Chafed skin, frayed cords, chipped furniture, and other nuisances have no place in your life — no they do not.
“I did not know this needed to be said until today, but can y’all not stan possible next-in-line dictators, please?”
With Cinco de Mayo falling early in the week next week and every party canceled anyway, this weekend might be a good time to sip some tequila. The blue agave spirit from Mexico’s Jalisco Highlands had a harsh reputation in the United States for decades but that’s softened as the US market fell head over heels for tequila’s premier offerings. While mezcal is the buzzed-about Mexican spirit of the moment, tequila endures.
Plus, it’s never not time to whip up a batch of palomas. Seriously, a paloma for each hand, we say.
Before we dive in, there are only two things you really need to know about tequila. One, it needs to be 100 percent blue agave-based. Two, it needs to come from the state of Jalisco (except in a few very rare exceptions). Mezcal, on the other hand, can be made from a variety of agave plants and can be made pretty much anywhere in Mexico. The location-specific and slightly more refined aspects mean that tequila is to mezcal what Tennessee whiskey is to bourbon.
The ten bottles below are all bottles of tequila worth getting delivered if you’re into switching up your cocktail game this weekend. These are by no means meant to represent the best of the best. Instead, we’re picking affordable bottles that are still perfectly fine to mix, shoot, or, in some cases, sip.
Familia Camarena Silver
ABV: 40%
Distillery: Casa Camarena, Arandas
Average Price: $21.99
The Tequila:
This is tequila with heritage. The name is derived from a family, the Camarenas, who have been growing and harvesting blue agave and turning it into tequila for generations, reaching back centuries. This expression takes its time. The agave pinas are allowed to grow. They’re then hand-harvested and slow-roasted for days before being crushed for their juice. It’s a worthwhile endeavor that’s revealed in the quality of the end product.
Tasting Notes:
This one opens up with a nice balance of vegetal depth of rich roasted agave. There’s an herbaceous underbelly that pins the sweet and slight bitter roasted agave to the thin feel of the sip. All of that adds up to a slightly tart and abrupt finish.
Jose Cuervo Tradicional Silver
ABV: 40%
Distillery: Fábrica La Rojeña, Tequila
Average Price: $22.99
The Tequila:
A quick note on styles: “Gold” tequilas have coloring and often sweeteners in them. So this expression is a technical step up from Cuervo Gold. It’s also a great standard to have on hand if you’re mixing any tequila-based cocktail (though we’d recommend their reposado or añejo for a tequila soda). Overall, it’s a decent workhorse tequila.
Tasting Notes:
Beneath the alcohol, there are slight notes of spring flowers and a hint of pepper. Minor notes of citrus peek in, leaning towards grapefruit and lime as the pepper carries through, with a clear agave essence. The citrus is the lasting impression you’re left with on the short-but-not-too-rough finish.
Olmeca Altos Plata
ABV: 40%
Distillery: Casa Pedro Domecq, Arandas (Pernod Ricard)
Average Price: $24.99
The Tequila:
Altos is another tequila that takes its time. Master distiller Jesús Hernandez brought in a team from Kentucky to dial in their highland blue agave crops and entire, old-school tequila production from field-to-glass. They operate sustainably and create a tequila that has no business being as good as it is at this price point.
Tasting Notes:
Roasted agave is front-and-center with hints of bright citrus, sharp pepper, and a note of salinity. The vegetal nature leans grassy with the agave remaining the star of the show with clear hints of citrus, pepper, and fresh herbs. The earthiness leads towards an almost sweet, fruity nature on the finish.
Olmeca Altos Reposado
ABV: 38%
Distillery: Casa Pedro Domecq, Arandas (Pernod Ricard)
Average Price: $24.99
The Tequila:
This is the same, well-made tequila as above. The difference is that this tequila spent eight to ten months mellowing in ex-bourbon barrels. The craftsmanship combined with highland aging adds up to a very big sip of tequila.
Tasting Notes:
Fruit and agave mingle with citrus as flourishes of oak, vanilla, and red dirt sail in. There’s a creamy Christmas spiced pudding in the middle of the sip that mingles with roasted agave, grassiness, bourbon caramel, and a whisper of smoke. The spice, agave, cream, and a note of orange zest linger on the senses as this one slowly fades.
Espolòn Reposado
ABV: 40%
Distillery: Destiladora San Nicolas, Arandas (Campari America)
Average Price: $25.99
The Tequila:
This tequila is the brainchild of master distiller Cirilo Oropeza, who captures the feel of the Jalisco Highlands in each bottle made at Destiladora San Nicolas. This expression goes into new American oak barrels for a short aging process of around three to five months. It’s just enough time for the juice to take on a new form in both taste and texture.
Tasting Notes:
Sweet fruits and agave mingle with very slight hints of oak and vanilla. The vanilla builds with the sip as the fruit leans tropical with a note of banana and a clear sense of earthy roasted agave pinas. A hint of spice kicks in late as the fruit goes full sweet and sugary on the warm yet short end.
Cazadores Reposado
ABV: 40%
Distillery: Cazadores Distillery, Arandas (Bacardi Limited)
Average Price: $26.99
The Tequila:
This tequila is named after hunters (cazadores). It’s made from highland blue agave and aged for a short spell. The hot juice goes into small-format new oak barrels for a short two months. The point of smaller barrels is that it takes less time to imbue the spirit with sugars from the barrel — an effect which is definitely noticeable here.
Tasting Notes:
This might be one of the more accessible tastes on the list. Roasted agave, florals, fruit, spice, and oak are present upfront but all subdued. The taste has a minerality and brininess that leads to earthy agave, mild spice, sweet notes, and a slight hint of fresh herbs. For all of that, the sip ends quickly with a punch of citrus fruit and agave.
Tequila Corralejo Blanco
ABV: 40%
Distillery: Hacienda Corralejo, Pénjamo, Guanajuato
Average Price: $27.99
The Tequila:
Corralejo is one of the few tequilas that’s allowed to call itself tequila, even though it’s not made in the right Mexican state. It’s made in Guanajuato, slightly to the east of Jalisco’s famed highlands. Even though it’s not made in Jalisco, it’s still a fine blue agave spirit that’s worth tracking down for its drinkability.
Tasting Notes:
Hints of citrus zest and brine come forth. There’s a real sense of an agave field after a rainstorm when the minerals are coming up from the earth. The sip has a slight bitterness and spicy warmth that feels like it could have been much better if it had seen oak.
Milagro Reposado
ABV: 40%
Distillery: Milagro Distillery, Los Altos (William Grant & Sons)
Average Price: $29.99
The Tequila:
Milagro is all about refinement. The first step of that is in the triple distilling process with hand-selected blue agave. Then, the juice rests in ex-bourbon barrels for six months, basically taking it halfway to an añejo tequila.
Tasting Notes:
Sweetened roasted agave greets you. Hints of bourbon vanilla lead towards butterscotch cut with a sharp spice before a briny nature slashes it all back towards an agave earthen base. A note of cacao bitterness comes in late and ushers in a short, warm finish.
Sauza 901 Anejo
ABV: 40%
Distillery: Sauza Tequila Import Company, Tequila (Beam Suntory)
Average Price: $29.99
The Tequila:
Sauza usually would be a lot lower on this price list. But this expression has a little more nuance to it, thanks to the Justin Timberlake getting involved. This is JT’s baby. The Sauza 901 standard is a blanco that truly works well as a mixer. This expression is aged for 18 months and dialed up to be sipped on the rocks (or shot).
Tasting Notes:
You’re greeted with spring flowers and nutty chocolate. The sip ebbs into Christmas spice territory with a throughline of vanilla, oak, banana, and a smidge of cayenne. The spice picks up at the end with a vegetal chili pepper edge accompanying the roasted agave towards a lingering, warm end.
Teremana Blanco
ABV: 40%
Distillery: Destileria Teremana, Jalisco
Average Price: $31.57
The Tequila:
Okay, okay — we know this one comes in at just over $30. Still, we’d argue it’s worth the extra $1.57, and not just because this is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s beloved brand. This tequila — named “spirit of the earth” — takes it’s time and is done right, making it the most sippable blanco on this list.
Tasting Notes:
Big notes of slow-roasted agave, wet and mineral-heavy terroir, grasses, and citrus open this one up. The taste maintains the rich agave as an echo of vanilla arrives next to a hint of chili spice with fresh herbs balancing the sip. The finish is brief but reminds you of highland agave on a cool, humid morning.
Lil Baby’s deluxe version of My Turn drops in a matter of hours, but the Atlanta rapper is never one to pass up an opportunity for promotion. In this case, he’s shared the video for “Emotionally Scarred,” one of the fan-favorite songs from the original versions of the album. The video features Lil Baby rapping in an empty room with the topical message “Stay Home” projected on the bare walls behind him as he recounts the various tribulations that have left him… well… emotionally scarred.
Of course, he’s got plenty of reason to look up these days, even with the world on lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19. My Turn turned into the Quality Control artist’s first Billboard No. 1, debuting at the top of the chart in its release week behind an indisputably flawless rollout that featured videos for nearly half of the albums songs, including “Forever” with Lil Wayne, “Heatin Up” with Gunna, and “Sum 2 Prove.”
Besides his own run of singles, he’s also been invited as a guest rapper on Stunna 4 Vegas’ “Do Dat,” Fivio Foreign’s “Big Drip” remix with Quavo, and even Drake’s “Toosie Slide” — although he forgot to send his verse on that last one. Even so, with Lil Wayne calling Lil Baby his favorite rapper and his label paying out by the truckload, Lil Baby may very well be one of the few people not left “emotionally scarred” by his 2020.
Watch Lil Baby’s “Emotionally Scarred” video above.
We are in the throes of a pandemic. Everyone (and everything) has been forced to adapt. Work meetings, the WNBA draft, the NFL draft, and drinks with friends are Zoom-enabled at best. We’ve even resorted to watching professional athletes play video games and virtual HORSE.
Nobody knows if “normal” will return, let alone when. And yet, the more things change, the more some stay the same.
The NCAA continues to refuse to take any sort of substantive action to support its athletes. The NCAA was able to capture headlines this week with some classic verbal gymnastics PR that leads many to believe that they are loosening their restrictions on the athlete’s ability to earn money off of their name, image, and likeness (NIL).
Don’t be fooled. The NCAA is no stranger to words equating to inaction.
The NCAA’s alleged landmark announcement only stated that its Board of Governors supports potential changes to its NIL rules. That said, nothing has actually changed. The Board took these recommendations from its NIL Working Group, which is largely composed of NCAA institution administrators.
It will still be months before the NCAA votes on any rule changes; those changes likely wouldn’t even be implemented until the 2021-2022 academic year at the absolute earliest, making it useless for athletes trying to survive through our current pandemic. This is the anti-Paycheck Protection Program. But that timeline gives the NCAA more runway to lobby D.C. in hopes of leveraging this faux movement on NIL reform into their long-desired federal antitrust exemption.
Meanwhile, the recommendations the NCAA published make it abundantly clear that the NCAA views these potential moves as a privilege for the athletes, not a fundamental right. Their guidelines are already riddled with red tape, and this is the most progressive version advanced by the NCAA. Still, you better believe the proposal is going to be neutered before any vote occurs.
Board of Governors moves toward allowing student-athlete compensation for endorsements and promotions: https://t.co/8gXqKv2W9r pic.twitter.com/U09nJBCk0J
— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) April 29, 2020
The world is changing at a rate with which the NCAA simply cannot keep up. And frankly, its key stakeholders have billions of reasons to lag behind.
Recently, high school superstar Jalen Green elected to jump straight from high school to the NBA G League’s new Select Team. Goodbye four months of pretending to be a college student, hello $500,000 (and access to an evergreen college scholarship, and the ability to secure endorsements, something he has already done). Shortly after Green’s announcement, former Michigan commit Isaiah Todd decided to join him rather than heading to school. UCLA signee Daishen Nix did the same simple math and joined Green and Todd.
While these announcements signaled an alarm in terms of the potential disruption of the NCAA model, many skeptics have been quick to point out that these are only three top-shelf players. This is a reasonable assessment, but the news cycles generated by these players’ choices further exposed the charade of the NCAA and have elevated an emerging trend: Elite players need not subject themselves to NCAA exploitation to make it to the NBA.
Still, for the foreseeable future, the NCAA will continue to serve as an important springboard for athletes in the broader talent pool. College ball will likely remain the best opportunity to climb from anonymity to draftability for those not projected as lottery picks in middle school for the time being.
As we begin to move past COVID-19 and grapple with the post-coronavirus world, though, the NCAA grows more vulnerable than ever, and the NBA is not the only competitor to the status quo.
Australia’s top pro league (the NBL) has already proven itself a viable training ground for emerging U.S.-born future NBA players looking to earn a living and develop their game straight out of high school — Oklahoma City Thunder wing Terrence Ferguson and 2020 draft hopefuls LaMelo Ball and R.J. Hampton have opted for its route. Stateside, the new Professional Collegiate League (PCL) will find its footing; the PCL will be the first professional college basketball league in the world providing players with salaries and college scholarships while also allowing them the opportunity to ball in the United States. (Full disclosure, I have lent my name to the PCL advisory board and strongly believe in their model.)
Beyond steady paychecks, these NCAA alternatives allow players to truly retain the rights to an invaluable asset: themselves. The ability to monetize one’s NIL is the crux of non-contact financial success, not just for superstars, but for the rank and file. A playing career is finite. Even as a professional athlete, you can only stay on the court collecting team contracts for so long.
Being an athlete (or doing anything of note) unlocks a variety of doors. Today, empowered players at the professional level routinely leverage their cultural relevance into long-term financial opportunity. Activating your strategic network while you’re still playing ball may be enough to keep a player’s finances on point long after his or her playing career is over.
While the NCAA’s announcement this week was underwhelming once you truly dig into the rhetoric, we are moving into uncharted territory for college athletics. Having alternative paths, whether they be in the United States or abroad, is going to further empower the player.
It may not be a do-or-die moment for the NCAA yet, but rest assured with every misstep along the way, they are emboldening new challengers to become legitimate threats to their precious and exploitative system. Continuing to act in its own self-interest is going to lead the NCAA further down a path of irreparable harm and competition may be just the thing to push them to the brink of irrelevance.
Luke Bonner is a former college basketball player. He is also the founder/CEO of PWRFWD and a long-time player rights activist. Follow Luke on Twitter: @LukeyBonner.
You’d think the lack of other sports might lead people to wrestling in this strange time of the pandemic, but I suppose the problem with that is that wrestling’s just not quite the same without a live crowd, and a lot of viewers just aren’t into the Empty Arena Experience. So viewership numbers have been down across the board in recent weeks, not just for the Wednesday Night shows, but for Monday Night Raw as well.
Last week did see AEW Dynamite gain a bit, reaching 731,000 viewers compared to NXT’s 665,000, following two weeks in a row where NXT had more viewers than Dynamite. Last night AEW was in the lead once again, although everybody’s total numbers were down.
According to Showbuzz Daily, last night’s AEW Dynamite had 693,000 viewers, compared to NXT‘s 637,000 viewers. The only number for either show that went up instead of down was Dynamite’s rating in the 18-49 demographic, which went up to 0.27 after sitting at 0.25 for the previous couple of weeks. NXT lost a bit in that same demo, going down to 0.16, compared to last week’s 0.18.
AEW came in 16th in the Cable Top 150, which is 8 places higher than last week. Meanwhile NXT dropped one spot from 50th to 51st in those rankings this week, taking it out of the Top 50.
The rumor since WrestleMania has been that Charlotte Flair was given the NXT Women’s Championship in the hope that she could bring more viewers to WWE’s Wednesday night show. Considering last night was her first match on NXT since becoming Champion, it’s safe to say that if that was indeed the plan, it’s not panning out.
Next week, AEW will be live for the first time in weeks, while NXT will be pre-taped. It will be interesting to see if that affects viewership, but since both shows will still lack live audiences, things will probably stay pretty close to where they’ve been.
With so much streaming content coming to services like YouTube and Instagram during The Great Lockdown Of 2020, it was only a matter of time until the artists and entertainers creating the content would start to stretch the definitions and limits of the form. Superproducer Mark Ronson will be making a go of it tomorrow, as he presents his “video mixtape” Love Lockdown with a plethora of special guests on YouTube. Ronson promoted his stream with a visually arresting trailer on Instagram.
While the video doesn’t make clear exactly what a “video mixtape” is, it certainly looks to be either a concert or a full-length musical project with a visual component. A number of high-profile artists make appearances in the video (and presumably on the “mixtape”), including DJs A-Trak, Afro B, D-Nice, Disclosure, Jax Jones, Lil Jon, and Peggy Gou. Singers from across the pop spectrum will appear as well, from Black Madonna to Troye Sivan, including Christine And The Queens, Lykke Li, Mabel, Miley Cyrus, and Robyn. Even Darryl Hall(!) is listed as a guest, as well as Jeff Bhasker, Miike Snow, and Tame Impala. Whether it’s a concert, a project or something new, there’s one sure thing about Love Lockdown: It’s completely stacked.
We’ll all get a chance to watch and listen Friday, May 1 at 3pm PST / 11pm BST on YouTube.