of putting on both buns. This sauce just seems uninspired.

I have to commend Burger King on their pickles though, it’s really easy to half-ass a pickle and while I think the sandwich could do with more, the three pickles I received all added a tart bite that paired well with the crunchiness of the sandwich.

The Bottom Line

This sandwich is halfway to being a great chicken sandwich, it has a good crunchy batter with a nice pepper-forward flavor, but it’s a bit one-note. It’s begging for some complexity.

Spicy Ch’King Sandwich Deluxe

Calories: 1,052

Price: $5.69

Spice Level: 2/5

The Sandwich

For the spicy version of this sandwich, I went with the Deluxe over the standard, which meant no pickles but you get lettuce and tomato. Let me say this right off the bat — don’t get the Deluxe. It’s a waste of time, Burger King’s lettuce is sad and wilted and their tomatoes have to be the palest shade of red I’ve ever seen from something that grows on a vine. I think had I gotten pickles, this sandwich would’ve provided an even better experience because I like this one, a lot.

It’s not going to make Popeyes, Chick-fil-A, or Wendy’s flinch and have to innovate to keep their top-tier sandwich status, but it blows my mind that something this flavorful came from Burger King.

It’s easy to say a spicy sandwich beats a non-spicy sandwich, this sandwich has an extra flavor component to hang on to thanks to the spicy glaze that is brushed on the chicken, but I wouldn’t exactly classify this sandwich as “spicy.” The pepper glaze just compliments the batter’s already black pepper dominant flavor, adding a bit of sweetness to the earthy peppercorn aftertaste that lingers nicely on the lips and tongue. It isn’t spicy so much as it suggests spice, which is kind of interesting and offers a unique opportunity for people who can’t handle spice to pretend that they’re fun. I only wish there was more of it, Burger King’s promotional material would lead you to believe this chicken is bathed in this spicy sauce — it’s not, it’s merely brushed on. Haphazardly, I might add!

The “savory” sauce makes a return here and overall the flavors just compliment each other better, you get that nice crunch leading to that pepper-forward flavor and subtle sweet chili heat, which is reigned in by the double serving of sauce — the more you chew the more the flavors get married together. An easy improvement on this sandwich would’ve been the inclusion of cheese, or you know, probably pickles. But I made the mistake of getting the Deluxe.

Had Burger King provided us with something a little more exciting than a potato bun (it’s an okay choice for this sandwich, but again — not so special) and put just a bit more effort into the sauce, they could’ve had a real winner here. Three chains released new chicken sandwiches this year — McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr, and Burger King — and of the three this sandwich is by far the best. Burger King did it, they made a good chicken sandwich, but if they want to compete with the GOAT, they’re going to have to head back to the lab and make a few improvements.

The Bottom Line

This is easily Burger King’s best menu item. Order the Spicy Ch’King sandwich (regular not deluxe) over the regular crispy version, even if you think you don’t like spice.

The Burger King Ch’King sandwiches are available nationwide. Find your nearest Burger King here.

One of the most touching moments in Disney’s “Toy Story” series is in the third film when 17-year-old Andy goes off to college, leaving his beloved toys behind to a young girl named Bonnie. It’s the moment when he’s forced to put the things of childhood behind and make his way in the world as an adult.

Before driving off in his car, he gives Bonnie his favorite toy, Woody, and the two play together with his toys for one last time. While he’s excited to move on to go to school, his heart is clearly heavy with the knowledge of everything he’s leaving behind.

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“Thanks, guys,” Andy says as he starts the ignition on his car and drives away.

“So long, partner,” Woody says.

Toy Story 3 – So Long Partner

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A mother and son in Somerset, Texas recreated the heartfelt moment in a Twitter photo that has gone viral. A family friend captured a photo of Josiah Robles walking away from his home with his toys, including Buzz Lightyear and Woody, wishing him a fond farewell.

Robles is heading off to Baylor University to study mechanical engineering, where he will go “to infinity and beyond.”

“We thought it would be a good idea to do it with ‘Toy Story’ toys considering that I will be going off to college, like kind of what Andy did when he left the toys in the movie,” Robles explained.

so long somerset. 🎓🐻 https://t.co/IeR6QKPk6S

— Josiah ✞ Robles (@jojo_xcviii)
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The photo is reminiscent of a shot that went viral in September when a father in Leicestershire, England commemorated his four-year-old’s return to school after a sixth-month lockdown due to COVID-19.

In the photo, the young boy heads off to school while Buzz Lightyear, Rex, Slink, Jessie, and Woody wave goodbye to him in an homage to “Toy Story 3.”

An English boy’s first day of school has gone viral after he recreated the iconic goodbye scene from the Pixar movi… https://t.co/4Qw5iYFKda

— HIBster (@EDS_HIBster)
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“We decided to recreate the moment in ‘Toy Story 3’ where Andy leaves his toys behind when we did the traditional back to school photo,” the father, Sean Donnelly, told The Daily Mail.

“I think that story connected with the picture is one people can identify with too. If you have got kids you kind of know that feeling,” he added.

“Lots of people found it emotional and that it made them cry. I tried to make it look dark inside where the toys were and light outside where he was,” he said.

Both photos are a great way of marking a very specific moment in a child’s life when they go through a major transition. However, their greatest importance may be as a reminder to parents.

One of the most powerful realizations of being a parent is just how quickly our children grow. One day they’re playing with a pacifier, the next they’re playing with dolls. A few years later they’re knocking around a volleyball or basketball, and then, they’re leaving home.

You can’t put time in a bottle but you can do your best to be there, be in the moment, and appreciate the wonder of their childhoods, because it’ll be over before you know it.

Laura Wilkinson was first woman to have won three major diving world titles, including the Olympic gold medal in the 2000 Olympic Games. She was 22 then. Now she’s 43, a mother of four, and 13 years post-retirement—and she just qualified for this weekend’s women’s platform finals in the U.S. Olympic trials.

“I never thought I would get to come back and dive again after I retired 13 years ago,” she told NBC Sports. “So this is really a gift, every dive is a gift. I love doing it and this is really special.”

When Wilkinson took home the gold from the Sydney Olympics, she was the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in platform diving in 36 years. No U.S. woman has medaled in the Olympic sport since then. Against all odds, Wilkinson is looking for another medal shot in what will be her fourth Olympic games, if she makes the team.

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Wilkinson explained on TODAY, “When you feel called to do something and you’re passionate about it, you just want to be all in. It’s the drive, it’s the love, and I love that my kids get to watch me do this, not just by telling them how to live their lives. But they’re seeing me, the blood, sweat and tears that it takes to actually get there.”

Wilkinson underwent surgery on her spine in 2018, a procedure that has enabled her to return to the sport that she loves.

“I’m kind of just surprised I’m doing it, honestly,” Wilkinson told TODAY. “When I retired at 30 I was old back then, so this whole journey has just been a crazy, fun road.”

At 43, Wilkinson is not ancient by any means, but competitive physical sports are a young person’s game. Even athletes in their 30s are considered past their prime, so even qualifying for Olympic trial finals is an impressive feat.

“It’s never going to be an easy road,” Wilkinson said, “but that’s what makes the journey worth it. When you get to the other side, whether you achieve all your goals and your dreams or you don’t, going through all of that, it refines you as a person, it’s walking through that fire, and you become better in that process.”

Dara Torres made Olympic history in 2008, winning three silver medals in swimming at age 41. The oldest Olympic gold medalist ever was Sweden’s Oscar Swahn, who took home the gold medal in shooting at age 64, and still competed in the Olympics at age 72.

While aging inarguably makes physical competition harder, athletes like Wilkinson prove that you don’t have to stop competing just because you reach a certain date on a calendar. Congrats and kudos to her for chasing her Olympic dreams for the fourth time, and for showing the world what’s possible with dedication, perseverance, and support.

Watch her interview with Houston’s KCRP 2 the day before she qualified for the finals, which take place on Sunday evening.

Diver Laura Wilkinson ready to go for gold

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Morena Baccarin continues to be one of the hardest-working actresses on TV. The star who’s had high-profile roles on Homeland, Gotham, and the cult-favorite, Firefly, has signed on to a new bank heist drama for NBC alongside First Wives Club alum Ryan Michelle Bathé. The untitled series will reportedly be directed by Justin Lin who’s also in hot demand thanks to his work on the blockbuster Fast and Furious franchise. Via Deadline:

Written by Wootton and directed by Justin Lin, the Untitled Nick Wootton/Jake Coburn Project is a high-stakes two-hander about Elena Federova (Baccarin), a recently captured international arms dealer and brilliant criminal mastermind who orchestrates a number of coordinated bank heists throughout NYC for a mysterious purpose, and Val Fitzgerald (Bathé), the principled, relentless and socially outcast FBI agent who will stop at nothing to foil her ambitious plan. The sexy and twisted heist show reveals how far some people will go for love, justice and the most valuable commodity in the world: the truth.

Like Baccarin, Lin is no stranger to television. He’s directed episodes of HBO’s True Detective, and he recently revealed that Fast Five was inspired by his love for one of the greatest TV shows of all the time: The Golden Girls. So with that experience alone, Lin is clearly the best man to direct a show that combines sassy women and high-stakes heists. It’s practically his signature move now.

(Via Deadline)

“The Bum Out Front,” the 14th episode of the CBS series Frank’s Place opens with a character fearing for his life and closes with him silently pondering the nature of life itself. Centered, like every episode, around the New Orleans restaurant Chez Louisiane —known simply as The Chez, pronounced “shez,” to its regulars — its 22 minutes detail an ongoing confrontation between the restaurant’s owner, Frank (Tim Reid), and a rag-clad homeless man (Abdul Salaam El Razzac) who calls himself simply a “bum” and takes up residence in the alley behind the Chez.

Startled by the visitor’s noisy late-night arrival, Frank calls the police on him, only to watch in frustration when the bum returns the next day and begins singing (if that’s the right word) outside The Chez during its lunch rush. Unsure what to do, Frank turns to his employees for advice then watches every possible tactic fail, from a threat of legal action to the suggestion of physical harm to an offer of employment to bribery — each attempt staged with expert comic timing by Reid and the series’ talented and deep supporting cast. Resigned to the situation, Frank ultimately begins feeding and talking to the bum, who accepts but doesn’t exactly welcome the overture. Then the bum disappears, and Frank finds himself just as troubled by the absence as the ongoing campaign of harassment. After belatedly recognizing the bum’s voice coming from a customer dressed in white, Frank hurries back to the restaurant’s bar to discover the man has vanished. Stepping outside, Frank finds only an empty street and a familiar-looking scrap of rag. He dusts it off then walks back inside The Chez.

One of Frank’s Place’s best episodes, “The Bum Out Front” aired on CBS on January 4, 1988. Though it looked far removed from the more traditional fare surrounding it, it wasn’t a particularly unusual episode of the series, a single-camera comedy that freely incorporated dramatic elements, sometimes forgetting comedy entirely. Created by Hugh Wilson and executive produced by Wilson and Reid, who’d previously worked together on the Wilson-created sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, the show featured a diverse but mostly Black cast that reflected the make-up of the city in which it was set. It was funny without ever straining for laughs — Wilson originally told the network he’d include a laugh track but later admitted he was lying — poignant without ever becoming maudlin and shot with graceful camerawork in umber tones then associated more with movies than television. It was a great show, but one seemingly doomed from the start. By the time “The Bum Out Front” aired, the series was already struggling in the ratings. In many ways, its run was defined by struggle. A show embraced by critics and largely ignored by viewers, it lasted a single season before cancellation.

It’s now easy to call Frank’s Place, a series whose stylistic and thematic ambition anticipated a more creator-friendly TV era, ahead of its time. Except, in some ways, it was very much of its time. In the fall of 1987 network TV was ready to make some changes — or at least thought it was. Fall TV previews buzzed about the coming of the “dramedy,” a hybrid format that broke with the set-up/punchline/everybody-hugs-at-the-end format of the standard sitcom, bringing cinematic touches to half-hour shows that mixed elements of comedy and drama. Where once there were no dramedies, suddenly there were many, shows like The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Hooperman, and The Slap Maxwell Story that resisted easy definition but attracted a new label.

The turn “dramedy” had been around for a while, even if it had never really taken root. Lucille Ball used it to describe her acting style and ABC briefly tried to use it to describe the short-lived ’70s series FutureCop, in which Ernest Borgnine played a human police officer partnered with an android. In 1987, however, the term was suddenly everywhere. “I don’t think any of us had a summit conference and colluded to come up with this kind of trend together,” NBC Entertainment president Brandon Tartikoff told the New York Daily News. But it could feel a bit like they had. Tartikoff also admitted that the search for something new had much to do with a sensed threat from cable, saying “There are clear signals that just putting on the same old shows is only going to exacerbate that problem.” Nonetheless, the dramedies of ’87 all struggled in the ratings. (The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd enjoyed a five-season run, but only after moving to a cable network.) In some ways the format outlived the term, paving the way for shows like The Wonder Years and Doogie Howser, M.D. that didn’t make a big deal about labels.

Paving the way for the future did little to help Frank’s Place during its run, of course, but its short existence hardly diminishes its accomplishments. The series used a familiar fish-out-of-water premise as a jumping-off point for seemingly any sort of story Wilson and a writing staff that included playwright Samm-Art Williams and well-traveled sitcom veteran David Chambers wanted to tell. That ranged from a raucous holiday episode in which Frank joins his lawyer and friend “Bubba” Weisberger (Robert Harper) for a fraught Hannukah celebration to a flashback episode detailing the triumphs and temptations of The Chez’s resident man of God/hustler, Reverend Deal (a showcase for series standout Lincoln Kilpatrick), to the Emmy-winning “The Bridge,” in which a customer’s seemingly-drunk driving accident threatens the restaurant until later revelations spotlight some of the indignities of growing old and sick without money in a country with a clear-cut divide between haves and have-nots.

A Boston professor who inherits the bar from the father he never knew, Frank provides an outsider’s perspective on the show’s colorful but never cartoonish depiction of New Orleans. Though he only reluctantly takes over the business — pushed by a voodoo curse organized by The Chez’s elderly waitress emeritus Miss Marie (Frances E. Williams) — the place quickly wears down Frank’s resistance. The presence of Hanna Griffin, a charming mortician played by Reid’s real-life wife Daphne Maxwell-Reid doesn’t hurt, nor does the staff’s eagerness to adopt him as one of their own, even as they laugh at his naïveté about New Orleans and the restaurant business. The supporting cast includes everyone from Charles Lampkin, an actor from the earliest days of TV in his final role, to Don Yesso, now an experienced character actor, then a Louisiana high school football coach Wilson took a liking to after meeting him on an airplane.

Despite being championed by critics, the show never found its footing. CBS bounced it around on the schedule and pulled it for weeks at a time. Wilson came to see its end as inevitable. Speaking to the Television Academy Foundation in 2015 he recalled, “I knew it was coming. You can only have the New York Times write so many things about you.” Reid, however, tells a slightly different story in the book Tim & Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White. Though it primarily focuses on Reid’s early-career partnership with white comic Tom Dressen, the book includes Reid’s account of a conversation with CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite who revealed that it was the series’ final episode — “The King of Wall Street,” in which a junk bond trader laments the sorriness of his profession during a trip to The Chez — that sealed its fate, thanks to CBS CEO Laurence Tisch’s taking offense thanks to his own Wall Street career.

Tisch may have killed the show, but time and copyright law have virtually erased it. Frank’s Place reruns aired on BET for a while in the ’90s but the series never made the leap to DVD when seemingly every show ever made was receiving full-season box sets (even Hooperman). And apart from some VHS-quality YouTube uploads, it’s never been available on a streaming service, held up by music rights issues. (Similar problems plagued WKRP in Cincinnati.) You could think of it as a missing link between what TV was and what it became, but that too seems unfair. Frank’s Place was determinedly its own show for as long as it lasted. Then, like the Chez’s uninvited guest, it disappeared, leaving those who remembered it to puzzle over where it went, what it meant while it existed, and what might have happened if it had stuck around a little bit longer.

To the delight of fans the world over, Lorde made her return today with the new single “Solar Power.” To some listeners, the song sounded a bit familiar, and now Lorde has confirmed that her single is indeed inspired by a song from a beloved band.

The song in question is Primal Scream’s “Loaded.” For those not familiar, Primal Scream is a Scottish band that formed in the 80s and had their biggest success with the 1991 album Screamadelica (on which “Loaded” appears), which has gone on to be recognized as one of the decade’s finest releases.

Lorde spoke about it with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, saying:

“I had never heard Primal Scream in my life. I’d been told to check them out. I wrote this song on the piano and then we realized, like, this sounds a lot like ‘Loaded.’ It’s one of those crazy things that, like, they just were the spiritual forebears of the song. I reached out to [Primal Scream singer] Bobby [Gillespie] and he was so lovely about it. He was like, ‘You know, these things happen. You caught a vibe that we caught years ago.’ And he gave us his blessing. So let the record state ‘Loaded’ is 100 percent the original blueprint for this, but we arrived at it organically and I’m glad we did.”

“Solar Power” actually isn’t the only new Lorde song of the day, by the way, as she guested on Clairo’s latest, “Blouse.”

Listen to both Lorde’s “Solar Power” and Primal Scream’s “Loaded” below.

Dark rum is an easy spirit to skip over. Whiskey — bourbon especially — dominates liquor store shelves, pop culture, and almost all the conversation in the spirits world right now. It’s hard for dark rum to break through all that noise.

Today, we’re going to do our part and blind taste test some of our favorite dark rums that all clock in at under $50. These are dark rums that you should be able to find at pretty much every single liquor store across the land. Except for one.

I’m including a Cuban Havana Club expression in the mix. I know, Havana Club is still pretty impossible to get in the U.S. unless you go to Cuba and bring back your own bottle. But I wanted to share a sense of what the booze is actually like. I’m also curious to see how it holds up to the other rums from the Caribbean, Philippines, South America, and Central America in a blind.

Sound good? Let’s get tasting. And if any of these dark rums interest you after reading our ranking, click on the prices to try them yourself.

Part 1: The Taste

Taste 1:

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a mix of dried fruits, nuts, and holiday spice that’s very close to a holiday fruit cake in all the best ways. There’s a nougat creaminess to the body that plays well with those dried fruits and spices. This is very easy to sip and notably velvety.

Taste 2:

Tasting Notes:

Woah… There’s this clear sense of prunes stewed in a spicy sauce with hints of orange zest and vanilla pods. There’s a definite Christmas fruitcake vibe full of candied and dried fruits, dark spices, sweet and dark molasses, and a mix of walnuts and hazelnuts. The end is this delicate dance of those fruits and spices with the hint of vanilla-soaked tobacco.

Taste 3:

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a tropical fruit nose next to hints of light molasses and soft leather. The sip leans into bananas cooked in butter and brown sugar. There’s a slight note of musty cellar beams on the backend with a nice dose of bourbon vanilla.

Taste 4:

Tasting Notes:

This is pure pina colada. Hello, Kasama. It’s all pineapple juice and creamy coconut cream with a hint of sugar cane and a touch of wood. It’s surprisingly light… in a good way.

Taste 5:

Tasting Notes:

There’s definite dark molasses that leads towards a little holiday spice. The vanilla feels more like a vanilla extract than the real thing with an almost vegetal greenness and a hint of stale cream soda.

Taste 6:

Tasting Notes:

This is like spicy-yet-vanilla-heavy tobacco in a leather bag with a hint of cedar nearby. The palate brightens up with orange zest and sharp allspice (but not hot). This is crazy silky and really leans into that vanilla, spiced tobacco, and cedar.

Taste 7:

Tasting Notes:

Hum. This is … burnt coconut husks next to old figs and a stack of vanilla husks. There’s a honeyed dark cocoa presence next to a touch of soft leather and orange pith.

Taste 8:

Tasting Notes:

This is a bit thin on the nose with a hint towards vanilla, dark chocolate, and wet old wood. The taste has a slightly buttered toffee feel with some kind of fruit … maybe apple? The end is, again, thin and a little dry on the tongue.

Part 2: The Ranking

8. Brugal Añejo — Taste 8

ABV: 38%

Average Price: $20

The Rum:

The Dominican Republic’s Brugal makes some damn fine rums. This gateway expression is distilled multiple times and then loaded into ex-bourbon barrels where it rests for three to five years. The barrels are then married, proofed, and bottled.

Bottom Line:

This just didn’t pop for me today. It’s clearly mixing/cooking rum (and that’s fine) but it looks like the dark rum I’d order if I didn’t know anything about rum.

7. Goslings Black Seal — Taste 5

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $22

The Rum:

This rum is a blend of Caribbean rums that were aged for varying years in ex-bourbon barrels. The blend is specifically designed to be mixed but can work as a sipper. Really though, this is known as the base ingredient in a Dark ‘n Stormy and that’s really the best use for it.

Bottom Line:

It’s funny this tasted like stale soda given it’s primarily made to be mixed with ginger beer for a Dark ‘N Stormy. On its own, it’s not really worth getting too bothered about. It’s fine but 100 percent meant to be a mixer.

6. Kasama Small Batch — Taste 4

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $26

The Rum:

Kasama is a truly international spirit. The rum is made from noble cane juice. The distilled rum is then aged in ex-bourbon barrels for seven years under the warm, tropical sun in the Philippines. Finally, the juice is transported to Poland where it’s proofed and bottled.

Bottom Line:

This is starting to grow on me. That one note of pina colada is so dialed in and purposeful that I forgive this rum for the fact that there’s not much more. This bottle clearly knows what it is and that’s fine.

5. Flor de Caña 7 Gran Reserva — Taste 7

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $25

The Rum:

The Nicaraguan rum is a quality product at its price point. The juice — which is made from local cane grown in volcanic soil — is aged in fresh white oak barrels for seven years in the shadow of the San Cristóbal Volcano. The barrels are then batched and proofed down with volcanic soil-filtered spring water.

Bottom Line:

This was pretty solid today. While this isn’t the bottle I’d reach for out of habit, this is certainly a rum on the rocks I wouldn’t turn away. It’s well-rounded and a little basic and that’s kind of nice for beach sipping.

4. Bacardi Gran Reserva Diez — Taste 3

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $40

The Rum:

This is Bacardi’s high-end expression that’s crazy cheap. The rum is aged for ten long years in lightly charred oak before its charcoal filtered and brought down to proof, creating an ultra-refined expression.

Bottom Line:

I thought this was going to win. I like this a lot but, alas, here it is at number four. Still, this is a nice sipper on a rock and a killer cocktail base, especially if you want to replace whiskey in that cocktail.

3. Havana Club Añejo Especial — Taste 6

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $25

The Rum:

Cuba’s Havana Club makes some consistently great rums. Their Añejo Especial is a blend of rums aged in fresh white oak. The blend is formulated to be a workhorse that’s easily sippable in everyday situations and easily mixable all night long.

Bottom Line:

This is a really easy-to-drink rum. It’s complex while also being approachable. There are no rough edges and the rumminess is front and center. For what it’s worth, this is my go-to mixing rum.

2. Appleton Estate Rare Cask 12 — Taste 1

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $35

The Rum:

This expression is what happens when you let quality rum a little longer to really dig deep on flavors. Each rum in the blend has been aged at least 12 years (some many more) and is hand-selected by legendary blender Joy Spence for its exactness in texture and flavor.

Bottom Line:

This is so well-crafted and … just … delicious. Even if you only passively drink dark rum, this will grab your attention as an easy-sipper if you’re anywhere near a beach.

1. Diplomatico Mantuano — Taste 2

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $25

The Rum:

Venezuela’s Diplomatico is one of the best rum houses on the planet. Their antique stills, high-altitude Amazonia aging, and masterful blending prowess make for great expressions. Mantuano is a blend of rums made on all three of their antique stills that are aged in ex-bourbon and ex-single malt barrels for eight years.

Bottom Line:

Really, it was very clear that this was the runaway winner. It’s complex and deep without being overwrought or unapproachable. It’s so soft and delicate on the palate with no rough edges and a real matrix of complex, rummy flavor notes.

Also, at $25 it’s one of the best value buys in the entire spirits world.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

In the end, I’d have to say the top five were all really solid. Though, I wouldn’t say they were interchangeable. Each expression in the top brought their own vibe to the table and built on classic rum notes until you got to a really high plateau, especially for this price point.

That all being said, besides the top two, these all felt way more like cocktail rums than sipping rums. So, I guess it’s time to shake up a rum cocktail. Salud!

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Game 3 between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Brooklyn Nets could best be described by one word: ugly. It was a total slugfest between a pair of teams that have championship aspirations, and by the time the final buzzer sounded, the Bucks defended their home court by coming out on top, 86-83.

One moment that summed the night up came when Kevin Durant and PJ Tucker went nose-to-nose. The two did some jawing with one another, which led to teammates and officials stepping into to break the pair of Texas Longhorns up.

It was the kind of ultra-tense moment you expect in the playoffs, but this had an interesting twist. Despite things not being all that aggressive outside of some normal jawing, a security guard sprinted onto the court to break things up. As for why that happened, Joe Vardon of The Athletic reported that the dude was Durant’s personal security guard.

It was, as far as low-scoring, knock-down, drag-em-out, playoff games of the ’90s go. At one point, with less than five minutes left in the third quarter, Durant and P.J. Tucker were nose to nose, speaking heatedly, as though they were upset. Durant’s personal bodyguard, who is on the Nets’ payroll, charged the court to break them up, and shoved Tucker. The Bucks’ crowd, at full capacity for the first time this season, serenaded Kevin with “f— KD” chants.

The fact that he’s on the Nets’ payroll makes it a little less weird, but still, it’s a bit strange that this all happened. Regardless, tensions didn’t boil over, which is all you can really ask for.

Kids dancing is one of the best, purest things on the planet, no matter what their skill level. But when a tiny little human has actual moves, the cuteness factor shoots way up.

That’s why a video of 3-year-old Liang Liang dancing alongside a group of uniformed, choreographed dancers has gone viral. It’s not the first time we’ve seen this little fella—videos of him dancing first went viral in 2019—but it’s definitely worth another round of virality for those who missed him the first time.

Check this out. Look at his perfectly coordinated little shuffle.

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This little man dancing with the big folks is the Twitter content I’m here for… https://t.co/ikpuHdM8CC

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman)
1623258328.0

And then check him out again. Absolutely amazing.

Three years old! His mother has said that they noticed his rhythmic talents early on, when he would rock back and forth to the music sitting on the floor at six months or standing and holding onto the wall at nine months. “At that time, he could do some simple moves like shaking his hips or stomping his feet, but he was able to move to the rhythm,” she told the South China Morning Post.

It’s clear from the energy he puts into his movements that Liang Liang loves dancing. And if you think that’s adorable, check out the segment he and his mom did with The Ellen Show in 2019. He must be four or five years old now, but at three he already seemed older than his years in some ways. He even does a sweet little magic trick and has a whole little introduction he can do in English. What a delightfully confident kid.

And of course, he breaks out some of his signature movies for the audience as well. Enjoy.

Adorable Kid Dancer Liang Liang Busts a Move!

www.youtube.com

Quavo went on First Take on Thursday morning ahead of Migos’ newest release, Culture III, which dropped on Friday. Part of what made his cameo on the show so much fun was it gave him and Kendrick Perkins the chance to have a conversation — Quavo and Perk have been involved in a back-and-forth over the last few years ever since Perkins’ name came up on 2018’s Quavo Huncho.

The two seemed to really go at one another on the show, which raised the question: Do Quavo and Kendrick Perkins legitimately have beef with one another, or is this just two dudes having fun? In a new interview on Complex’s 360 With Speedy Morman, Quavo made clear that he’s mostly having fun.

Via Complex:

“I don’t give a damn about no Kendrick Perkins, man,” said Quavo with a smile. “He’s an analyst. He said his kids love my bars, his kids running around and teasing him. Matter fact, I’m gonna take the kids on a field trip and just leave pops at home. Settle the beef like that.” He made it clear that it’s mostly in jest, however, and that it’s just as “funny” to participate in the beef as it is to watch it all unfold.

It’s unclear whether Perkins views things the same way, but hey, at least Quavo’s having a good time with this whole thing.