Can you really not smell vodka?

Factual Questions
1

I think that no matter what, that you can smell a drink with alcohol in it. But some say you can’t smell Vodka, or that if you can, then it wasn’t made right.

Origins, From: http://www.epinions.com/fddk-review-4638-1674D9F3-3902151C-prod2

Vodka, by law, is a colorless, odorless product. Most people would not argue that Vodka is clear but many may contend that it does have an odor. In fact good Vodka will not have any odor other the smell associated with the alcohol.

Smirnoff is the standard that all vodkas are judged by. The product is a perfect choice for mixed drinks, martinis or straight on the rocks. Smirnoff is available in any establishment that sells or serves alcoholic beverages.

Origins, From: http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/names/names.asp?name=smirnoff

The bottles were then shipped off to the south. The salesman accompanying them was curious about this colorless whiskey and sampled it. Right away he came up with a slogan to advertise the product: “Smirnoff’s White Whiskey, No Taste, No Smell.” He sold out right away. Smirnoff’s is today the best-selling liquor in the United States.

Origins, From: http://www.boiseweekly.com/comments.php?id=1549_0_1_0_C

While still popular amongst some for the rebelliousness of drinking a spirit from Mother Russia, Smirnoff needed some damage control on the brand and advertised it as using 100 percent American grain and the fact that “it leaves you breathless,” marketing the fact that it takes a stronger nose to smell vodka on someone’s breath than to smell bourbon. Using celebrities like Groucho Marx, Woody Allen and Zsa Zsa Gabor to “endorse” Smirnoff in legendary ad campaigns helped make vodka, especially the Smirnoff brand even more popular.

Smell, From: http://www.pitch.com/issues/2004-03-11/calendar/stpats.html

Alcohol by itself doesn’t have a very strong smell. Whenever somebody’s been drinking for a while, and they have this really strange breath? That’s the metabolites from the alcohol – ketones and things like that. Those are metabolic byproducts of alcohol, and they give you a really funny smell on your breath. When you start drinking, the alcohol’s being absorbed and being metabolized … but ketones don’t get metabolized. They’re in your blood, and your blood and your lungs exchange – that’s how you breathe – and these things will come out in your lungs, and you’ll be breathing them for hours. So there’s no way to cover it up and totally fool everybody all the time after a certain point. You can probably get away with one, but, you know, anything more than that, it’s going to show one way or another.

If someone takes a straight shot of alcohol, like vodka or something, and you immediately smell their breath, it’s not very strong, but you can still smell something. With time, it goes away. If you take the same amount of vodka and dilute it with water, it doesn’t smell as strong. But again, that’ll go away with time because the volatile things will be breathed out.

Smell, From: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/articles/11412-2.asp

There is a very poor correlation between the strength of the smell of alcohol on the breath and the BAC. Pure alcohol has very little smell. It is the metabolism of other substances in alcoholic beverages that produces most of the smell. This explains why a person who drinks large amounts of high-proof vodka (a more pure form of alcohol) may have only a faint smell of alcohol on the breath. On the other hand, a person who drinks a modest amount of beer may have a strong smell of alcohol on the breath.

2

This rather begs the question, since vodka is virtually pure ethanol and water. Of course it has no odor other than that of alcohol. But that still is an odor.

The stuff about the ketones on the breath is quite correct, and that happens no less with vodka than with other forms of alcohol.

The stuff about beer leaving a stronger “smell of alcohol” on the breath than vodka is not correct. Ethanol is ethanol, whether in vodka, beer, gin, wine, or what have you, and it always smells the same. But beer has a lot of other aromatic compounds in it, and those make beer breath smell stronger than vodka breath.

3

I tended bar for 15 years.

Believe me, vodka REEKS. There is no way you can’rt notice it if someone has drank a lot.

4

Because the alcohol smell is so strong, how can any other smell be distinguished?

5

Pure alcohol does not have an odor. Rather, it has an anesthetizing effect on the nose, but that is a chemesthetic effect (in the same family as hot, cold, astringent, etc), not an olfactory one. As for alcohol breath, it is possible that the alcohol interacts with chemicals in the mouth to produce detectable odor compounds.

6

I find it hard to believe that alcohol has no odor. When I open a concentrated source of alcohol there is always something in the air that causes me to not enjoy the sensation coming from my nose. It may have an effect on the nose that makes it not technically an odor, but anything that causes your nose to relay information about the content of the air you breathed in sure sounds like an odor.

Perhaps it’s something akin to the difference between the physical sensation of taste, of which there are only a few distinct possibilities, and the combination of the food’s texture and taste along with the odor it creates. If something I put in my mouth gives me a negative reaction, I’m generally going to say it tastes bad even if it’s not a taste per se that I’m not fond of.

7

I agree with glowacks. I’ve used many varieties of ultra-pure alcohol in laboratory settings (anhydrous (200 proof) alcohol, pesticide residue analysis grade, HPLC grade, etc), both tax-paid and denatured, etc. They all smelled “like alcohol,” whether in pure form or in a solution with water, and I’d say they smelled similar to vodka.

Maybe the physiological reaction that happens in my nose makes it not technically a “smell,” but if I had a beaker of pure water and a beaker of a 50% ethanol solution in water, I could easily tell which was which using only my nose.

8

I mean, in the interest of fighting ignorance, there really is no odor. You can call that sensation whatever you like, of course, as long as you don’t say that it’s technically correct.

9

That does it, I’m gettin’ my old job back.

10

Sure seems like it has a smell, not just an anesthetic effect.

ETA: I guess what I’m trying to say is, do you have a cite?

11

Who drinks pure alcohol? We’re talking about the stuff that comes in plastic bottles at the supermarket with Russian sounding names.

And I can definitely smell vodka. Actually, I can smell the difference between different brands of vodka as well.

12

Ethanol has strong smell, very distinct. I flat-out don’t believe that it has purely an anesthetizing effect.

(As a total aside, I love the smell of mixed methanol and water.)

13

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/DrivingIssues/1107196613.html

http://www.conestogaenergy.com/what-ethanol

(this somewhat conflicting source says ethanol has a slight “alcohol” smell and methanol has a sweet smell, but no intensity levels)
http://www.odour.unsw.edu.au/odorous-compounds.html

Obviously, impurities and other compounds will contribute odor. Plastic bottle vodka probably has a much stronger smell than the high end stuff.

Laboratory ethanol and methanol both probably have odorants and various chemicals to discourage you from drinking them.

14

I can smell vodka, whether or not I’m smelling the alcohol or something else, I can smell it.

15

S2P, I’m not challenging your claim that ethanol is technically “odorless” because it is sensed via a distinct pathway, but do you have any cites specific to this claim? Explaining how ethanol is perceived as a “smell,” even if it technically isn’t one? I’m genuinely interested in this, not trying to call you out. Because there do indeed seem to be lots of sources that claim it’s “odorless” or has a “slight odor,” but as I said this is completely at odds with my (somewhat extensive) experience with the chemical. I suppose things like HCl probably don’t have a technical “odor” either, as you’re likely perceiving the acid burning the inside of your nose.

16

I already Google searched it and it was clouded by Yahoo Answers type schlock of teenagers asking what alcoholic beverages are odorless so they can go get drunk and not get caught by their parents. Most of the cites that I found were the ones I listed along with the ones listed in the OP.

Honestly, this doesn’t seem like a well-researched area (most of food science isn’t, really). The papers that I could find both seemed way over my head and I couldn’t access full text anyways. If you want to take a stab at it you’re welcome to it.

17

  1. The OP has posted some links claiming that pure alcohol has no taste or smell. Rubbish. Alcohol does something to one’s olfactory sense that causes the brain to identify it as alcohol. Not sure what the justification for claiming “technically not an odor”, but if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, etc, that’s good enough for me. Anything else is hairsplitting.

  2. But I could see some truth to the OP’s that there isn’t an actual “vodka smell”, that is, none of the distinct ingredients that make vodka what it is have any odor in and of themselves. So you’re really smelling the alcohol itself, and it may technically be indistinguishable from pure alcohol, smell-wise. Not claiming belief or doubt, but it’s much more plausible than #1

  3. Hi Opal!

  4. As to whether Vodka makes one’s breath, sweat, pee, etc, smell less than other forms of alcohol, I am extremely dubious and demand scientific evidence!

  5. “Smirnoff is the #1 selling alcohol in the entire United States today”. Since the entire book excerpt sounds like it was obtained from a Smirnoff PR rep, with no cites or independent supporting data, I’m going to go ahead and call bullshit on this one too.

18

I would tend to agree with you here, as I am not even convinced that Smirnoff is actually the #1 selling vodka in the USA anymore, let alone ALL alcoholic beverages in general.

In the last few years, it seems like super-premium vodka (Grey Goose, Skyy, Absolute, Stoli) are all the rage everywhere that I happen to notice. Smirnoff seems like a mid-range brand at best.

Finally, as far as I can tell, most vodkas (except for the bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, the rotgut sold in plastic jugs with the built-in handles for $6.99 per half-gallon) are all about the same, with not enough difference in taste or effect (hangover or lack thereof) to justify spending an additional 15 or 20 bucks per bottle on the high-end labels.

19

I ain’t no chemist, but surely commerical laboratory ethanol has no additives as they may interfere with whatever the purpose for which the ethanol is required.

20

Can someone explain to me the oder I smelled that came off of an enormous pile of tree mulch? It smelled like methanol to me. The pile covered something like 1/2 a football field and was about 15 to 20 feet high. I just assumed the interior was fermenting and that t out-gassing the volatiles. But I’m no organic chemist, either.