The Silver Palm Leaf is the original credit card pipe and, as the brand points out, “the world’s first pipeless pipe.” Trippy, man! The discreet device is ideal for EDC pipe folks and could flummox snoopy, er, security guard types tasked with chasing smokers around.

Conversely, the little stainless steel gadget was too much for our staff to ignore. Truthfully, I only smoke cheap cigars, but I discovered they’re a lot better when slit open with a razor blade and emptied (with any other smoking mixture of your choice) into a nice bowl. Along with such a mixture, the Silver Palm Leaf is a smoker’s EDC delight.

Pipeless Pipe Ins and Outs

The Silver Palm Leaf pipe, roughly the size and shape of a credit card, is molded stainless steel. The low-profile bowl and the company’s maze logo occupy one side, and a smooth, blank backing piece makes up the other. The two sides attach magnetically. Take them apart to reveal the pipe’s guts, from the gauze (bronze screen) inside the bowl, through the maze, and out the mouthpiece.

The design is elegant in its simplicity and master touches, especially the non-abrasive magnetic attachment and trademark maze. In fact, I kinda got lost in there looking at it — is it a diagram of a crop circle? A strange key? Some kind of…leaf?

Either way, it was a fun thing to do while I enjoyed the feeling I got by smoking my cut-open cheap cigar.

Credit Care Pipe Reputation, Possible Weak Points, and Cleaning

The Silver Palm Leaf credit card pipe was first available in 1993. This makes it older than many of our readers, which could seem dubious in the world of hip paraphernalia, but the pipes enjoy a strong reputation. Some issues with machining and sealing seem to have surfaced within the last several years, but most recent reviews indicate they’re becoming more isolated.

Silver Palm Leaf quotes High Times Magazine as saying, “the pipe is sturdy and gives a surprisingly smooth hit.” The package includes extra gauzes. Silver Palm Leaf recommends a unique cleaning procedure with a curious final step on its website — it’s worth a read at the least.

Pipe It In

The Silver Palm Leaf costs $45 MSRP, which seems like a fair price to pay for a product that specifically claims to be not itself; the “pipeless pipe” seems categorically unique. I tripped out when I read “pipeless pipe.” Can such a thing actually exist? Isn’t that like saying “thingless thing?” I’m going to go load another bowl of cheap cigar/smoking mixture and contemplate it.

Let’s get two things clear:

1. Your objective is to drink the best Scotch whiskeys under $250.
2. Our objective was to find them.

The hunt was difficult: Scotch whiskey is immensely varied, idiosyncratic, and personal. Perhaps, for instance, you prefer a deep-bodied whiskey with dark fruit, figs, and butterscotch on the tongue. In that case, the best Scotch whiskey for you may be Balvenie 21 PortWood, the crown jewel of venerated Malt Master David C. Stewart. Or maybe you prefer a crackling, bright peaty affair: in that case, proceed to Laphroaig Select and never leave the Isle of Islay.

The beauty of drinking Scotch is in its intimacy — the most likely thing you’ll encounter at the bottom of a bottle is yourself. Finding the “best” Scotch is not like identifying the team that won the Super Bowl or putting the item that gets the most stars in your Amazon cart. Instead, it’s an exploration of values, taste, and personal aesthetics. I mean, it’s about getting drunk, right? The whole point is to displace ordinary experience and launch into the mystic. A bracing Scotch whiskey is a worthy copilot for sailing the unknown.

(Note: One way to think about that introduction is that it kicks off a subjective review to the best Scotch whiskeys under $250. Another way to interpret it would be: It’s a disaffected, poetic copout that steers well clear of the article’s self-announced purpose.

I’ll let you decide. I’m going to test some more affordable Scotch.

The Best Scotch Whiskey Under $250

Laphroaig Select Single Malt Scotch

Laphroaig Select single malt Scotch whiskey, distilled for over 200 years on the Isle of Islay, is a lively spirit. Pungent, peaty, and smoky, it sparkles over the palate like hoary mist over hot coals. (You might not want to take that as plain fact — I’ve been drinking Laphroaig).

Laphroaig has been my go-to single malt since I was too young to (legally) drink. I’ve always favored it due to its directness and simplicity. Of course, this is how I perceive it. The trick with Scotches is their ability to transform across various palates. Refreshingly, Laphroaig itself declines to lead its customers by the bit of expectation.

In fact, the distiller’s website features a, dare I say, hilarious — yes, I will stake my journalistic claim to that vocabulary — hilarious video of a local tasting tour conducted on the Isle of Islay in celebration of its 200th anniversary in 2015. The backdrop is replete with quaint island scenes and browsing sheep. The point is to give people Laphroaig and record their candid reactions. One older gentleman, holding a well-worn walking stick and a glass of Scotch, proclaims, “it tastes just the same as it was 200 years ago.” Read that again. Elsewhere, two women liken it to “hell” and “a wet bog.”

Tremendous. And there’s only one way to find out for yourself! What could be more adventurous?

Laphroaig Select is the distiller’s entry-level whiskey (don’t judge — writing makes some money, but I’m pretty far from a personal Scotch collection). However, in my opinion, the bottle is the best affordable single malt Scotch out there.

Laphroaig doesn’t bend over backward to quantify the effect of its own product. Instead, it lets Select make its own impression, noting only the spirit’s distinct “peat reek.”

Laphroaig bottles many spirits — I have had the opportunity to imbibe the 25 Year Old, which I found magnificently bracing, but it’s well out of our price range. For around fifty bucks off the shelf here in the American wild west, Laphroaig Select is a singular delight for adventurous spirits.

Glenmorangie 18 Year Extremely Rare Scotch Whiskey

Glenmorangie 18 Year Extremely Rare Scotch whiskey spent its first 15 years in American white oak bourbon barrels. After that, distillers at Glenmorangie transferred a fraction of it to Oloroso sherry casks. At the 18-year mark, the single malt was recombined and bottled.

Oloroso means “scented” or “fragrant” in Spanish — a more literal translation could suggest “smelly.” Many tasters note a fruity or floral impression from Glenmorangie 18 Year Extremely Rare, which could owe to its fragrant cask finishing.

Glenmorangie imbues the 18 Year Scotch with Lucy-in-the-Sky psychotropic, musing “[t]he last hours of a perfect autumn day when the world looks like a golden dream filled with cookie-coloured leaves and butterscotch skies…What would that taste like?” To clarify, the product is whiskey, not ice cream, and if you’re confusing the two, you’ve probably had plenty.

MSRP is not available, but the market price for Glenmorangie 18 Year Extremely Rare Scotch is under a hundred and fifty bills. You may also be interested in these top-quality whiskeys from Tennessee from our list. Check them out.

The Glenlivet 18-Year-Old Scotch Whiskey

The Glenlivet uses first and second fill American oak barrels (for “tropical fruitiness,” it says) and sherry oak barrels to add “spicy complexity” to its 18-Year-Old single malt Scotch. The 18 Year Old enjoys a sterling reputation among The Glenlivet’s wide-ranging offerings.

The Glenlivet is immensely storied and well-established. Its founder, George Smith, applied for a distilling license in 1823. It wasn’t a popular decision among the whiskey outlaws of the time, and legend has it that he immediately started carrying two pistols to settle differences. The scrappy Scot made it, though, and his brand is now the second most popular Scotch whiskey in the world.

Its 18-Year-Old single malt, conceived by Master Distiller Alan Winchester, stands testament to the strength of the Glenlivet tradition. Not overly smoky or peaty, its distinct fruit should please many, and the depth of its flavor makes it well-suited to drink neat. Glenlivet declines to give an MSRP, but the 18 Year Old’s market price is generally regarded as low, considering its quality and pedigree — it could be the best Scotch whiskey under $200.

Glenfiddich 12 Year Old Scotch Whiskey

Widely available Glenfiddich 12 Year Old is a standby Speyside Scotch that comes at a reasonable price. Glenfiddich, distilled in the “Valley of the Deer” since 1887, delivers a consistent and renowned product in its 12-Year-Old Scotch.

The distiller touts spring water and a “high cut point” as keys to the 12 Year Old’s fresh and fruity character. William Grant, Glenfiddich’s founder, introduced the high cut point technique. A distiller “cuts” their product when they switch the container of distillate, catching the flow of alcohol from the still as it rises in temperature. A higher cut-point means they wait for a higher temperature before cutting — resulting in more purity.

Glenfiddich spreads its 12 Year Old Scotch far and wide. It’s one of the best value Scotches that one can find at many liquor stores in the United States at an easy-to-swallow (har har) market price.

There are complaints that the plastic stopper was inadequate (I might consider any plastic stopper inadequate for single malt Scotch). However, as a Laphroaig drinker, I can’t confirm or disconfirm whether Glenfiddich still uses it. Let’s face it — as a last resort, you can always drink the whole bottle at once. Take a look at some of the top rye whiskey brands from our list, and pick the one that suits you the most.

Lagavulin Distiller’s Edition Scotch Whiskey

I knew I had to include Lagavulin’s Distiller’s Edition in our list, so I set about learning what I could. I’m not sure whether the best way to research the Islay distiller’s whiskey (other than drinking it) is to watch YouTube videos of people drinking it, but it’s definitely my favorite way.

From such videos, I’ve learned that it’s double-matured. One reviewer says: “So am I. I matured once, and then I was like…I’m gonna do that again.” He means that Lagavulin Distiller’s Edition spends years maturing in its original oak barrels and then gets transferred to Pedro Ximenez sherry barrels to finish. The technique makes the Islay Scotch’s core sweeter than most of Lagavulin’s typically smoky entries.

In all, Distiller’s Edition spends 16 years aging before dark amber gluts of it funnel into the bottle. One man describes that it tastes like “a cigar; salt-water with roses sprinkled on top.” I once drank a cigar, but it was inside an errant Dr. Pepper can I mistakenly chugged from while trying not to vomit after taking a shot of God-knows-what at a party in high school. I’m sure “cigar” tastes much better in Lagavulin’s bottles.

Oban 14 Years Old

You might think that the Oban distillery is named after the town of Oban, Scotland. Instead, it’s the other way around. Established in 1794, Oban takes well-earned pride in its status as one of Scotland’s oldest and smallest distilleries. Its 14-Year-Old whiskey is its entry offering but is highly rewarded and has established a reputation for quality. A moderately sweet palate and smoky finish characterize the spirit.

The distillery named after the “Little Bay” is all about tradition. Only three distilleries in Scotland are older than Oban, but none is smaller: its entire property covers one acre. And because Oban still uses traditional methods, it produces its whiskey in limited quantities as a matter of course. The distiller explains its process with a cool, straightforward list of illustrated facts under the “Heritage” tab on its website.

That brings us to Oban 14 Year Old, which is aged in American white oak barrels. It uses water from a loch three miles from the distillery. It’s known for being sweet but not too sweet, with moderate peat and oak flavors plus an acidic finish to balance its more lush flavors.

Though Oban is the epitome of a boutique distillery that offers a time-tested product, it makes its whiskey accessible: no MSRP is available, but a bottle of Oban 14 Year Old costs less than $100. It can be a cool gift for men who enjoy a nice drink from time to time.

The Balvenie PortWood

The Balvenie’s malt master is David C. Stewart, a legendary distiller with 54 years in the industry. To illustrate his stature in the industry: Queen Elizabeth II saw fit to award the man with the third-highest honor possible in the British Empire, the MBE. Stewart is credited with a profound impact on today’s distilling techniques, and The Balvenie regularly cranks out top-rated Scotch whiskeys under his direction. Some consider The Balvenie PortWood 21 to be Stewart’s finest creation.

The single malt takes its name from the port casks it’s finished in. Port wine is distinctively more alcoholic and stronger in flavor than most wines, and it delivers a distinct flavor to PortWood 21. Stewart, who “didn’t expect to become a Malt Master” at The Balvenie when he started as a stock boy in 1962, samples PortWood 21 regularly to ensure the port’s effect (according to the website).

I’m sure Stewart also samples the master-quality Scotch in his duties as a servant of Her Majesty The Queen, but I doubt those are the only reasons he does it. If I could get it for free, I don’t know if I’d ever come out of the cask room.

But 54 years of Scotch-making experience don’t come cheap: The Balvenie does not offer an MSRP, but PortWood 21 might be the best Scotch under $300. For more not so pricey but still quality drinks, check out our list of the best bottles of whiskey under 50$.

Bunnahabhain 18 Year Old

Bunnahabhain 18 is the only Scotch on our list with enough cultivation to provoke its distiller into using the descriptor “rich mahogany.” Yup, Bunnahabhain actually says that on the slug description on its website. Naturally, I was intrigued.

Bunnahabhain’s 18-Year-Old Scotch is widely awarded. The seaside distiller, situated on the isle of Islay, Scotland, notes flavors including toffee, sherry, and oak, with an appropriate hint of sea salt at the finish.

The distiller categorizes the 18 Year Old as “intensely warming.” The single malt is non-chill filtered, meaning naturally occurring sediments like enzymes and protein chains give it a slightly cloudy appearance in the whiskey glass.

Even though I have many plastic-molded video-game cartridges instead of leather-bound books, and my apartment smells of cheap American beer, I’m enticed by Bunnahabhain’s rich mahogany grog. The 18 Year Old Islay whiskey could anchor any drinker’s collection at a moderate price point.

The Macallan Double Cask 12 Years Old

The Macallan is known as a quintessential distiller of sherry oak barrel-aged whiskey. Scotch distillers often use sherry barrels to add flavor to their final product that’s not strong enough to overpower the whiskey. Macallan’s Double Cask 12 Year Old is a moderate and available sherry-finished single malt highland Scotch whiskey.

The Macallan’s reputation as a drinkable Scotch without a heavy peat flavor influences its wide popularity. The distiller’s products are often called “rounded” or “smooth,” or those terms’ deprecating cousin, “middle-of-the-road.”

One standout flavor many of The Macallan offerings, but especially in the Macallan Double Cask 12-Year-Old, is butterscotch. The distiller, as well as many testers, also mention honey. Oloroso sherry enhances the flavor bouquet. The Scotch is a moderate color, dubbed “harvest sun” by The Macallan.

Macallan recommends drinking Double Cask 12 Year Old over an ice ball or in a Pasa Doble with hints of sherry, salt, and maple syrup. For more quality drinks, please browse our selection of these hight proof whiskey bourbons.

Scotch Whiskey Under $250 Buying Guide and FAQ

Features to Look for in Scotch Whiskeys Under $250

Region — On your personal quest to find the best Scotch brands for you, it might help narrow down a region that tends to produce whiskey with your favorite flavor profiles. It’s possible to identify five such regions within Scotland: Highland, Lowland, Speyside, Campbeltown, and Islay. Each region is known for producing whiskey with its own unique, identifiable character (though lines almost always blur). In general:

• Highland: A massive region encompassing many influences and varieties of Scotch.
• Lowland: Lowland Scotch often takes on a softer, smoother character. The Scotch Whisky Association identifies grass, honeysuckle, cream, and other flavors for the region.
• Speyside: The region surrounding the River Spey, known for its fertile glens and fruity, full Scotches.  Many Speyside whiskeys are matured in sherry casks.
• Campbeltown: A small, peninsular region known for particular scotches with smoky, salty, fruity characters.
• Islay (pronounced eye-luh): A tiny island, famous for its knockout-strength, peaty, smoky whiskey.

Aging — Whiskey only ages in the barrel (not in the bottle), so barrel aging is critical in the Scotch distilling process. Oak barrels are a fixture. Some Scotches incorporate ex-bourbon barrels and barrels seasoned with sherry or port wines to add flavor.

Single Malt or Blended — “Single malt” means that all the whiskey in the bottle came from the same distillery. That distillery may unite the contents of different casks to make one spirit. Single malts are generally higher quality than blended whiskeys, which are diluted with cheaper spirits or other ingredients.

Nose/Scent — The first thing that happens when you open a bottle of Scotch is that you smell it. It’s part of the experience — breathe it in!

Palate — The flavors and characteristics of whiskey (or anything) while it’s in your mouth. Many seasoned whiskey drinkers hold mouthfuls or even “chew” (yes, chew) Scotch to let flavors continue to emerge. I recommend playing with the technique, but do it for too long, and your mouth will go numb.

Finish — The flavors and characteristics of whiskey after you’ve swallowed it. The finish is important because, let’s face it, you can’t drink forever. Good or bad, every spirit leaves an impression in its wake.

Scotch Whiskey Under $250 FAQ

Does Scotch increase in value with age?

One way to think about value is in terms of delayed gratification. The longer you wait to open a bottle of Scotch, the more rewarding the experience of sharing it with friends and family becomes.

In terms of monetary value, it’s a basic supply and demand equation. Try to think about it with the pragmatism of an investor (which, I’ll point out, is the antithesis of the reason for getting intoxicated). A bottle of Scotch that you can readily find on a shelf in a store will not appreciate over time. Why? Because there is no inverse relationship between supply and demand. Supply will never go down; therefore, demand will never go up. However, rare or collectible Scotches like single cask bottlings, etc., will theoretically appreciate over time due to their limited supply. As supply goes down, demand (theoretically) goes up, and so do prices.

The process for alcohol investment is to buy a bottle, curmudgeon it for as long as you can, then rejoice at some point in the future when you collect on its increased price, which has (ideally) outstripped the inflation rate. Cheers to you.

Does Scotch go bad?

Scotch is alcohol, not milk: age can alter its taste, resulting in perceived deterioration, but it doesn’t become microbially dangerous (any more so than it already was). One technique seems clear: keep your whiskey out of direct sun and heat and minimize its exposure to oxygen to prolong its life. Beyond that, the question of whether Scotch goes “bad” proves difficult to answer, even with the vast, free internet resources amassed by scrupulous drinkers all over the planet.

If you buy a bottle and don’t open it, you can preserve whiskey for longer than you can probably resist drinking it. However, once the bottle is open, the cat’s out of the bag. Store a partial bottle upright to keep the liquid away from the cap or cork. Or decant it (meaning pour, without disturbing the bottom couple inches of liquid) into a smaller bottle to limit oxygen contact and evaporation.

Can you keep Scotch in the fridge?

If you think mixing it with Mountain Dew sounds like a good idea, go ahead and keep your Scotch in the fridge.

How long can you keep an unopened bottle of whiskey?

See our notes on storage and knock yourself out. Temperature, humidity, and sunlight conditions should be stable. Keep in mind that you cannot age whiskey. Unlike wine, Scotch does not continue to change or “mature” inside the bottle, so you cannot increase the age of a whiskey by storing it. Laphroaig 28 is aged 28 years whether you drink it the day you buy it or sit on it for 200 years. Either way, it should taste great.

Should whiskey be kept in the dark?

If not in the dark, at least out of direct sunlight. If you’re confident you’ll finish a partial bottle within a month or two of opening it, dark storage probably isn’t as big of a deal. But sunlight can alter temperature and humidity inside the bottle, causing unintended evaporation and possibly changing the Scotch’s taste.

Sources:

Scotch Whisky – ScienceDirect

Telling Whiskey from Whisky – Physics

Scotch Whisky Regions – The Scotch Whisky Association

Delaware’s Dogfish Head is not famous for making non-alcoholic beer. Instead, it’s well-known in the craft brew community for its mega-high ABV brews, some of which contend with the world’s strongest beers. But it’s flipping the script with Lemon Quest, a fruity NA wheat beer that arrives just in time for summer.

Dogfish Head introduces the zesty brew in conjunction with a planet-centric campaign to urge its customers to enjoy the outdoors, with help from The Nature Conservancy’s activist group.

What could be better? Go hang out on your patio, drink a beer and learn more about Lemon Quest; that’s what I’m doing right now.

Summer Brew — Non-Alcoholic

Dogfish Head brews Lemon Quest with a long list of juicy ingredients dripping with nutrients: lemon puree, blueberry juice, acai berries, monk fruit, and sea salt. It calls the result “bright-citrusy” (which is an effective descriptor, if a little cringe-worthy), slightly sweet, and a bit salty, which all sounds pretty good!

Putting citrus and salt in your beer on hot days is an ancient electrolyte-boosting technique — anybody who’s been to Mexico knows what I mean. And the rest of the fruit profile should help vitamins and minerals course through your veins even while you sweat it out in the heat. With no alcohol in the brew, it actually becomes more of a — health drink? Juice?

Lemon Quest is one of a kind, and Dogfish Head engineers it to help drinkers get outdoors.

Into the Wild: Dogfish Head’s Commitment to Drinking in Nature

Lemon Quest is here just in time for summer 2021, and Dogfish Head strongly encourages drinkers to enjoy the wonders of Planet Earth as they imbibe — even those who aren’t drinking alcohol.

The brewery’s recommendation for such “recreational use” stems from its lauded history of environmentalism. Since 2007, Dogfish Head has donated over $1M to The Nature Conservancy. Most recently, it contributed more than $50K to the group as part of its “Mother Nature, Let’s Do This!” program, which is a challenge to Dogfish Head and beer lovers to support conservation.

All this makes Dogfish Head’s intentions clear: drink, celebrate nature, and be merry.

Green for Go: Non-Alcoholic Lemon Quest Beer Takes Off

Add some zest to your summer vacation with Dogfish Head Lemon Quest, the only bright-citrusy non-alcoholic beer that comes with a stamp of approval from The Nature Conservancy.

Few characters in film and television become the household name of a generation, and even fewer are well-known and cherished by multiple generations. The tales of James Bond have enthralled us all since 1963, and the newest and twenty-fifth edition to the saga, No Time to Die, is set to premiere April 2nd, 2021, and is already attracting quite a buzz. As always, collector items are starting to emerge, including board games and playing cards. Theory11 brings us 007 Premium Playing Cards, a deck of playing cards with impeccable attention to detail that arrives shaken, not stirred.

007 Playing Cards: It’s All in the Details

While James Bond might like to do some things the old-fashioned way, these cards are anything but old-fashioned. Throughout the deck are details arching back to recognizable items in the Bond saga. The pen grenade from GoldenEye, Bond’s classic pistol, the ski pole gun from the Spy Who Loved Me, and more are to be found in the intricate details that litter these cards and make them so exceptional.

As you drive through the deck, you’ll find custom artwork woven into the classic card designs. A king of diamonds with a handgun, a jack of spades holding a pocket knife, and an ace of spades branded with the 007 logo are just some of the unique Bond-themed designs in this deck. Each card has a gold back, complete with an intricate design, the Bond family crest, and the motto “Orbis Non-Sufficit,” which translates to “the world is not enough”.

The box that encases these decadent cards features two layers of gold foil, embossed 3D accents, and the James Bond family crest on the backside.

What might cards at this level of luxury cost you? The price might surprise you, but this deck is yours for just under $10 on the Theory11 website where it rakes in 5-star reviews daily. Head on over to snag a set and get stoked for the upcoming film. Your favorite card games will get a significant visual upgrade when you play with the 007 Premium Playing Cards from Theory11.

Does anything say “USA” more than tinkering with cars, a soaring eagle, and a smooth Tennessee whiskey? I can’t think of much. But there is more to the US, of course, including folks who prefer homegrown vodka. That’s why Stillhouse, a young but reputable whiskey producer, entered the vodka market with its premier Classic Vodka.

Packaged in Stillhouse’s distinctive, 100% stainless-steel, 750-ml flask and made using Tennessee-sourced ingredients, this vodka proudly displays its American roots.

Tennessee’s Finest Classic Vodka

Stillhouse Classic Vodka hails from Tennessee. The all-natural, gluten-free vodka comprises 100% estate-grown corn, distilled with water from Tennessee’s limestone aquifers. The limestone naturally filters impurities from the water and imbues it with natural minerals at the same time.

Stillhouse then in-house purifies the vodka by filtering it through sugar maple charcoal, which gives the spirit a smooth, crisp finish. The distiller indicates that the resultant 80 proof (40% ABV) vodka is “America’s Finest.”

Toss It in the Toolbox

Truck bed, cooler, beach bag, climbing pack: Steelhouse’s steel flagon of Classic Vodka is quick to chill and will follow you wherever you may roam. Keep it in your toolbox to wind down after a day under your classic car’s hood. Toss it across the trail without worrying about your partner’s butterfingers. It’s unbreakable and, after a stint in the ice chest, it will cool your nerves until you’ve put that climbing project to bed.

The stainless-steel can exudes a badass, Americana vibe: tough, resilient, unbreakable. The royal blue details stand out against a bone-white background.

Taste the Stillhouse Spirit

Stillhouse pays homage to thrill-seekers and rough riders with its lucid liquor. A Tennessean vodka, an unbreakable canister, and an adaptation of American tradition keep Stillhouse’s vodka close to home, even as its spirit ventures across the unknown.

Order a can of Classic Vodka directly from ReserveBar (select states), or head to Stillhouse’s website to locate a retailer near you. You can expect a 750-ml can to cost around $25.

Purchase

To know Raj Peter Bhakta is to know a madman. The kind of fellow crazy enough to take a rich, 50-year old Armagnac brandy and finish it in an oak barrel. This stunt created a new category of spirits amid a crowded world of well-established tipples. This Bhakta Brandy isn’t cheap, however, you’re paying for both the risk he’s taken and the incredible reward he’s garnered through this experiment. Let’s see if you’re ready to drop over $300 on a bottle of Bhakta.

Bhakta Brandy’s Armagnac Origins

The foundation of the flavor profile for this brandy starts in Armagnac, France. This quaint wine region looks like a scene out of a cheesy rom-com set in wine-country Europe, designed for Americans; it’s as beautiful as you’d want a region in Europe to be. Here, the French create, among other things, a special kind of brandy, that is the ying to cognac’s yang. Meaning, cognac goes through a lot of filtration and removal of flavors whereas Armagnac requires less filtration and more flavor.

Bhakta Brandy’s Finishing Process

Once Bhakta got his hands on a small run of old casks of Armagnac, he had a decision to make. He could have finished them off in traditional brandy style, a slight filtration, bottling, and taken to a retailer. But madman Raj knew better, he then sourced 36 oak casks to finish the brandy in a manner akin to whiskey. This clever pivot produced a unique flavor profile different enough to define an entirely new category of booze.

Buying the Bhakta

Raj will jokingly say that cognac the French were happy to export, but Armagnac they kept for themselves. Whether this is some clever slogan for the purpose of marketing or the truth of the old country, we still want to give this thing a try. Of the remaining casks, this spirit’s entry point price is $375 for a 750ML bottle. So, if a brandy finished in an oak barrel sounds like something up your alley, give this bottle a go, and let us know what you think!

When perusing the many aisles of a liquor surplus store, it’s normal to get a little choice paralysis. Most people have their go-to tipple, but given the scourge of brands, zeroing-in on a type of spirit doesn’t narrow your options down nearly enough. So, left to either fall back on the same-old-same-old label or take a shot in the dark, you, like many, judge an unfamiliar booze by its cover. NEFT small batch vodka will undoubtedly catch your eye.

Packaged in a small black and white barrel, the oilfield-inspired Austrian vodka doesn’t look like anything else on the shelf — or taste like anything else, either.

An Original Concept: NEFT Small Batch Vodka

‘Neft’ is the Russian word for oil. And NEFT small batch vodka is a liquid homage to the unbreakable, tenacious spirit of oilfield prospectors from long ago — right down to the unbreakable miniaturized oil drums that contain it.

Owing to the drums’ ruggedness, portability, and recyclability, NEFT Vodka is the perfect aqua vitae for summer. You know — poolside hangouts and remote camping spots where glass is a no-go. The canister chills quickly and stays that way up to 6 hours — no more warm, cringe-evoking vodka shots — just cold, sweet, and smooth excellence.

Bold, Yet Attainable

The barrel-like vessel is both unsuspecting and untraditional. Choose between a stealthy, black barrel or a bright, white one. NEFT offers both color choices in 100 mL (think double-shot), 750 mL, and 1 L sizes. NEFT also offers its 750-mL drum in a limited-release Pride design.

Patrons in the United States can order any of NEFT’s 750-mL options directly from the distiller for $37 per barrel plus shipping. All three drum sizes of NEFT small batch vodka are available through various local and online liquor retailers — just expect the price to vary according to region and availability.

A Forgotten Taste

NEFT means small batch business. Each batch is carefully crafted and fine-tuned by the distiller’s nose; no nuance is lost to machine-automated processes.

What’s more, the notes of citrus and vanilla are all-natural, baby. You won’t find a trace of additives or sugars in NEFT. The sweet, rich flavor is a product of the ingredients — four ancient rye varieties and Austrian spring water. For hundreds of years, rye has grown in Lower Saxony, Germany, watered by the North Sea. Varietals of rye include Rapidly, Amato, Pollino, and Askari.

The combination of ryes, naturally filtered spring water from the Rhaetian Alps, and award-winning distillers make for vodka as unique as its appearance.

Gold Medals for the Road

NEFT small batch vodka earned multiple gold medals with their 98-point score from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition — a winning addition to your packing list. It seems this Austrian distiller has succeeded at capturing the Russian wildcat spirit.

And lucky you, it comes in an unbreakable, adventure-ready drum. Moscow Mule on the beach? Yes, count us in.

Purchase

Was this up your alley? Here’s some similar content you might enjoy:

• Timeless Cocktails: 35 Best Whiskey Drinks
• Best Wine Racks
• Best Non-Alcoholic Beers 

Being a Gentleman

What does it mean to be a gentleman? This is a good question to ask yourself whether you are prepping for your first ever date or reading this in a cubicle somewhere.

Back in the day, it meant a man of noble birth — someone who owned land and had a title. Later, it came to mean a man from a good or wealthy family, if not necessarily someone from the nobility. Lately, it’s come to mean someone with good manners.

But I believe good human beings are made, not born. And I also believe being a true gentleman goes way behind the surface level things we tend to associate with the phrase now. Let’s dig in a little, shall we?

A Gentleman Respects Boundaries

You’ve probably heard your parents tell you to “be a gentleman” a lot as you were growing up, usually in reference to how you treated women. Chances are they meant holding the door open at restaurants, opening the car door for your date, and the like. These are all fine things (assuming your date wants you to behave this way), but being a gentleman goes so much deeper.

If you want to really be a gentleman, try this: respect the boundaries of women. You can apply this concept across the whole range of your life. Are things getting hot and heavy? Make sure everyone is okay with it — and any kind of coercion (physical, mental, or emotional) is absolutely, 100% wrong. It’s possible you might have some guy friends telling you that women need (or like) to be pushed or convinced a little in these matters. Do not listen to these so-called friends. That kind of mentality leads directly to sexual assault.

Respecting boundaries also extends to how you interact with women you aren’t actively in a relationship with. Here are a few things that are always worth repeating: don’t whistle, gawk, sneer, leer, poke, pinch, touch, comment upon, or otherwise invade the physical or emotional space of the women in your acquaintance. And don’t, repeat, don’t send unsolicited lewd pictures. Hot tip: nobody, repeat, nobody wants that.

A Gentleman Only Gives Attention When It Is Desired

There’s an insidious belief instilled deeply into our culture that if you ask a woman on a date, and she refuses, that you should keep asking in increasingly dramatic or escalating ways until she finally says yes. This behavior — which is deeply disturbing to most women, especially in the workplace — seems to have been romanticized for dramatic purposes at some point in our past and has appeared in books, movies, and tv shows regularly ever since.

Please don’t do this. That kind of persistence isn’t romantic. It’s creepy. And a gentleman isn’t creepy.

A Gentleman Speaks Up

Do you know when it’s hard to be a gentleman? When no one around you is one.

Oh well. Be a gentleman, anyway.

This situation comes up a lot when it’s just a bunch of guys hanging around. Men tend to say things in the single-gender company that they would never dream of saying to a woman’s face. Here’s a good life tip: if there’s something you can’t say around one group of people, it’s probably something you shouldn’t say at all.

You might find yourself remaining silent while the dudes around you make disrespectful comments about a woman or women in general (or any other group, really). It’s easy to think that as long as you aren’t participating in such talk, that you aren’t condoning it. But silence is complacency. Speak out against this kind of behavior, and know that you are improving the lives of your fellow human beings by doing so. Any friends you lose as a result weren’t worth having in any case.

A Gentleman Doesn’t Believe He is Owed

One disturbing trend of the last few years is the so-called Nice Guy Effect. The Nice Guy Effect is when a man lives according to all of the above but then believes his adherence to that behavior entitles him to the affection or sexual attention of the women he interacts with. When that attention is not given, he either begins behaving terribly towards the woman in question (thus proving that his initial behavior was a sham) or whines to his friends about how badly women treat nice guys.

This belief and attendant behavior utterly misses the point. You are treating women decently — being a gentleman —because they are human beings just like you and deserve to be treated as such. Decency is not transactional. Nobody owes you anything — particularly not sexually — for rising to basic levels of human behavior we expect people to grasp in childhood.

A Gentleman Leads by Example

Embracing this way of living — and talking about it — is meaningless if you aren’t living it out. You can start being a gentleman today — right now. Not because you want to get something out of it and not because anyone expects you to — but because it’s the right thing to do.

Right now, the word “experience” feels like a distant memory for many of us. But we’re about to get a whole new type of virtual experience thanks to Illuminarium. An entirely new concept in VR, Illumarium employs virtual reality to reimagine what is possible in our new world.

What is Illuminarium? First, picture yourself inside the vast expanse of an empty warehouse. Walls barren, the cavernous sound of silence you. Suddenly the light drops to pitch black, and a three-dimensional soundscape surrounds you. You’re clearly in the forest somewhere, and in a moment, state of the art projectors bring all of your senses into a new reality. You sense that you’re crunching across the Kalahari desert. But in reality, you’re in Burbank.

This is the Illuminarium, the future of embodied experiences. But how do they do it?

Leave Your Wearables At Home

An Illuminarium allows you to experience a virtual reality world unencumbered by equipment like virtual reality goggles. It accomplishes this with 46 state-of-the-art 4K laser projectors, which produce imagery to immerse you in a faraway world.

Holoplot supplies the sound, and its “beamforming” system creates what it claims to be an incredibly rich and dynamic audio experience.

Though your feet may appear to be crunching across the sand, you’re actually standing on a haptic flooring system that both senses your presence and feeds back vibrations into your tootsies, further immersing you in the experience.

Illuminarium As A Learning Environment

They say that empathy is the ultimate teacher. Well, with Illuminarium you potentially have the chance to learn about, walk amongst, and empathize with all the creatures of the world. This environment is ripe for teaching children and adults about the broader world, all without boarding a plane and traversing across the globe. Better yet, each Illuminarium Experience is paired with and donates a percentage of revenue to a like-minded social movement.

Dive Into a New Virtual Reality

Illuminarium’s first showing is coming to Atlanta in mid-2021. “WILD: The World’s First Virtual Safari” will plop people down into the beauty and splendor of some of the wildest places on earth.

No word on the pricing or exact dates yet. But the website allows you to register for more information, so if you’re ready to venture back out into the real (virtual) world, this would be a great place to start.

You walk up to the coffee aisle of the grocery store, and your heart drops. Your choices are the same coffee grounds your grandpa runs through a coffee maker twice your age or a pound of boutique coffee that costs more than you make in an hour. All you want is a smooth, approachable coffee to start your morning off right, but you care about things like quality, environmentalism, and fair wages. Is it possible to put your money where your mouth is while catering to your tastebuds? Consider Onyx Coffee Lab’s Southern Weather coffee, which the roaster proclaims as its “house blend” due to its balance of citrusy acidity and full-bodied chocolate notes.

Onyx Coffee Lab brings sustainably-grown coffee to its solar-powered roasteries for a coffee process that will make the next generation proud. And although 10 ounces may run $16, Onyx brings such transparency and authenticity to the coffee scene that you’ll gladly hand over that cash for their goods.

Origins and Flavors of Southern Weather Coffee

The coffee beans in the Southern Weather blend hail from Columbia and Ethiopia. Onyx is unique in that it begins with a specific flavor profile and searches for its beans accordingly. Take Southern Weather, for instance — the taste of washed Columbian and Ethiopian beans, grown at 6,000 feet of elevation, brought Onyx just what it wanted.

Milk chocolate, plum, candied walnuts, and juicy citrus finish to leave you perky and ready to get on with your day. Columbian beans are known for their caramelly sweetness and nutty undertones, which brings forth the sweet and earthy notes in this wonderous blend. Ethiopian beans are notable for their sensitive notes — the delicate, floral, mild, and tranquil flavors bring forth Southern Weather’s plum-like character. Combined, sweet and silky flavors like chocolate spring forth, while the mixture of acidities brings on the bright finish.

What’s so great about this house blend is its ability to stand on its own or blend well with milk — dairy and non-dairy alike. Southern Weather is the sort of coffee you might find your local barista pulling from behind the bar. Balanced and capable, this is the coffee flavor your mornings have been missing.

Sustainability and Transparency

Incredible taste aside, Onyx is all about sustainability. The company’s environmentalism defines its own principles and contacts the coffee industry as a whole. It uses compostable, plant-based mailing bags that are durable enough to withstand the rigors of the postal service. Its entire roasting and production area is solar-powered and uses a roaster that reduces its natural gas usage by more than 60%. Finally, Onyx takes maximum precautions to source only sustainably-grown beans, believing that sustainable coffee is quality coffee.

Alongside sustainability, Onyx commits to transparency. Ever wonder why specialty coffee can seem so expensive? To make its price tags understandable to consumers, Onyx simply displays its balance sheet. Cost items include the Fair Trade price (which Onyx doubles), production expenses, and green coffee bean expenses (which cover ethical coffee purchases). For instance, a quick website review shows that a 10-ounce bag of Southern Weather costs Onyx a total of $8.47 and retails at $16.

 Get Your Own Bag of Southern Weather Coffee

Onyx offers four different purchase options for Southern Weather. A 4-ounce bag goes for $10, while 10 ounces costs $16. Two pounds will run you $42, or you can get 5 pounds for $90. And if you just can’t get enough of the balmy and brilliant Southern Weather, you can subscribe to a new delivery every week (or month) and save 5% on each order.