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The Biden administration continues to roll back Trump-era restrictions and their latest reversal addresses the very real concerns surrounding women’s healthcare during the pandemic. On Monday, Biden’s team announced they were instituting a temporary FDA policy that would allow patients to be prescribed and sent abortion medication without the need for an in-person doctor visit. Patients now seeking an abortion can make telehealth appointments with their doctor and have the pill delivered via mail. The new policy directly contradicts a Trump policy meant to curb women’s access to safe abortion methods by requiring patients to pick up the pills in person — something that’s become increasingly dangerous during the pandemic.

Food and Drug Administration acting commissioner Janet Woodcock sent a letter to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists describing the administration’s decision, citing multiple studies that prove that the pill known as mifepristone poses little risk to women who choose to forego an in-person visit. In fact, the abortion pill is one of the safer, more popular ways patients early in their pregnancy choose to terminate. Still, the decision has been predictably met by “pro-life” groups claiming the new policy will end up causing a “catastrophic loss of life by mail.”

As always, people are pretty split on the decision:

But maybe, and we’re just spitballing here, the best thing to do if you aren’t a woman considering getting an abortion, you could just not with any unsolicited opinions?

The 2021 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament drew some record ratings on ESPN, as Stanford went on to win the national title and a number of college basketball’s best players put on some sensational performances along the way. A number of those players still have a few years of college hoops to play, most notably UConn freshman Paige Bueckers, and watching those young women play caused many to wonder why the WNBA doesn’t allow early entry for the draft in the same way the NBA does.

On the NBA side, the current battle is over getting rid of the one-and-done rule, but even that allows players to make the change to being a pro much sooner than on the women’s side. There are a variety of reasons why the WNBA doesn’t have an early entry option, but chief among them is the fact that there simply aren’t that many roster spots available with just 12 teams in the league. Many have called for expansion to add more teams, and thus more roster spots in the WNBA, because it is a ridiculously competitive market for players to try and break in with so few spots available.

On Tuesday, the WNBA released their 2021 schedule, starting on May 14, and commissioner Cathy Engelbert met with the media on a conference call to discuss the state of the league heading into the draft this Thursday and the season next month. Of significant note was her willingness to broach the topic of expansion, saying it’s something the league can look into seriously provided 2021 is a “successful season.”

Success, of course, means financial success, as the WNBA has seen its ratings climb in recent years and more interest in the women’s game. A continued uptick in ratings and coverage can hopefully reach whatever benchmark is needed to bring more teams to the league. What that looks like is another conversation, with the where and how many still to be determined. In any case, expansion seems inevitable for the WNBA, and hopefully we aren’t too far away from more teams and more roster spots for what has become a player market overflowing with talent.

Starbucks is the most popular coffee chain in the world and it’s also one of the greatest producers of waste. The company uses more than 8,000 coffee cups per minute, which adds up to four billion a year. Over 1.6 million trees are harvested every year to make its disposable cups.

Since the cups are lined with plastic only four cities in the U.S. will accept them for recycling.

Starbucks has attempted to address this issue in the past by making bold proclamations that it will reduce its waste production, but unfortunately, they have yet to yield substantial results.

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In honor of Earth Month, Starbucks has announced a new pilot program that aims to significantly reduce the amount of waste it generates. The new Borrow A Cup program launched in five Seattle stores allows customers to order their drink in a reusable cup for a $1 deposit.

When they return to the store they can drop the cup off at a kiosk and have their dollar returned and earn 10 rewards points. For some perspective, 25 rewards points gets you a free add shot in your coffee.

New Test: Borrow a Cup, Save a Cup

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The company will also pick up cups at customer’s residences through a Seattle-area service called Ridwell.

The cups picked up by Ridwell or dropped off at the kiosk will be sanitized so they can be reused. Starbucks says that each reusable cup will prevent 30 disposable cups from being deposited in landfills or washed out into the ocean.

Should the company expand the program, it would reduce its global waste production by up to 50%.

“We believe it is our responsibility to reduce single-use cup waste,” Starbucks chief sustainability officer Michael Kobori said in a statement. “We will lead the transition to a circular economy.”

While the Seattle pilot program sounds promising, the company is also making drastic changes in South Korea where the government has banned plastic cups for dine-in restaurants. It’s also recently introduced a bill that will force fast-food restaurants and coffee shops to charge a deposit fee for disposable cups.

Over the next four years, the company aims to phase out all single-use cups in South Korea. As part of the phase-out, the company has started a program in Jeju that allows customers to pay a small deposit for a reusable cup that they can return to a contactless kiosk.

“Starbucks’s decision to end its reliance on throwaway materials and implement a reuse program in South Korea is the kind of approach we have been waiting to see,” John Hocevar, oceans campaign director for Greenpeace USA, said in a statement. “There is no reason that Starbucks cannot expand this same reusable kiosk technology to its stores in the United States and around the world to ensure a much greater impact as quickly as possible.”

It takes time to change consumer habits, but recent plastic bag bans in California, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and New York have shown that over time, consumers will learn to use reusable items. So, if the same logic holds up for coffee drinkers, it would bode well for Starbucks’ future efforts to reduce the amount of waste it produces.

Whenever a beloved musician dies, fans have a tendency to cause that artist’s catalog sales to increase as they pay tribute and new fans catch on to artists they may not have paid much attention to before. DMX’s catalog was no exception — in fact, streams of his music increased by a huge amount according to Billboard, 928% since April 9, the date of DMX’s death.

Streams of DMX’s music increased to 75.7 million over the weekend following DMX’s death (audio and video combined) from 7.36 million, the two days before. The most streamed songs included “Ruff Ryders Anthem” (9.59 million; up 973%), “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” (5.79 million; up 900%), “Slippin’” (5.52 million; up 853%), “Party Up (In Here)” (5.20 million; up 941%) and “How It’s Goin’ Down” featuring Faith Evans (3.52 million; up 691%). Those streams had been going up for the week before DMX’s passing after he was hospitalized by a heart attack following a reported overdose that left him in a coma.

DMX’s autobiography also reached Amazon’s bestsellers list in nonfiction after he died, with the mayor of his hometown, Yonkers, New York planning to honor him with a memorial. Meanwhile, DMX’s label, Def Jam, received a backlash after releasing a pair of compilation albums when fans accused the label of exploiting his hospitalization.

Melbourne artist Maple Glider (real name Tori Zietsch) recently inked a deal with Partisan Records and dropped her first single for the label, “Good Thing.” Now she has returned with a full-blown album announcement: To Enjoy Is The Only Thing is set for release on June 25. Today also brings a new song, “Swimming.”

In a YouTube comment, Zietsch described the tune as a “rubbish attempt at a love song.” She also says of the song:

“This was meant to be a love song, but by the time I finished it, it kind of predetermined a break-up. I’d been experiencing some of the most beautiful places I’d ever been in, and falling out of love was very confusing. I was trying to force myself to be happy and in love, but I was far from home, and really lonely. It made sense to record the song after the break-up. I kind of felt like I was able to handle the sincerity of it then.”

She also says of the album overall, “This is what the album looks like to me: walking past tinsel covered trees in mid-September, swimming along the Calanques in the south of France, car-bonnet frost, darkness at 4 pm, lightness until 10 pm, a muted feeling, the perpetual grey fog that swallows the Silver Coast, the colour red, this ugly green dress, red wine, red blood, red lips, red is the colour of the cardinal’s robe, Switzerland, my mother’s diaries, a coroner’s report, the sun on my face, the end of love…”

Watch the “Swimming” video above. Below, find the To Enjoy Is The Only Thing art and tracklist.

1. “As Tradition”
2. “Swimming”
3. “View From This Side”
4. “Friend”
5. “Be Mean, It’s Kinder Than Crying”
6. “Good Thing”
7. “Baby Tiger”
8. “Performer”
9. “Mama It’s Christmas”

To Enjoy Is The Only Thing is out 6/25 via Partisan Records. Pre-order it here.

Kevin Smith just took a huge plunge into the world of non-fungible tokens. In an unorthodox move that he compares to the surprise breakout sale of his indie debut, Clerks, Smith is selling his latest horror anthology film, Killroy Was Here, as a NFT. And it’s not a gimmick — whoever purchases the film owns it outright, and it will be entirely up to the owner what they want to do with the film, including putting it in a digital locker and never touching it again. Via Deadline:

“Back in 1994, we took Clerks up to Sundance and sold it. Selling Killroy as an NFT feels very similar: whoever buys it could choose to monetize it traditionally, or simply own a film that nobody ever sees but them. We’re not trying to raise financing by selling NFT’s for a Killroy movie; the completed Killroy movie IS the NFT. And If this works, we suddenly have a new stage on which I and other, better artists than me can tell our stories.”

As a long-time comic book junkie, Smith is no stranger to the collectibles scene, and for the past two decades, he’s sat atop a mini-merchandising empire based on his View Askewniverse. So, of course, he’s not about to pass up the latest craze in digital collecting. On top of selling Killroy Was Here as a NTF, Smith is also launching Jay and Silent Bob’s Crypto Studio, which will include his own “Smokin’ Tokens.”

“This allows us to shine a spotlight on artists we love and introduce the community to their style by way of our characters,” Smith told Deadline. “We provide the Jay and Silent Bob, you provide the art, our partner Semkhor mints the NFT, and we split the profits. I’ve earned money off of Jay and Silent Bob for years now, so it’s nice to provide a licensed place where others can do the same.”

(Via Deadline)

The highlight of Brockhampton’s new album, Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine, is the production — as it so often is with the group’s full-length projects. But this time, there’s an interesting twist, as they incorporate more classic hip-hop sounds and styles into the overall sonic background of the album. It’s a gift and a curse; while the new approach may entice older fans and intrigue younger ones as it expands the group’s production palette, it also underscores some members’ shortcomings as rappers.

Collectively, Brockhampton is great at knowing what they want to say, but they don’t always have the mechanics to say it in a way that the message is clear, concise, or charismatic. The group has mostly gotten by on their boisterous, untethered energy and the propulsive momentum of beats ready-made for pep rallies and mosh pits. When things slow down, the barely controlled chaos they harnessed to electric effect on efforts like the Saturation series or Iridescence reads as unfocused and haphazard on later projects like 2019’s Ginger.

Even the rollouts for their projects have been chaotic; prior to the release of Iridescence, they told fans they’d release a project called Team Effort, then switched mid-stream to a “different” album called Puppy. Whether these were all different projects or the same project undergoing multiple name changes remains unclear, but it has seemed evident at times that the group’s commitment to hyperactivity onstage could seep into their behind-the-scenes work. While this tendency never quite derailed the momentum they’d built from Saturation I, II, and III, it made the ride bumpier than perhaps was strictly necessary.

After Kevin Abstract’s detour into solo work, it also seemed that there was possibly some distraction to the group’s super-collaborative approach — rumors of discontent bubbled to the surface by the time the group rolled out Ginger, including from Abstract himself. Perhaps the crew mentality has run its course; ahead of releasing Roadrunner, Abstract hinted that it would be the group’s first of two projects in 2021 as well as the penultimate Brockhampton release. In that sense, perhaps it’s fitting that it’s such a nostalgic but fractured work, reflecting the uncertain frame of mind the band’s members must be in as they prepare for their next step.

It’s also a much more collaborative album, with more guests than the group’s ever had before in an effort to freshen up the chemistry. “Chain On” is a great example of using throwback-sounding beats and a guest rapper to liven up their efforts, drawing on a sample of Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M.” and a DJ Premier-esque sample loop with boom-bap drums to back verses from the group’s top rapper Dom McLennon and featured artist Jpegmafia. “Bankroll” takes a similar tack, employing ASAP Mob members Ferg and Rocky, as well as the New York crew’s goth trap sound to break up the pop-rap aesthetics of “Count On Me” and the Griselda Records-esque horror movie organs on “The Light.”

The latter track is perhaps one of the most personal songs the group has ever released, as Joba recounts his father’s death by suicide. It’s also jarring — maybe by choice — in how graphic its lyrics are and how it juxtaposes the visual elements of Joba’s recollections with a beat that’s almost too aggressive for them, confusing and obfuscating their emotional impact. Something more somber and melodic might have captured Joba’s emotional distress but instead, listeners are left wondering whether to dissociate and headbang to the menacing beat’s screaming electric guitar.

The musical experimentation, though, is something to behold, just in terms of the outright bananas combinations the crew throws together. A G-Funk saw wave degenerates into a buzzy guitar solo on “What’s The Occasion?” while “When I Ball” sounds like 2006-era Pharrell — a surefire inspiration for Kevin Abstract’s own musical hero Tyler The Creator. Miami Bass&B turns up on “I’ll Take You On” with Charlie Wilson, and album intro “Buzzcut” with Danny Brown is as close to the signature Brockhampton sound gets.

If the group’s lyrics and concepts don’t always keep up with its progressive genre experimentation, it’s only a sign that perhaps they’re pulling the ‘chute with near-perfect timing. With only one of the group’s members putting out a solo project to date, there’s still plenty of potential for individual growth, and perhaps that’s what they need to truly refresh their sound — or find it, in some cases. Roadrunner also suggests some clever directions for their future endeavors as well — Dom could delve deeper into the hardcore rap that obviously attracts him, while Kevin could explore his production with other artists who fit it better.

And just because they’ve mined as much as they can from their group efforts today doesn’t mean they won’t find a better configuration for it tomorrow. Given time and space to determine their musical identities may make it easier to maintain focus if or when they decide to come back together as a group, which could result in a much more cohesive product. For now, their “new machine” has done well enough to churn out a handful of intriguing ideas worthy of shedding a little more light on in the future.

Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine is out now on RCA Records. Get it here.

On Sunday, Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old unarmed Black man, was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Police officials called Wright’s death the result of an “accidental discharge,” an excuse that no one, including The Daily Show host Trevor Noah, is buying.

“You have got to be f*cking kidding me,” he said during Monday’s episode. “A man was killed at a traffic stop because the police officer mixed up their gun and their taser. Is that even supposed to be a legitimate excuse? Like, we’re supposed to watch that and go, ‘Ah, OK, one time I used sugar instead of salt so I can relate.’ Look, I’m not saying that tragic mistakes will never happen, but what I am saying is that maybe if the police weren’t so quick to draw any weapon then maybe people wouldn’t die because of a mixup from Officer Urkel over here.”

Noah, who finds it “amazing” that cops think everything is a gun “except for their own gun,” also brought attention to a video of Army lieutenant Caron Nazario being held at gunpoint and pepper-sprayed by the police. “This is fucked up,” he said, adding, “And don’t forget, please don’t forget, this is how the cops treated one of the troops while he was wearing his uniform. Not a hoodie, not baggy pants, so what’s the excuse this time? I mean, if a Black man in military uniform can’t get humane treatment from the police, then what chance does every other Black person in America have?” He continued:

“But if you’re surprised that a member of the military is having his rights abused, then you need to understand that the police don’t give a sh*t. They don’t care if you’re a member of the military. They don’t care if you’re a beloved member of the community. They don’t care if you’re recording them. Sh*t, they don’t even care if they’re recording themselves. And the reason they don’t care is because they know that they’re going to get away with this. And until that changes, they are just going to keep not caring.”

You can watch the clip above.

Picking the perfect bottle of expensive bourbon is no easy task. Especially for the relative newcomer. Understanding the differences between high-end bourbon expressions can be tough and demands an elevated palate. After all, you can get a very solid bourbon for $50 and a flat-out great bottle for $75 — so why pay more?

At the end of the day, that decision comes down to four words: nuance, age, refinement, and (we know folks hate this one) scarcity. But there’s some wheat to separate from the chaff, too — with a handful of bourbons priced this high simply because of hype. It’s an expensive journey to embark on at this level and still ultimately comes down to what you enjoy.

To help you navigate the high end of our “Bourbon and Every Price Point” project, we’re profiling ten bottles between $150 and $200 that we love and feel eager to vouch for. These probably aren’t everyday drams. They’re more likely the bottles you buy for a celebration (though maybe you celebrate once a week — we’re not your accountant). Check them all out below!

Buffalo Trace Kosher

ABV: 47%

Average Price: $150

The Whiskey:

Buffalo Trace Kosher provides a truly kosher spirit that also fully delivers on the palate. The juice is made from the same wheated bourbon recipe as Buffalo Trace’s Weller and Pappy lines. The difference is that the mash is loaded from fully cleaned stills and pipes into kosher barrels (that means the barrels were specially made and purchased under the watchful eye of a rabbi from the Chicago Rabbinical Council).

The whiskey then ages for seven years at Buffalo Trace before blending, proofing, and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a familiar note of Red Hots and vanilla cream on the nose, with a hint of semi-dried florals. The palate mellows out the cinnamon towards a woody and dry bark as the florals deepen towards summer wildflowers as a touch of plums and berries arrive, adding sweetness and brightness. The end holds onto that dry bark, as a hint of anise pops late with a slight vanilla cream tobacco touching off the medium-length fade.

Bottom Line:

This is a yearly release that drops just before Passover. The MSRP is much lower on this one ($40) but expect to find it for at least double that locally in Kentucky and much more the further you get from Buffalo Trace’s warehouses and that Passover drop date. All of that being said, this is a great specialty whiskey that stands up to any bottle in this price range.

Cream of Kentucky 11.5 Year Old

ABV: 51%

Average Price: $160

The Whiskey:

This whiskey is part of the bespoke sourced line from bourbon legend Jim Rutledge. Rutledge spent 21 years as the head distiller over at Four Roses, building the worldwide renown that the brand is now known for today. Rutledge is currently sourcing the best barrels he can find to create this throwback brand of whiskey — whose labels used be to painted by Norman Rockwell back in the day.

Tasting Notes:

You feel the deep bourbon heritage from the nose through the finish as classic notes of oily vanilla husks, soft cedar, and rich toffee draw you in. The taste holds onto the toffee and vanilla but also veers into sweet cherry with a rush of spice, which is almost like a Cherry Dr. Pepper in the best possible way. A note of bitterness comes in late via a dark chocolate vibe (especially with a drop or two of water) while the silken sip quickly (almost too quickly) fades, leaving you with warm and woody spices.

Bottom Line:

This is actually priced at $150 MSRP, so the hype machine hasn’t taken over the pricing … yet. Still, this is a classic bourbon that hits iconic notes from the style, making it a good bottle to really dial in those flavors on your palate. For us, the fade is a bit fast on the finish but, for some, that’s exactly what they want.

Knob Creek 2001

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $160

The Whiskey:

This bourbon is all about heritage. Back in 2001, Fred Noe took the reigns of Jim Beam from his legendary father, Booker Noe. As part of that transition, Booker Noe warehoused a final group of barrels for his son to finish and release to celebrate his ascendence to Master Distiller. The juice was aged for 14 long years and then released in three distinct batches (we’re reviewing the first batch), all at 100 proof.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a subtle nod to Jim Beam’s cherry up top that’s more like a Haribo Cherry gummi with a hint of cinnamon cutting through the sweetness next to doses of creamy vanilla, rich toffee, and dry cedar boxes. The palate amps up the spice with notes of black pepper and powdery cinnamon as the cherry veers into dark red and ripe territory next to a slight tobacco chewiness and buzz on the tongue. That tobacco chew dries out near the finish, leading back to the cedar and vanilla as the sip slowly fades.

Bottom Line:

This hard-to-find bottle is one of those expressions that is very clear on its taste and feel. It’s classic bourbon that feels like it gets better with every sip you take. The other two batches will hit varying levels of choco-bitterness and vanilla pudding depths alongside those standard cherry/vanilla/toffee/woody notes, but Batch 1 really does feel like the most refined and classic bourbon of the three.

Kentucky Owl Confiscated

ABV: 48.2%

Average Price: $175

The Whiskey:

Kentucky Owl is another resurrection brand by Master Blender Dixon Dedman, the great-great-grandson of the shingle’s original founder. Yes, this is sourced juice from an undisclosed distillery in Kentucky, meaning we don’t know a whole lot of what’s in the bottle, but that leaves the family story and the taste of the whiskey as our only touchstones. And on those two levels, this expression excels.

Tasting Notes:

The sip draws you in with a slight rye note of anise and maybe even licorice next to old cellar oak, vanilla cream, and a touch of ripe cherry. The taste warms on the tongue with dark spices, more of that old oak, and a touch of raw leather. The end is long and touches back on those spices, building a real buzzing on your senses, and hitting back towards that oak and leather, with just a hint of cherry tobacco.

Bottom Line:

This is another bottle that’s going to vary pretty wildly in prices. We’ve seen it for hundreds of dollars at places like Costco on the West Coast. Is it worth the $125 MSRP? It’s absolutely interesting and much sought after.

Still… we’d say it’s more of a palate-expanding stepping stone to high-end bourbon than the mountaintop.

Bardstown The Prisoner

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $180

The Whiskey:

Bardstown is one of the premier blenderies of American whiskey. This special release from 2020 takes sourced nine-year-old Tennessee bourbon and finishes the juice in red wine barrels from California’s Prisoner Wine Company for 18 months. The bourbon is then cut with that soft Tennessee water and bottled at 100 proof.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a sense of blackberries, blueberries, and black cherries swimming in thin vanilla and honey cream with a hint of eggnog spices lurking in the background. The sip dries out a bit with a dark vinous edge, leading towards a spicy cherry pie with a crumbly and buttery crust dusted in brown sugar. The end dries out even more with a slight pine panel woodiness and a final whisper of those berries and eggnog spices on a slow fade.

Bottom Line:

We’re big fans of Bardstown around here. So it should come as no surprise that we’d recommend tracking down one of these very limited release bottles. This bottle really feels like you’re getting every cent of that $125 MSRP, with the refinement and beauty of the whiskey in the bottle.

Garrison Brothers Balmorhea

ABV: 57.5%

Average Price: $185

The Whiskey:

This much-lauded Texas bourbon is the highwater mark of what great whiskey from Texas can be. The juice is aged in Ozark oak for four years and then finished in oak from Minnesota for another year, all under that blazing West Texas sunshine. The bourbon is then small-batched, proofed with Texas spring water, and bottled at a healthy 115 proof.

Tasting Notes:

You’re greeted with a real sense of a corn-syrup-laced pecan pie next to hazelnut bespeckled cinnamon rolls and creamy milk chocolate. That chocolate drives the taste towards a mint-chocolate ice cream vibe (heavy on the chocolate part) with small dashes of holiday spices, hard toffee candies, worn leather, and a flourish of cedar boxes full of dried tobacco leaves. The end circles back around to all that sweet and chocolatey creaminess with a final slice of pecan pie on a slow fade.

Bottom Line:

This is one of those bottles that just … delivers. Yes, it wins all the major awards and comes with a ton of hype. But, goddamnit, it’s f*cking delicious. It’s so tasty and truly easy-drinking that we wish it was affordable enough to be an everyday dram.

Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Revival

ABV: 58.5%

Average Price: $185

The Whiskey:

The Master’s Keep series is the mountaintop of Wild Turkey and, we’d argue, great Kentucky bourbon in general. The juice is a nod to Jimmy Russell releasing a sherry-cask finished bourbon back in 2000 (yes, sherry cask finishing has been around that long in bourbon). The ripple that makes this bottle special is that those sherry barrels are barrels that held sherry for 20 years.

That’s an extremely rare barrel in a world where sherry rarely ages more than three-ish years.

Tasting Notes:

You’re beckoned into this sip through a nose full of marzipan, heavy with rose water, next to sultanas, orange oils, wet cedar, and a hint of spicy stewed red cherry. The taste delivers on those promises by amping up the spices into Christmas cake territory while adding in a rich and creamy vanilla pudding and a dash of pineapple and apricot. That apricot dries out while the fade slowly walks you back through those Christmas spices, almond, and stewed cherry.

Bottom Line:

This is the perfect end-of-the-year bottle. One, it’s holds a deep wintry/holiday season vibe to its core. Two, the price is going to range close to $200 (or more), making this a great candidate for a celebratory time of year.

Jefferson’s Presidential Select 16 Year

ABV: 59.8%

Average Price: $190

The Whiskey:

Jefferson’s is another stellar American whiskey blendery and distillery. This very limited release (only 10,000 bottles were made) is a unique double-barreled whiskey. The juice first spends ten years maturing in new oak, as per bourbon’s rules. Then the whiskey is transferred to a brand new oak barrel for a second maturation of six more years. In the end, the younger notes of the second barreling create a richer sense of “bourbon” in the final product, instead of sherry or port or rum, etc.

It’s a double bourboned bourbon, so to speak.

Tasting Notes:

“Bourbon” is what you’re greeted with as notes of rich and creamy vanilla mingle with buttery toffee, wet oak, caramel-covered pears, and a matrix of holiday spices. The palate really delivers on all of that, while refining nicely as the spices lean into a cinnamon candy and the vanilla turns into a thick custard with a caramel glaze. That sweetness and silkiness impart a velvet mouthfeel that spikes with notes of spice, wet yet buzzy tobacco, and a mild sense of those pears.

Bottom Line:

This bottle feels like a real collector’s item that’ll be hard to keep in the vault since it’s so damn tasty and easy to drink. This dram with a single rock really shines as a great, all-around high-end bourbon that lives up to the price in every way.

Weller Aged 12 Years

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $199

The Whiskey:

Weller 12 is lovingly referred to as the “Poorman’s Pappy,” with good reason. Both whiskeys are made by Buffalo Trace with the same wheated bourbon mash bill. Of course, the barrels are treated differently when it comes to where they are stored and why. But we’re still talking about a very similar product at the end of the day.

Once which also tends to be a bit more accessible, at least for now.

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a sense of vanilla pods coming to life in a hot pan next to light orange oil-infused marzipan, a touch of sweet corn, and a whisper of musty oak. The palate holds onto the orange and almond as it dries out towards a cedar box and vanilla tobacco chew with a mild sense of dry spices. The end is long-ish and touches on the wood, orange oils, spice, and nuttiness, leaving you warmed with that classic Kentucky Hug.

Bottom Line:

This is a bottle that gets a decent amount of hype (enough to make it cost far more than its MSRP, but not ridiculously so). For us, it’s an amazing choice for mixing up high-end whiskey cocktails like a fine Manhattan or Sazerac. Of course, it’s a solid sipper too, best with ice, especially when winter comes back around.

Michter’s 10 Year

ABV: 47.2%

Average Price: $199

The Whiskey:

The triumph of Michter’s coming to Kentucky (from Pennsylvania) is writ large in this bottle of fine bourbon. The juice is now contract-distilled according to Master Distiller Pam Heilmann and Master of Maturation Andrea Wilson’s precise instructions and watchful eyes (though, they’re distilling their own juice now in Kentucky).

This expression is a ten-year-old single barrel drop that hits the highest marks when talking about what bourbon is and can be.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a maple syrup sweetness with spicy tobacco, creamy vanilla, and burnt toffee next to leathery oak. The taste hints at a charred bitterness (burnt espresso bean?) next to a touch of caramel-meets-fruit that meanders back through that tobacco, leather, vanilla, and maple. The end is soft but surprisingly short while touching on the sweeter notes of maple and vanilla and leaving the spice, tobacco, and oak behind.

Bottom Line:

This really does feel like the ultimate expression of bourbon as a style. There’s a sense that you’re drinking something wholly unique to the American whiskey experience while also getting a sip that stuns in its refinement and excellence as a whiskey in general. While a rock certainly helps this sip along, it’s delicate enough to drink neat and will wow with every sip.

As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.

In the past few weeks, Staten Island rapper CJ’s breakout hit “Whoopty” has become a favored backdrop for rappers looking for a beat to help them get their bars off. Tierra Whack employed the Bollywood sampling track for an impromptu session on social media, while Westside Boogie and Polo G both utilized the beat in more elaborately shot music videos. Now, just a few days after sharing the spotlight with CJ on his follow-up single “Lil Freak,” his fellow New Yorker DreamDoll takes the instrumental for a test drive, pairing her fist-swinging rhymes with a lyric video to help fans follow along.

Although DreamDoll has a versatile flow of her own, she borrows CJ’s sparse cadence from the hook and puts her own twist on it, crowing that “This sh*t a Disney movie / You hang with the rats, you f*ck with the ducks, and most of your n****s is goofy.” It isn’t the first rap to toy with puns based on the popular cartoon characters, but DreamDoll’s confidence carries the line and makes it work.

DreamDoll has similarly displayed her talent for witticisms on tracks with Hitmaka (the “Thot Box” remix featuring Chinese Kitty, Dreezy, and Young M.A) and Fivio Foreign (“Ah Ah Ah“).

Listen to DreamDoll’s “Whoopty” freestyle above.

CJ is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.