# Somebody please explain the appeal of premium vodka to me. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** liquor-alcohol\ **Created:** [July 24, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850 "2006-07-24T17:53:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/21 "2006-07-24T22:13:54Z")
Blue Ice is also a potato vodka, and is [widely available](http://www.bevmo.com/productinfo.asp?sku=00000062643&Dn=166+168&Nr=Store%3A99&Ntt=potato&N=168+0&Nty=1&D=potato&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=All). It’s good and smooth, but I still prefer Ketel One by a slim margin. It’s also disappointingly _not_ actually blue. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/22 "2006-07-24T22:30:17Z")
Moved from IMHO to CS. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/23 "2006-07-24T22:31:03Z")
Thanks for the responses. I will admit that there was one time when a friend had just flown in after salmon fishing in Alaska, and we spent an enjoyable evening slicing off little strips of fresh caught, raw salmon, punctuating them with small shots of superchilled vodka, and now that I come to think of it, there’s probably no spirit that would have been so appropriate. Under ordinary circumstances, though, if I’m in a bar, I’ll stick with a Bombay martini, and just glance over towards the bar every now an again, if I need to fortify myself with a glance at a cunningly designed vodka bottle. ---
**Author:** ![MagicXylophone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@MagicXylophone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicXylophone)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/24 "2006-07-24T22:37:08Z")
[QUOTE=Cluricaun] There’s almost never a good reason for purchasing bottom shelf liquor, unless your point is to say “Lookit here at all this vodka I done got.” Smirnoff and Absolut are as low down the voddy scale as anyone should ever get. [/QUOTE] No. No. As a person who went to his fair share of parties in high school (didn’t drink at probably 90% of them), I can unequivocally tell you that the most vile shit known to man goes by one name and one name only: McCormick’s. ---
**Author:** ![cj\_finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@cj\_finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cj_finn)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/25 "2006-07-25T01:54:29Z")
Check this link for a way to get better vodka from a brita filter. Funny stuff. [Oh My God It Burns!](http://www.ohmygoditburns.com/wordpress/index.php?p=4) ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/26 "2006-07-25T03:15:06Z")
[QUOTE=Lissa] They did a blind taste-test of vodkas on “Mythbusters.” They put out a row of shotglasses filled with different grades of vodkas and had a bartender/vodka conissuer and Jamie taste them, rating them from 1 to 10. Turns out both both the bartender and Jamie both rated the more expensive, quality vodkas as tasting better than the bottom-shelf brands. [/quote] Not so. The test was between one top-shelf vodka and nine (or so) filtered versions of the same rotgut. Except for one shot of the pure rotgut, the rotgut samples were run through a standard water filter, with each shot presenting one filtering, double filtering, triple filtering, etc. Upon taste testing, the expert nailed the rotgut-filtered-premium continuum perfectly. Jamie was pretty darned close. Kari, to the delight of hundreds of thousands of nerds across the nation, proved herself to be a very cheap date. > [@](#): > > (The episode also laid to rest the myth that you can filter cheap vodka and make it better.) Again, not so. Both the expert and Jamie agreed that the filtering signifcantly improved the rot-gut, and that the difference between multiple filterings were noticeable. However, they also agreed that filtering didn’t bring you up to the level of top-shelf vodka. Having proven to be a cheap date, Kari did not opine on the matter. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/27 "2006-07-25T03:16:54Z")
[QUOTE=minty green] Not so. . . . [/QUOTE] Wow, I remembered that totally wrong. This is why I would never make a good witness in court. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/28 "2006-07-25T03:17:37Z")
[QUOTE=MagicXylophone] No. No. As a person who went to his fair share of parties in high school (didn’t drink at probably 90% of them), I can unequivocally tell you that the most vile shit known to man goes by one name and one name only: McCormick’s. [/QUOTE] Agreed. That’s the one we used in our Panama City (FL) watermelon parties: cut open the end of a melon, pour a half gallon of “the most vile shit known to man” into it, put in the freezer for two hours, remove cut into small pieces and “enjoy”. I can still initiate a gag reflex just thinking about **that** “morning after”. 😛 Quasi ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/29 "2006-07-25T03:18:28Z")
[QUOTE=Lissa] Wow, I remembered that totally wrong. This is why I would never make a good witness in court. [/QUOTE] Not so. You’d be an awesome witness, as long as I was doing your cross-examination. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/30 "2006-07-25T03:30:29Z")
Would I be wrong to assume **minty green** doesn’t like vodka? ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/31 "2006-07-25T04:35:28Z")
I would like to mention that Vodka priced at $50+ for 750ml (ultra-premium) begins to go down like water around the second or third shot. Compared with premium vodka which takes around five to seven shots for you to forget the bitter taste. This means that you should spring for ultra-premium vodka if you have cash to burn. You should see the cool words they use to describe how the ultra-premium vodka [Vodka XO](http://www.jeanmarcxovodka.com/) is made. “Micro-oxygenated” is one of them. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/32 "2006-07-25T04:53:36Z")
**minty** : Thanks for setting the record straight on that Mythbusters episode. But… [QUOTE=minty green] Kari, to the delight of hundreds of thousands of nerds across the nation, proved herself to be a very cheap date. [/QUOTE] Now, now. I must stand up for my friend Ms. Byron. In the two hours I spent drinking with her and Adam (and _Skeptic_ publisher Michael Shermer) in Las Vegas last January, she was a charming and pleasant companion who very much enjoyed the Johnny Walker Black I bought her. (It was _my_ idea to get her a double.) Think I’m lying? [Cite.](http://www.lfexaminer.com/img_0322.jpg) (Photo by Adam.) And [Adam](http://www.lfexaminer.com/img_0323.jpg) is as much fun in person as he seems on the show. (Photo by Kari.) You know, I don’t thnk I’ll ever get tired of showing off that picture. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/33 "2006-07-25T05:23:53Z")
[QUOTE=nyctea scandiaca] I definitely prefer the premium vodkas. One of my favorite drinks is vodka and club soda with a lime. With Grey Goose, you can barely taste the alcohol, and it’s just a light refreshing drink. With the cheap stuff, it’s just nasty. It has that harsh, alcoholy, vodkaey taste, and I hate that taste! [/QUOTE] I’ll second that, adding that my drink of choice is a Ketel One tonic (which is about 3 parts vodka, .5-1 part tonic. There is a difference between Ketel and Fleishmans. > [@](#): > > I would like to mention that Vodka priced at $50+ for 750ml (ultra-premium) begins to go down like water around the second or third shot Any Suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/34 "2006-07-25T11:47:55Z")
For what it’s worth, I’ve found the whole “it’s stupid to use good liquors in mixed cocktails because you can’t taste the liquor” argument to be flat out wrong. I _can_ taste the difference. Most of my experience has been with tequila. I would LOVE to be able to make a decent margarita without a $25-$60 bottle of tequila and a $35 bottle of Cointreau/Grand Marnier, but there IS a difference between Patron/Cointreau and Cuervo/Triple Sec. I haven’t done similiar experiments with Vodka, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the difference was easy to spot. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/35 "2006-07-25T12:27:53Z")
[QUOTE=Athena] Most of my experience has been with tequila. I haven’t done similiar experiments with Vodka, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the difference was easy to spot. [/QUOTE] Big difference between vodka and most other liquors is that vodka is supposed to be pure alcohol, no flavorings. Tequila, gin, whiskey, brandy and all the mixing liquors are heavily flavored, so the differences in brands/quality are much more noticable. If vodka has any flavor at all, it’s very subtle, so the differences have to be subtle as well. Also, count me skeptical that high end vodkas don’t have an alcohol taste. No matter how high end it is, it has just as much alcohol as the cheap stuff. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/36 "2006-07-25T12:38:50Z")
[QUOTE=Cheesesteak] Also, count me skeptical that high end vodkas don’t have an alcohol taste. No matter how high end it is, it has just as much alcohol as the cheap stuff. [/QUOTE] It’s not that you can’t taste the alcohol, but that it’s far less overwhelming than in cheap vodka, and that it burns far less. > [@Athena](#): > > I would LOVE to be able to make a decent margarita without a $25-$60 bottle of tequila and a $35 bottle of Cointreau/Grand Marnier, but there IS a difference between Patron/Cointreau and Cuervo/Triple Sec. When I wrote the rule of thumb in post #11, tequila was the foremost exception in my mind (scotch was the other). But when you’re mixing vodka, its lack of flavor is going to be covered up pretty quickly unless you’re using really cheap stuff. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/37 "2006-07-25T13:45:21Z")
> [@](#): > > I think that Chopin is the only widely available potato vodka in the US. Luksosowa is also made from potatoes (and, at around $15 / bottle, is quite good for its price). ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/38 "2006-07-25T13:46:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Luksosowa Make that Luksusowa, rather. Damned Polish orthography… ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/39 "2006-07-25T16:33:20Z")
[QUOTE=commasense] You know, I don’t thnk I’ll ever get tired of showing off that picture. [/QUOTE] I still hate you for that, you lucky, lucky bastard. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850/40 "2006-07-25T18:23:28Z")
I’m surprised nobody has linked to the infamous [NYT Taste test](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/dining/26wine.html?ex=1264654800&%2338;en=a9c441f3597a0350&%2338;ei=5088&). In a blind tasting of 21 vodkas, smirnoff came out on top. It’s undoubtably true that the very cheapest of vodkas are absolutely horrid. But once you go slightly up the range, the simple truth is it’s not too damn hard or expensive to filter vodka to sufficent quality such that the average palate can’t taste the difference. Whats then left is the tiny bits of stuff makers add _in_ to the vodka to give it a tiny bit of taste. Most commonly added is glycerin to improve the mouthfeel and texture and tiny bits of citrus oil to make it cooler and sharper. However, like speaker cables and other high status goods, perception matters. Grey Goose tastes smooth going down, not because of any particular chemical in Grey Goose, but because of chemicals in your brain which are responsible for you thinking “I’m drinking Grey Goose”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/somebody-please-explain-the-appeal-of-premium-vodka-to-me/365850.md?page=3)