# Cheap vs not cheap

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-vs-not-cheap/539972>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 19, 2010, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-vs-not-cheap/539972 "2010-05-19T04:27:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-vs-not-cheap/539972/61 "2010-05-22T14:30:11Z")

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> [@Joanie](#):
>
> Someone explained to me that vodka was pure alcohol mixed with pure water.

That’s the ideal end product, but of course, Vodka is made from organic materials like most alcoholic things. From the Mythbusters episode on the related topic, it would seem that the main difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ vodka is how many times it’s distilled (run through a filter to remove everything but ethanol and water). Some alcoholic beverages are also concentrated by freezing the water portion to remove it. The stuff I buy, which seems to be the cheapest I can buy locally, claims to be ‘4 times distilled’. I guess that’s enough.

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**Author:** ![Joanie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@Joanie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joanie)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-vs-not-cheap/539972/62 "2010-05-22T15:29:14Z")

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> [@jackdavinci](#):
>
> That’s the ideal end product, but of course, Vodka is made from organic materials like most alcoholic things. From the Mythbusters episode on the related topic, it would seem that the main difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ vodka is how many times it’s distilled (run through a filter to remove everything but ethanol and water). Some alcoholic beverages are also concentrated by freezing the water portion to remove it. The stuff I buy, which seems to be the cheapest I can buy locally, claims to be ‘4 times distilled’. I guess that’s enough.

Makes sense to me.

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