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Drinking bourbon whiskey “neat” is considered the purest form of the bourbon tasting experience. For whiskey purists, the idea is that the distillers, nosers, and blenders painstakingly toiled to create the exact whiskeys they wanted and we should honor that. While that idea is certainly valid (in some cases), all whisk(e)y changes with a few drops of water or a rock and that’s also a crucial (and fun) part of the tasting experience.

Today, we’re looking past the whiskeys that demand a rock or two to help them go down a little easier and staying focused on those bourbons that are pure silk all alone. Untouched. No fuss.

These 15 bottles aren’t always affordable or easy to find. But they are great sipping bourbons, smooth as can be, straight out of the bottle. We’re not saying these aren’t nice in cocktails, either — we just prefer these picks neat. Let’s get into it!

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked

ABV: 45.2%

Average Price: $58

The Whiskey:

This expression takes the standard Woodford bourbon (triple distilled, matured for six to seven years in a climate-controlled warehouse) and gives it a finishing touch. The bourbon is blended and moved into new barrels that have been double toasted but only lightly charred. The juice spends a final nine months resting in those barrels before proofing and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a welcoming aroma of marzipan, blackberry, toffee, and fresh honey next to a real sense of pitchy, dry firewood. The taste drills down on those notes as the sweet marzipan becomes more choco-hazelnut, the berries become more dried and apple-y, the toffee becomes almost burnt, and the wood softens to a cedar bark. A rich spicy and chewy tobacco arrives late as the vanilla gets super creamy and the fruit and honey combine on the slow fade.

The Neat Experience:

What’s beautiful about this bourbon is you kind of get lost in it. The silken edges keep leading you down new flavor paths as you swing back and forth between the nose and the sip. It’s weirdly light (for a double oaked) as well, making it very easy to take straight.

Basil Hayden’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $45

The Whiskey:

This expression from Jim Beam’s high-end shingle is a masterful blend. The juice is small-batched from barrels that meet just the right flavor and texture profiles. That mix is then proofed all the way down to 80 proof, creating an incredibly accessible whiskey sip for beginning sippers.

Tasting Notes:

Classic notes of vanilla and caramel lead towards a hint of oak with a touch of dried fruit on the nose. The taste delivers on those promises while adding in layers of brown sugar sweetness and mild pepperiness. There’s a slight return to those dark dried fruits on the fast finish as you’re left with the vanilla and oak ringing on your senses.

The Neat Experience:

Beam was wickedly smart in making this a 40 percent ABV sip. There are zero rough edges. You’re left with a well-rounded and classic bourbon experience. It’s also much softer than a standard Beam, naturally. That softness goes a long way towards making you want to refill your glass once it’s emptied.

Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch Bourbon

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $60

The Whiskey:

This high-end brand from the legendary Buffalo Trace campus is crafted as a sipper at a (fairly) accessible price point. The juice is aged specifically in Warehouse C, which was built by E.H. Taylor, Jr. back in the 1880s. The barrels live under federal regulations of bottling in bond. Once they’re ready, they’re small batched and proofed down to 100 proof.

Tasting Notes:

The nose greets you with a mild vanilla woodiness that leads towards a kettle corn vibe with a hint of caramel. The taste delivers on the caramel corn while counterpointing with a black licorice essence (similar to rye whiskey) and a hint of buttery toffee. The end brings about chewy and spicy tobacco with hints of that buttery and sweet corn lurking in the background with the woody vanilla.

The Neat Experience:

This is interesting in that it’s almost… cooling on the first sip. As you nose and sip, it starts to warm towards that spicy tobacco chew. But it takes a minute to get there. In the end, this is kind of fun to drink neat and feels like you’re on a journey along the way.

Four Roses Small Batch Select

ABV: 54%

Average Price: $60

The Whiskey:

This expression uses six of Four Rose’s ten whiskeys in their small-batching process. The idea is to blend both high and low-rye bourbons with yeast strains that highlight “delicate fruit,” “slight spice,” and “herbal notes.” The whiskeys spend at least six years in the barrel before blending and proofing with just a touch of Kentucky’s soft limestone water.

Tasting Notes:

Raspberry and cloves mix with old oak on the nose and — boy, does it draw you in. The palate amps up the dark berry sweetness with a bit of tartness, as a stone fruit vibe comes into play. The spice heightens and leans more Christmas spice with a focus on nutmeg. Finally, a wisp of fresh mint arrives to counterpoint the whole sip as the oak, vanilla, fruit, and spice all slowly fade out.

The Neat Experience:

This expression will grow on you. At first, it’ll feel like a solid bourbon, maybe even a good cocktail base (it is, by the way). But as you go back to it, it’ll mellow while expanding in flavors when taken neat. More of those mints and fruits will surface, creating a refreshing sip of whiskey.

Jefferson’s Reserve Very Old

ABV: 41%

Average Price: $58

The Whiskey:

Jefferson’s Reserve is a masterclass in the power of blending. This expression is a marriage of only eight to 12 barrels from three different bourbons which are, for the most part, very old. How old you ask? There are 20-year-old barrels in the mix.

Tasting Notes:

The spice comes through with a slight nod to eggnog (especially nutmeg) with a rounded sense of fresh honey on the nose. The taste holds onto the spice but starts leaning towards a cinnamon bark while butter toffee adds a nice sweetness and vanilla almost hides in the background. The spice amps up to a tobacco chewiness as the sip slowly fades out, leaving you with a mouth coated in silk.

The Neat Experience:

The idea behind the blend is to create the ultimate sippable whiskey. And they hit it out of the park. This is the sort of dram where you’re sipping and nosing and you completely forget to add water.

Michter’s 10 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon

ABV: 47.2%

Average Price: $200

The Whiskey:

Michter’s 10-yo Bourbon is a very sought-after and beloved bottle of booze. The barrels are hand-selected by Michter’s team for their taste and texture. Then the booze is bottled with only a touch of water just to take the edges off and make it more pleasant on the tongue.

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.

The Neat Experience:

You’ll take a sip and realize what bourbon can be when left alone for ten years. This is just a well-rounded whiskey in every way. It’s also the sort of whiskey that you can offer someone looking to take that next step from “I think I like bourbon” to “Oh, I really f*cking like bourbon.”

Woodinville Bourbon Port Cask

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $52

The Whiskey:

This expression is Woodinville’s award-winning five-year-old bourbon taken up a notch. That means you’re getting that grain-to-glass experience of local Washington craft along with the bespoke barreling process on those snowy Cascade Mountains. The juice is then finished for six to 12 months in port casks, adding a whole new dimension to the bourbon.

Tasting Notes:

Candied fruit, roasted nuts, and bourbon vanilla entice you into the sip. Those notes lead right into a Christmas cake full of dried fruits, spice, nuts, and plummy sherry depths. The end shines in all of those notes, adding a warming feeling that revels in all the candied fruit, cake, spice, nuts, and oak as it slowly fades away — leaving you with a silken mouthfeel and sweet warmth.

The Neat Experience:

This is probably the best workhorse bourbon on the list. We’d argue it works wonders in cocktails, but it really shines as a neat sipper. It’s so complex yet remains wholly inviting. It’s like a warm hug after a long rainy walk.

I.W. Harper 15

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $90

The Whiskey:

I.W. Harper has a long history with a new feel. The booze is made at Heaven Hill’s New Bernheim Distillery but aged at Diageo’s Stitzel-Weller Distillery — a classic contract distilling partnership. The juice spends 15 years mellowing before it’s married and proofed down to a very approachable 86 proof.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a clear sense of almost fresh off-the-stalk sweet corn and bright berries on the nose with hints of orange zest, oily vanilla, and cedar. The palate leads with the cedar towards tobacco spiciness, more of that concentrated vanilla, and a very mild whisper of minty dark chocolate nibs. The finish takes its time and starts with the dry cedar, passes through that spicy tobacco buzz, and ends up on a sweet vanilla/caramel softness.

The Neat Experience:

This really starts off bold on the fruit and corn. As you go back and forth on the nose and the sip, it just keeps getting deeper and more interesting. The dry-leading-to-sweet end is what’ll keep drawing you back in for more.

Elijah Craig 18

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $250

The Whiskey:

This is what you get when you take standard Elijah Craig and let it rest in just the right spot for 18 years. The 18-year-old barrel is hand-selected after a long search through the warehouses. Once chosen, the juice is cooled slightly with that soft Kentucky limestone water and then bottled.

Tasting Notes:

You get a sense of oak with a touch of a rock-hewn cellar, next to notes of dark chocolate oranges, mild brown spices, a touch of vanilla cream, and a hint of honey. That vanilla takes on a nutty edge as the spices build and the wood softens towards cedar with a hint of fruity tobacco chew. The vanilla creaminess really drives the finish towards a silken mouthfeel with plenty of spicy/fruity tobacco leaving you with a mild buzz across your senses.

The Neat Experience:

This feels like one of those expressions where you should “respect” the barrel selection process. It’s just … so refined. It’s also a dram where you’ll be so enthralled by what’s in the body of the whiskey that you’ll forget water is even needed to let it bloom even more.

Thomas S. Moore Port Cask

ABV: 49.45%

Average Price: $80

The Whiskey:

This new release from Barton 1792 Distillery aims to highlight bourbons with unique finishings from the iconic distiller. This expression draws on the ever more popular port cask finish (they also released a Chardonnay and Cabernet cask finish this year, too). That port wood adds a nice layer to the bourbon, making it very sippable.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a nice softness on the nose that leads towards hints of Christmas spices, creamy vanilla, and light red fruit. The palate delivers on those promises and adds in a Christmas cake vibe with plenty of spice, nuts, dried fruit, and more of that velvety vanilla. The end is medium-length and warms up towards a mellow tobacco chewiness with a jammy depth.

The Neat Experience:

This is one of the easier, more approachable bourbons on the list. It’s not going to take you anywhere new. But what it does, it does well. It sort of feels like a nice end-of-the-day dram to take the edge off.

Pursuit United

ABV: 54%

Average Price: $63

The Whiskey:

This whiskey is a new release from one of our favorite bourbon podcasts and whiskey reviewers, Bourbon Pursuit. The juice is a blend of three whiskeys hailing from Bardstown Bourbon Company in Kentucky, Finger Lakes Distilling out in New York, and an unnamed Tennessee distiller. The blend is crafted to be an accessible whiskey — or well-crafted “table bourbon,” if you will — that’s high proof and very drinkable.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is subtle, with notes of crème brûlée next to warm cornbread dripping with butter and honey and a touch of oak and spice. The taste is bold — hints of soft-almost-leathery wood, dark chocolate (especially with a little water), honey mouthfeel, light orange citrus, buttered popcorn, and… I want to say, Red Vines. The end is just the right length as the orange becomes jammy and hints of red fruits in pine boxes drop in.

The Neat Experience:

This bourbon has really grown on us as a sipper. Unfortunately (though great for the team behind the bottle), the initial run has sold out. You can still find a bottle on Drizly, though. It’s really worth diving into as a sipper to get a sense for the tastes of people who truly love bourbon and are now getting a chance to make some of their own.

We can’t wait to see what’s next!

Maker’s Mark Wood Finishing Series 2020 Limited Release

ABV: 54.1%

Average Price: $69

The Whiskey:

This limited edition expression from Maker’s Mark takes everything up a notch with a focus on vanilla and caramel, specifically. The whiskey is cask strength Maker’s that’s then re-barreled with two different staves in the barrels. The first is a virgin French oak stave that’s lightly toasted and roasted in a convection oven on medium heat. The other barrels have staves dropped in that are virgin American oak that have been baked in a convection oven low and very slow.

Tasting Notes:

This expression is meant to highlight caramel and vanilla and it sure does — while also adding a slight Christmas spice warmth. The body of this wheated bourbon is like eating the creamiest vanilla ice cream on top of a very caramel and molasses-forward pecan pie, with the butteriest crust ever. The whole experience is warm and spicy with hints of cedar next to vanilla pod skins and an almost smoked salted caramel on the very slow fade.

The Neat Experience:

This is a wonderful after-dinner sipper. The vanilla creaminess is like a digestif. It’s complex on its own and every time you go back for another sip, you’re going to find another nuance to enjoy.

Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon

ABV: 46.5%

Average Price: $85

The Whiskey:

This is the “original” single barrel bourbon. Buffalo Trace’s Blanton’s is hand-selected single barrels that meet the sky-high standards of former Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee, who created the expression back in 1984.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a clear sense of Christmas spices right away, leaning towards eggnog spiked with vanilla. The taste holds onto the spice, especially nutmeg, as caramel kettle corn, fresh honey, and vanilla husks dominate the palate. The end doesn’t overstay its welcome as hints of eggnog spice, dry vanilla, and popped corn fade away.

The Neat Experience:

This whiskey is built at Buffalo Trace to be the ultimate single barrel sipper. The juice is just so damned refined and accessible on its own. Sure, we like being a little cheeky and making cocktails with this one, but really, this is the perfect neat dram of bourbon.

Barrell Bourbon Batch 025

ABV: 56.7%

Average Price: $90

The Whiskey:

Barrell Bourbon is one of the best blenderies in the bourbon game right now. This fairly new batch marries bourbons from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana that are anywhere from five to 15-years-old. The juice is then bottled at cask-strength, allowing what was in those barrels to shine.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a fruity note on the nose that leans slightly savory — like a fall melon. Creamed corn with a bit of maple syrup offers up a counterpoint. The taste touches on notes of dark chocolate-covered marzipan as that savory fruit feel dances between rhubarb and fig, with dried orange tobacco chew and maybe a whisper of black licorice. The end is shockingly short and reveals an espresso bean bitterness and almost saltiness with a little mineral water note in the mix.

The Neat Experience:

The great thing about Barrell Bourbon is you know that these whiskeys are crafted to be drunk slowly, explored, argued over, dissected, and most importantly enjoyed. There are a lot of great batches from Barrell, especially in the last ten releases. But this one really reaches a new high in drinkability and taste that keeps us going back for more.

Wild Turkey Rare Breed

ABV: 58.4%

Average Price: $50

The Whiskey:

This is the mountaintop of what Wild Turkey can achieve. This is a blend of the best barrels that are married and bottled untouched. That means no filtering and no cutting with water. It’s just a classic bourbon with nothing to hide and no frills (in the best way possible).

Tasting Notes:

Crème brûlée greets you with a nice dose of Christmas spices, mild pipe tobacco, orange zest, and a distant hint of fresh mint sprigs. There’s a pine resin nature to the woody flavors on the palate that accents the orange oils, spices, vanilla, and sweetness. The sip takes on a Christmas cake-feel late, with a velvet end that is just the right amount of everything “classic” that you want from a traditional bourbon.

The Neat Experience:

This is our favorite Wild Turkey product. The main reason is that it’s just so easy to drink. There’s a real balance between bold bourbon notes and enticing and soft vibes that keep your attention. It’s also one of the best value-for-dollar bourbons out there.

This could easily cost twice as much and no one would bat an eye.

This morning, BBC Radio 1 hosts Scott Mills and Chris Stark finished their 24-hour LOL-A-Thon, a benefit event from Comic Relief that ended up raising £507,089 (around $700,000) for the cause. They crammed a lot of activities into their time on the air, including a series of “Unexpected Song Challenge” performance, for which they tasked artists to bust out a cover that’s, well, unexpected.

Among the participants was Finneas, who sat in front of a piano and turned Britney Spears’ classic “Oops!… I Did It Again” into a lovely ballad.

The hosts were overwhelmed by the response to the event. Stark wrote, “Thankyou so so much. I’m so happy that together we could raise so much money for @comicrelief. Your support has been unreal. I’ll never forget this. Thankyou x.” Mills also noted, “Half a million pounds raised for @comicrelief! Thank you so much! We never imagined we would raise this much money, especially during this time. You are all amazing!! Happy birthday @Chris_Stark time for some sleep!”

Meanwhile, Finneas has a big weekend ahead, as he and his sister Billie Eilish are up for a handful of Grammys. “Everything I Wanted” is nominated for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance, while “No Time To Die” is nominated for Best Song Written For Visual Media.

Check out Finneas’ cover above.

It’s usually pretty cool when a rap act gets a collectible that isn’t just the standard T-shirt, vinyl, or non-fungible token version of their sex tape. For instance, there are a lot of nice vinyl toys out there for legends of rap like The Notorious BIG or Run-DMC, and some newer rappers have even gotten in on the action, like Rico Nasty. The latest act to commemorate a musical moment with a piece of beautifully-molded plastic is Flatbush Zombies, who teamed up with Incendium to offer a pack of frankly awesome action figures celebrating the fifth anniversary of their debut album.

The set interprets the trio as five-inch figures with 10 points of articulation and personalized accessories based on the David Nakayama-designed cover of 3001: A Laced Odyssey. Only 3,001 of each figure has been made, ensuring their collector’s item status someday down the road — without a password or undue negative impact on the environment, no less. Yes, that was another shot at NFTs because I think you’re all nuts for spending millions of dollars on computer code.

Incendium CEO Llexi Leon credits the project to Flatbush Zombies’ “incredible aesthetic,” and calls it “a blast to revisit David Nakayama’s incredible artwork to their debut album and bring the trio straight off the page for our latest release.”

You can check out the set here.

In 2018, Nico Walker published his debut novel that he’d written in prison, Cherry, the semi-autobiographical tale of an unnamed narrator who, like Walker, became a decorated medic during the Iraq War, abused opiates to treat his PTSD, and then turned to robbing banks to support his habit. This backstory is relevant because the full context of how this story came to be has a natural arc, one that the Russo Brothers’ movie adaptation doesn’t entirely deliver. It’s a big, beautiful tragedy that offers alienation without much edification.

Cherry the movie, with script by Angela Russo-Otstot and Jessica Goldberg, uses a bank robbery as a framing device. We see our narrator, played by Tom Holland, robbing a bank, and then rewind to discover how he got there. Returning to 2003 for chapter one (the story is broken up into five chapters, introduced in title cards) we meet a bright, middle-class Ohio guy whose biggest issue seems to be that he feels too deeply. “It’s not that I’m dumb to the beauty of things,” Holland narrates, over a shot of Fall leaves, “it’s just that I take all the beautiful things to heart, and then they fuck my heart till I about die from it.”

From Kurt Cobain’s stomach pain to James Frey’s “pain pain pain pain” to half of Naked Lunch, that the addict is uniquely attuned to the world’s beauty and cruelty has long been a staple of the recovery memoir. Cherry is so otherwise unique to its time, place, and protagonist that it’s a little disappointing to see it built on this same stock foundation.

Yet the purplish prose does fit the Russo Brothers’ romantic, maximalist approach, utilizing every trick in the cinematic toolbox — slow-motion, voiceover, needle drops, changing aspect ratios, impressionistic landscapes and cartographic overhead establishing shots. In a year that’s given us a surfeit of ultra-Important Dramas based on plays, composed of static shots of drab interiors, the Russo Brothers’ bright, bold, unabashedly cinematic pulp is refreshing. They’re trying hard to make this look pretty and not trying to disguise it. “A film that’s nice to look at” is a basic goal too often overlooked.

One day during English class at their unnamed college, Holland’s character meets Emily, played by Ciara Bravo, his college crush cum white whale turned tragic attraction, who wears a small white ribbon around her neck as a choker like a human Christmas present. After initially blowing it, Holland’s character woos her while rolling hard on ecstasy at a party. He cries after they have sex for the first time and she deadpans, “I guess I have a thing for weak guys.”

Cherry certainly has that whiff of the overearnest about it, which will probably be enough to earn it negative reviews. But this is, after all, a movie about young love, and Bravo is brilliant, the perfect mix of idealized innocence and wry cynicism, a perfectly overwhelming and irresistible attraction for our naive narrator.

While the characters don’t mention the setting much, Cherry is firmly grounded in time and place. It isn’t strictly about rust belt dysfunction, at least not in the way that Holland’s last (and fantastic) performance as a wide-eyed Ohioan in The Devil All The Time was, but decaying American Empire is Cherry‘s ever-present backdrop. The screwed-up side characters, these orphans of a failing system, are some of its best bits. Expert weirdo Michael Gandolfini and Forrest Goodluck with a wonky eye play two of Holland’s delinquent friends. Michael Rispoli from The Deuce gets a memorable cameo as a drunk ex-con at a restaurant, who keeps babbling about no one having the balls “put a gun to the guy’s head and BLOW HIS BRAINS OUT,” before our protagonist drives him home.

Stylistically, Cherry is a joy to watch. It’s dynamic, vivid, gorgeous, and it moves. Eventually, it moves to a weird place, but before it does, most impressively, it feels like young love. That young love inspires bad decisions, and those bad decisions lead to bad situations, and those bad situations lead to more bad decisions. This inexorable downward spiral is poetic and tragic, but maybe a little too slick, in a way that turns the trauma it seeks to describe into surface clichés. The characters start to lose agency as they stumble from one worst-case scenario to the next, and somewhere along the line, Cherry stops feeling like a tale and starts feeling like a cautionary tale, something you tell kids to keep them from trying drugs or joining the army.

Cherry perhaps doesn’t dig deep enough, such that even at two hours plus, something about the ending feels rushed or false. The epilogue, shot in slow-motion montage set to swelling strings, feels like an attempt to substitute style for real resolution in a way that the rest of the movie tricks don’t. It manages to feel paradoxically like they’re yadda yadda-ing through the last bit, but also doing it really slowly.

Still, even if Cherry isn’t a ringing success in the end, it’s hard not to feel like the Russo Brothers were at least attempting something special here. And this ambitious creative failure is worth its weight in modest successes.

‘Cherry’ hits Apple+ March 12th. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

The Grammys are coming up this weekend, and aside from awards being handed out, the other major component of the show is the performances. Taylor Swift is among the artists participating on that front, and while she is remaining mostly tight-lipped about her upcoming performance, she did share one detail about it.

In a teaser video, Swift said, “The one thing I can tell you about my Grammy performance that isn’t highly confidential is that my Grammy performance includes my collaborators Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff, which is really exciting, because this has been an adventure that the three of us have gone on since the very beginning of quarantine and lockdown. And, you know, we’ve only gotten to be together in the same room once. And so, this is really awesome to get to be together with them again. We’re quarantining in the same house for the whole week, we’re tested every day, so it’s just really exciting, honestly, to play music with your collaborators. That’s something that I will never, ever take for granted again.”

Swift has a number of nominations this year, including a pair of them in the major categories: Folklore is up for Album Of The Year and “Cardigan” is up for Song Of The Year.

Before Steven and Ian can jump into the latest all-mailbag episode of Indiecast, they must address the story of Mumford And Sons temporarily parting ways with their banjo player Winston Marshall after he came under fire for praising known right-wing agitator Andy Ngo in a social media post. Mumford has killed one of his sons.

This week’s mailbag is the most interesting collection of listener comments yet, with a wide range of questions. Topics covered include the sexism that is inherent when classifying music by genre, critical re-evaluation of under-appreciated records, and British press lauding post-punk acts like Fontaines DC and Idles.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Cohen is plugging the new self-titled LP from Boston quartet Really From. Hyden, on the other hand, is enjoying Heaven And Holy, the latest from Painted Shrine, the collaborative project of Jeremy Earl (Woods) and Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards, The Reds, Pinks & Purples).

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 29 on Apple Podcasts and Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

After teasing the plan last week, HBO Max is moving ahead with its plan to offer a lower subscription price through an ad-supported plan that will launch in June. The new plan, with a price point currently under wraps, will be presented to investors as part of the burgeoning streaming service’s aggressive push to bring in more new subscribers after the May 2020 launch. The service picked up steam in December when the simultaneous theatrical and streaming release of Wonder Woman 1984 nearly doubled its subscribers. That hybrid release strategy, which has stirred up considerable controversy amongst filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve, put HBO Max so ahead of schedule that it’s now raising it subscriber target for 2025 to 120 to 150 million. Via Deadline, which reports word from AT&T:

The new subscriber target is a significant bump from the range of 75 million to 90 million initially put forward by the company in October 2019. As of the end of 2020, it was at 41.5 million when combined with traditional HBO. The number of subscribers to HBO who had activated their HBO Max subscriptions stood at 17.2 million.

Clearly, HBO Max is liking the number it’s seeing thanks to Warner Bros. releasing its entire 2021 film slate on the streaming service, and the new lower price plan is sure to attract more users. “If we can wake up and use price and be able to kind of invent and do things elegantly through advertising to reduce the price of the service, I think that’s a fantastic thing for fans,” WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar told investors last week.

(Via Deadline)

Back in 2019, BTS’ dedicated fanbase, the ARMY, held out hope that the South Korean group would be recognized for the then-upcoming 2020 Grammy Awards. Given what the “Bangtan Boys” have to offer — a culturally-transcendent combination of popularity, artistry, and musical facility — seeing them listed among the honorees would have been apropos. However, their omission from the nomination pool prompted their followers and fellow artists to voice their disdain. (Collaborator Halsey wrote on Twitter, “BTS deserved many nominations…the US is so far behind on the whole movement.”)

Instead of The Recording Academy opting for a deja vu moment, fans of the skilled septet were able to breathe easy when the 2021 nominations were announced last November. BTS is named alongside Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and more as nominees in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category, thanks to their song “Dynamite.” If they win on March 14, they will be the first South Korean group to achieve this feat. (In 1992, coloratura soprano Sumi Jo became the first South Korean artist to win a Grammy, followed by record engineer Byeong Joon Hwang in 2015.) A foreign act with this particular mainstream nomination — especially one with a pull as strong as BTS — is colossal. Win or lose, there are multiple factors bolstering the moment’s gravity.

Based on investigations into obstacles faced before the implementation of The Recording Academy’s Diversity & Inclusion Task Force in 2018, “marginalization of certain ethnicities into specific roles [and] music genres” was a major issue not long ago. Since then, several Asian-American musicians have been honored by the Recording Academy. R&B musician H.E.R, who proudly identifies as half-Filipina, has won two Grammys and is up for three wins at the upcoming ceremony. Jhene Aiko, who is of Japanese descent on her mother’s side, has three 2021 noms, including Album Of The Year. Korean-American electronic/hip-hop deejay Tokimonsta was nominated for the Best Dance/Electronic Album award in 2019.

Yet, the Grammys’ acknowledgement of artists native to East and Southeast Asia, like BTS, Blackpink, BIGBANG, and 2NE1, has been few and far between, despite their documented success, unparalleled popularity, and obvious musical and performance skills. Given K-Pop’s saturation of the western market within the past few years — from BTS’ reign over the Billboard charts, to Blackpink’s 2019 Coachella performance, to collaborations with Grammy-winning artists like Lady Gaga and Cardi B — ignoring these artists would mean the Academy is ignoring the progression of music’s direction.

But it’s clear that there are still implicit reservations from the Academy with honoring these acts. “Dynamite” is a huge hit — it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, was listed as one of 2020’s best songs by several outlets, and has been featured in major brand campaigns. It’s also the band’s first entirely English song. When BTS, who are unapologetically true to their roots, garners recognition for their talents at this level only after the dilution of their culture, it shows that there is still so much work to be done. Especially given the xenophobic, anti-Asian hate crimes occurring throughout the world as of late, it’s important to The Recording Academy to support artists regardless of their assimilation to our culture in order to fit our levels of “comfort” with theirs.

Outside of what BTS’ nomination and potential win could do for the future of Asian artists, this victory would also be huge for boybands in general, who are often cast out from Grammy consideration. Judging by the unclear standards of what Grammy voters gravitate to sonically and artistically, one may infer that the Academy’s palate is too “dignified,” rendering boybands’ catalogues somehow unworthy of consideration.

’80s and ’90s boybands such as New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys, and N*SYNC have never won at the Grammys, despite nominations earned during the height of their reigns. Additionally, One Direction was never considered for any Grammys, yet former member Harry Styles is up for three awards this year as a solo entity. Does the popularity of boybands negate appreciation for their artistry? It shouldn’t, especially since popularity and talent are not mutually-exclusive entities. If rewarding — hell, even nominating — a boyband is a stab at the Grammys’ credibility, the Academy may want to take a look into the past (and present) at some of the nominees, winners, and snubs of the annual event, and then think about what (or who) is truly diminishing their credibility. (Additionally, nominating boybands for Grammy Awards could potentially help The Grammys’ decreasing ratings, which have seen a steady decline in recent years.)

All things considered, the fact is that there’s only a one-in-five chance that BTS goes home with a win on Sunday. If they go home empty handed, there really is always next year. This major loss also wouldn’t cancel out their impact, which exceeds musical, cultural, racial, and even economic barriers. (They’d also be in good company, as Queen, Bob Marley, and their collaborator Nicki Minaj have significantly influenced music and culture without Grammy gold of their own). Although, that’s not to say a win wouldn’t be just as sweet. The group’s Kim Nam-joon — known by his stage name RM — mentioned in an interview that winning a Grammy Award would be “the final part of the whole American journey.”

Regardless of The Recording Academy’s need for continued growth and diversity, BTS’ 2021 Grammy nomination opens the door for a firmer understanding of the magnitude of foreign musical acts outside of our American bubble. While a potential win would prove BTS’ supremacy of the global music landscape, their impact will always resonate, and has undeniably shifted the tides for years to come.

Irish whiskey is an interesting beast. It’s very unique — triple distilled and often a blend of grain and malt spirits — while somehow still feeling familiar to lovers of other whiskey styles. Some Irish whiskeys taste like a bridge between Ireland and Scotland. Others seem to span Ireland and Kentucky. Of course, there are plenty of Irish whiskey expressions that speak for themselves and feel truly one-of-a-kind, but you’re still dealing with recognizable flavor notes.

To help you better understand the wide-ranging style that is Irish whiskey, I decided to blind taste test 12 distinct bottles from around the Emerald Isle. Yes, several of these are from Midleton Irish Distillers. That distillery is very hard to get away from when it comes to Irish whiskey. That being said, I tried to make this as wide-ranging and complete as possible. I even included a Poitin (Ireland’s answer to a white dog or un-aged whiskey).

This blind tasting is very simple. It’s all about the taste. Yes, some of these bottles have an advantage because I know them well, but I haven’t really tasted them side-by-side like this before — a blind taste test is always good for suprises.

Let’s get into it!

Part 1: The Taste

Taste 1:

Tasting Notes:

There’s a dark chocolate note that leads to clear vanilla and toffee. This feels very sherried with notes of holiday spice and nuts leading towards an almost cedar note. The end is creamy and smooth.

It’s really nice.

Taste 2:

Tasting Notes:

This greets you with a fragrant perfume next to rum-soaked oak. There’s a fruitiness that feels like … banana? A light maltiness dominates the taste with hints at rummy spice and rum-soaked raisins.

In the end, my note was “nice and light.”

Taste 3:

Tasting Notes:

Woah. This is a departure. You’re greeted with a wet leather that’s almost like raw steak (it reminds me of Buffalo Trace, actually). That gives way to maltiness and vanilla that builds towards vanilla ice cream with a touch of spice and dark chocolate malt.

This is, by far, the most interesting dram so far.

Taste 4:

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a spicy stewed apple that leads toward Maraschino cherry stems. The taste is so soft with hints at nuts, Christmas cake spice, and dark fruits with a touch of black pepper. The end is surprisingly short but full of spice and apple peels.

This is very good. I want more.

Taste 5:

Tasting Notes:

Ah-ha! A little smoke. Hello, Connemara. The smoke here is earthy — like a light, wet moss — with hints of apple pie underneath. The taste is honey-laden, with a crisp smoke reminiscent of a cold fall day and wet leaves burning. There are clear vanilla and dark spice notes under the smoke.

In the end, this was a really nice change of pace and surprisingly subtle, for a peated whiskey. Would it stand up to a Scotch from Islay? I’m not so sure. It’s light.

Taste 6:

Tasting Notes:

This is thin on the nose and palate. There’s a note of spicy rum that’s slightly woody and vanilla-forward. The end is malty more so than anything else, with a hint more of rum raisins, rum-soaked cellar wood, and a wisp of dry tobacco leaf.

This felt thin and a bit … singular.

Taste 7:

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a clear dose of Christmas spices, nuts, and red berries with a dash of creamy vanilla. The taste is sherry plum that’s almost jammy and spiced with cloves and cinnamon. The end is long, velvety, and full of that sherry.

Classic.

Taste 8:

Tasting Notes:

Wow! Apple candy dominates the nose on this one. It’s almost like a bright green apple Jolly Rancher. The taste veers completely away from that vibe, with a dark chocolate maltiness with hints of creamy honey. The end is short but sweet with a return to that apple candy.

Was this aged in apple cider barrels?

Taste 9:

Tasting Notes:

Apple again. But this time it’s more muted and kind of like apple cores or seeds with a malty edge. The taste is like malt grains soaked in an egg custard with a touch of vanilla and nutmeg. But it’s really those malts that come through, with a slight alcohol burn and a mineral water feel.

This is unaged whiskey, so it’s no surprise it’s very malty.

Taste 10:

Tasting Notes:

This is spicy/sweet like stewed pears with a touch of vanilla pod. The vanilla is super creamy and that spicy stewed pear note carries on in the taste with dry cedar end and a touch of tobacco chew and buzz.

This is the good stuff!

Taste 11:

Tasting Notes:

You’re greeted with the clearest sense of pencil shavings with a hint of the lead in there. That refines to a dry pine note next to a slight dried floral note and some citrus pith. The spice gets woody like cinnamon sticks or clove buds next to a sweetness I can’t quite put my finger on.

This is really interesting and enticing.

Taste 12:

Tasting Notes:

There it is! Citrus, wet malts, and super light. Hello, Jameson. I missed you. There’s light vanilla to the body with a hint of spice and sherry oak. The end is short and sweet and leaves me wanting more.

It’s surprising how thin this is, compared to everything else.

Part 2: The Ranking

12. March Hare Poitin (Taste 9)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $30

The Whiskey:

This unaged whiskey is 100 percent malted barley. It’s produced according to a century’s old recipe and cut with local water to cool it down and make it drinkable.

Bottom Line:

I mean, was anything else going to be last? It’s not that this is undrinkable in any way. It’s just not for me and tastes like a distillery smells. Not a bad thing, if you’re into it.

11. Jameson (Taste 12)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $30

The Whiskey:

This is a classic Irish whiskey. Triple distilled. Blended from barley and grain whiskies. Aged for at least four years. That makes this the gold-standard of entry-point Irish whiskey.

Bottom Line:

I couldn’t get past the thinness of this dram today. I really liked it, it just didn’t stand up to the other tastes.

10. Bushmills 10 Single Malt (Taste 8)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $50

The Whiskey:

Northern Ireland’s Old Bushmills is a legendary distillery. This whiskey is very similar to a Scotch single malt, in that it’s 100 percent barley whiskey that’s aged in a combo of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry. It’s then vatted, proofed, and bottled in Bushmill’s iconic square bottle.

Bottom Line:

It was really hard to get beyond that apple candy note. It was very saccharine and stayed on my senses for a while. Still, I can see how people love this for exactly that aspect.

9. Teeling Small Batch (Taste 6)

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $40

The Whiskey:

Teeling was the first distillery to reopen in Dublin after nearly a century of tough times for Irish whiskey. The craft distillery ages its juice bourbon barrels before transferring that whiskey to Central American rum casks. Those barrels are then batched, proofed, and bottled in Teeling’s big, dark bottle.

Bottom Line:

This felt like a very entry-level whiskey. There wasn’t a lot of “there” there, but it still tasted like something worth sipping in a highball or in a cocktail.

8. Tullamore D.E.W. Caribbean Rum Cask Finish (Taste 2)

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $30

The Whiskey:

While a lot of Irish whiskey touches on bourbon and sherry oak, Tullamore takes that a step further by adding in some rum oak. This expression is finished in Demarara rum casks for a final nuance of flavor and depth.

Bottom Line:

I didn’t know where to place this. It was tasty and malty but sort of got lost in the shuffle. I definitely want to revisit it but maybe more as a cocktail mixer.

7. Jameson Black Barrel (Taste 1)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $40

The Whiskey:

This is Jameson’s take on double barreling. The whiskey is first matured in old bourbon barrels. That juice is then transferred to another bourbon barrel that’s been doubly charred with a deep alligator skin char. Those barrels are then batched and proofed all the way down to 80 proof.

Bottom Line:

I went back and forth on this being in the top three or not. It really stood out but just didn’t shine as brightly as the next whiskeys on this list.

6. Powers John’s Lane (Taste 3)

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $70

The Whiskey:

This is a classic Irish whiskey. The juice is aged in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks for at least 12 years. Those barrels are then married based on their distinct flavor profiles to create this special whiskey.

Bottom Line:

This is where things get interesting. This really stood out early and remained in my thoughts as I tasted the other whiskeys. That says something. It’s unique and very easy to drink.

5. Connemara Peated Single Malt (Taste 5)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $45

The Whiskey:

Connemara is Ireland’s answer to peated single malt from Scotland. The base of Irish barley is malted with local peat, adding a distinctly Irish terroir to the whiskey.

Bottom Line:

This was such a nice departure. It was smoky, for sure, but really light and subtle. I’m curious to taste test this against some peaty scotch now.

4. Roe & Co. (Taste 10)

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $35

The Whiskey:

This distillery was opened in the old powerhouse on the Guinness brewing campus. The whiskey is built with Guinness craft at its base. It’s then aged in ex-bourbon casks before those are married, proofed, and bottled.

Bottom Line:

Did this benefit from being tasted directly after the unaged whiskey? Maaaaaaaaybe. It’s still really well crafted. I tried it again a while later and it stood up as a solid on the rocks sipper.

Final answer: I stand by it ranking so high.

3. Method And Madness Single Grain (Taste 11)

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $70

The Whiskey:

This is Midleton Irish Distiller’s craft whiskey venture. The single grain spirit is matured in unused Spanish oak and old bourbon casks. That’s small-batched and proofed with that soft County Cork water and bottled in a throwback art-deco bottle.

Bottom Line:

Goddamn, this was interesting. This is one of those sippers that feels really unique to what it is and nothing else.

2. Redbreast 12 (Taste 7)

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $68

The Whiskey:

Redbreast 12 is a classic example of Irish whiskey. The juice is aged for 12 years in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry oak. It’s then batched, proofed, and bottled in an iconic stubby bottle.

Bottom Line:

This is a real quality sip of whiskey, in general. On this tasting, it reminded me of a really well-made bourbon in the ten to 12-year range.

1. Red Spot (Taste 4)

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $140

The Whiskey:

This is a highwater mark of Irish whiskey distilling and blending. The whiskey is aged for 15 years in a combination of ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and ex-Marsala casks. The spirit is then married and proofed down to a very approachable 92 proof.

Bottom Line:

There was just no getting past how beautiful this whiskey tastes. It’s complex yet welcoming. It’s subtle but bold in its flavors. This is the whiskey that, by far, I want to revisit immediately.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

I have to say, ranking basically ten through three was really hard. I went back and forth a lot. Each dram had its own unique moments that enticed me. All of that being said, the top two were super clear from the moment I tasted them.

I was surprised classic Jameson ended up so low. But, in the end, it was the lightest and offered the least in the taste department against all these other whiskeys.

I was also pleasantly surprised by Roe & Co. It’s a very approachable whiskey that keeps popping back into my mind, even a day later. I’ll definitely be trying it in a few cocktails as St. Paddy’s nears.

On the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 outbreak officially being deemed a pandemic (yay?), every living former-president appeared in an ad encouraging Americans to get vaccinated — every living former-president except one. Try to guess who! “Maybe his invite got lost in the mail… because he destroyed the postal service!” The Late Show host Stephen Colbert joked during Thursday’s episode. “Ol’ 45 was left out of the POTUS PSA party, but he did put out his own statement about the vaccine.”

In a pathetic (even by his standards) statement, Donald Trump wrote that he hopes “everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!”

Colbert called the statement “unbelievably sad” and “pathetic” and wondered “how did we even find out about this statement? He can’t tweet this stuff! Did he just print it out and staple it to telephone poles around Palm Beach? He might as well have just released ‘Ex-prez will take credit — and teach you guitar!’ We banned him from Twitter. Can we ban him from paper? Is that possible?” You can watch the clip above.