[QUOTE=myskepticsight]
I can only tell the difference between really cheap vodka…and stuff like Grey Goose.
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So buy one bottle of incredibly expensive vodka with a fancy bottle everyone envies. When it is gone, save the bottle and fill it up with cheapshit.
Make sure the drink recipient sees the bottle. You may be amazed at how good the vodka becomes, especially to snobs.
Must be the design on the bottle, leaking into the liquid. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
[QUOTE=brownsfan]
A few weeks ago I heard on WNIR FM radio here in Akron that Kamchatka (sp?) is the largest-selling brand in the country. I drink it at room temperature, and it’s not bad. Bottom-shelf stuff, so it was surprising to learn it was number one. Then again, hmm…
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Reminds me of Fred Sanford’s favorite wine. You know – the one with the snobby french name, pronounced “jay-zee-pen-AY.”
(J.C. Penney)
Blast it! I’m trying to remember a Wall Street Journal article that appeared years ago that would address the OP.
I remember a part being…the taste could be influenced by the water used to cut the alcohol. Is it from a particular spring and is it iron-free?
In any case people paying a premium to drink “Pure Russian Vodka” from Stolichnaya might be getting ripped off. At least if they buy it outside of Russia.
If I remember correctly (someone will come along soon enough with a cite) the Stoli sold in the West does NOT come from Russia. It comes from a distillery in Latvia. The firm that owns the rights to the Stolichnaya name and distribution here is forbidden from selling their vodka in Russia.
I’d like to put in a word here for potato vodkas, which do have character and taste.
[QUOTE=Shamozzle]
Isn’t it true that most Russians (or maybe it’s most rural Russians) drink a Vodka that still has a lot of character to it in that it’s yellow from grasses and herbal oils?
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I think this is a hold-over idea from prohibition days when the homemade stuff had a milky-white to yellowish tint due to incomplete distillation (usually from fermented sugar, no grain)
Speaking of pretty vodka bottles, I picked up one of these in Russia.
[QUOTE=ralph124c]
As for the alcohol filtration: Smirnoff advertises that their stuff is filtered three times-surely that would remove anything that might impart a taste to the vodka? In any case, paring $45.00 for a bottle of designer vodka srikes me as insane.
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Try the cheap stuff through a Brita water filter.
[QUOTE=Shamozzle]
Isn’t it true that most Russians (or maybe it’s most rural Russians) drink a Vodka that still has a lot of character to it in that it’s yellow from grasses and herbal oils?
I got the impression (can’t remember where) that our stripped-down, neutral version of vodka is considered a bit unusual…
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Zubrowka is Polish but seems to fit the bill.
Slate did a blind tasting a few years ago. Their final choice was Chopin. It’s a nice article.
But undoubtedly not as nice as my homemade method. Unless one has an odd goal, mine will “get you where you are going.” Presuming one drinks vodka for effect, not for some ephemerous “goal,” mine will take you there and leave you asking, “did I really drink THAT MUCH?”
I assume NOBODY drinks vodka, versus, say, wine, for any reason other than effect.
