I am not much of a hard liquor person, in fact I would guess that I drink beer 90% of the time when I am drinking alcohol. On a whim, I decided to hit the liqour store to get a bottle of something and I was struck by the huge range in vodka selections…
Top brands (Grey Goose, Stoli, Ketel One etc) were between 20-30 dollars a bottle, while you can get a bottle of the cheap stuff (Bartons, Popov) for under 6 bucks.
Now I can understand a highly flavored alcohol like Bourbon or Gin would have a big difference in top brands “tasting better” than the rotgut bargain brands, but vodka has no real taste (does it?) so why the huge difference in brand pricing?
Is it all a marketing ploy, or is there a substantial difference in premium brands as opposed to the budget bottles?
The difference is drinkability.
If you are making screwdrivers or Harvey Wallbangers use Popov or the house brand. Hell the OJ would probably mask the flavor of gasoline.
If you are going to make a martini, or drink it straight, buy the good stuff. The cheap stuff will taste like battery acid.
Stoli is a special case. It is crap vodka that has great marketing. You know how they show the bottle in a ring of ice, and serve it in frozen sot glasses? There is a reason for that. The cold kills the taste. It allows them to sell crap vodka for big bucks.
Try a shot of Stoli at room temp and you will hate it.
Grey Goose on the other hand is sublime.
I’m not much of a vodka drinker, but that shit in plastic is godfuckingawful. Even in mixed drinks, it is absolutely undrinkable. If I am drinking, my middle-of-the-road good value vodka is Tanqueray (yes, they make a vodka, not only gin). I like my drinks to have a little flavor, so when it comes to vodka, I’m a fan of Zubrowka (a Polish vodka flavored with an herb called “bison grass”) as well as as the Russian Smirnov (I’m not sure if it’s the same as Smirnoff or not) “Bitter Hot Pepper Extract” vodka shown here. My (Polish immigrant) family is also a great fan of Boru Irish vodka. Another great value, with a fifth retailing at $15-$20. I agree. It’s a good, clean vodka.
I don’t do straight booze really, or even non-beer in general. But I can drink some Grey Goose and not make a bad face and require an immediate chaser…but once in college I took a shot of Popov and went and puked because it tasted so bad. I was sober. The only other time that’s happened it when I tried absinthe.
Lowest I go is Absolut usually. Usually get the Citron kind if I am making screwdrivers. But like I said I don’t do booze really - if I order something that’s not beer it’s a long island, margarita, or a non-straight shot, and that’s rare unless there is a special on those. I’d say don’t pay less than like $15-20 for a fifth or there is a decent chance it’s gonna be a bit harsh.
And I hear a lot of people dig 3 Olives that are into flavored vodkas. And a lot of people seem to like Ketel One, but I have no experience that I can recall. I pretty much only drink vodka or tequila so maybe I should start trying some new stuff too.
Vodka is all “supposed” to be the same - mostly devoid of smell and taste, but it’s not. Try some Popov then some Goose and you will see.
The people over at Slate rated some vodkas, worst to best:
If I could afford it, I’d drink only the best vodka, obviously, but I have found this to be true. If you’re only using it as a mixer either use high quality vodka or high quality mixers; you don’t have to do both. Does that make sense?
Cheap Vodka, (Popov and the like,) makes me vomit, literally. If I drink even a small amount it causes me to become nauseous (And when I say a “small amount” I am not exaggerating. An ounce or two is enough… long before I even feel the effects). Grey Goose however, on the handful times I’ve had it, is one the most forgiving liquors I’ve ever had. I can sip on it all evening and wake up with little to no hangover the next day. It really is remarkable.
I do exclusively straight shots though with a chaser close at hand. I never do mixed drinks.
I don’t know what the difference is between cheap and premium vodka, but in my experience the extra money is worth it.
Spec’s Liquorin Houston has an amazing selection of liquor, beer, wine & food. Some afternoons, there are folks offering free samples.
Which is how I got to taste Svedka vodka. And it was actually good–like fresh spring water. Not priced as a premium brand, either. I’m not much of a vodka drinker, but have added Svedka to my “list.”
I can sip Ketel One from a glass, straight up. Maybe rocks. I can almost do that with Grey Goose. Stoly I need at least a little dirty. Absolut is a petroleum product with the best marketing strategy of the last century. Ditto the plastic-jug brands: just watered down Everclear, good only for dumping into orange juice and holding your nose while you drink it.
Vodka is cheap enough, in general, that it shouldn’t be hard to stay near the top shelf. Vodka is also cheap enough that bottom shelf products will make you wish for death.
A good vodka will be as drinkable warm as it is ice cold. It won’t taste like much, but it’ll be warm and smooth. My two favorites are Hangar One and Crater Lake. Grey Goose is hugely overrated, imho.
I recall a piece on a news magazine show a few years back where they got a bunch of people (mainly "yuppies’ if memory serves) and blind taste tested a range of vodkas. As vodka is defined as a colorless odorless liquid the results were interesting. Basically, there was little correlation between price and preference. So the lesson is try as many as you can and make your own choices.
I think it’s an interesting phenomenon. I find it incredibly annoying when people order a new vodka at a bar, straight or in a vodka martini, and comment on how smooth or oily and blah blah blah. I think if I secretly ordered another decent vodka martini while they left to use the bathroom, and challenged them to do a blind taste test and identify the one they recently called smooth with a great oily finish, they’d have about 50/50 odds of getting it right.
On the other hand, almost anyone - even a drunk 17 year old - could tell the difference between a good vodka and the stuff in a plastic jug. So it seems clear to me that there’s a vast difference in drinkability, albeit exagerated at the upper end of the spectrum.
I worked with Russians for a couple of years and we frequently ended our evenings with a couple-three (dozen) vodka shots. Because we bought vodka by the half-gallon, usually we’d end up with either Smirnoff or Stoli. I could drink Smirnoff all night with no ill effects, but I had to choke down the Stoli.
This New York Times taste test was cool because they “snuck in” a bottle of Smirnoff with a bunch of premium brands, and the Smirnoff won.
I agree that Grey Goose is overpriced and overrated, as its main appeal is it’s neutrality (ie. tastelessness). I like GG for mixed drinks, but for shots I still haven’t found one I like as much as Smirnoff.
Agree with above where someone said it depends really on what you intend to do with the vodka. If you’re making screwdrivers, you can get nearly anything (esp. if you are a "90% of the time beer drinker). Actually if you’re mixing with OJ, you might have fun buying one of the ones like Stoli or Smirnoff Vanilla…
Now, if you’re doing something like vodka shots or vodka martinis, you may want to spring to go past rotgut to middle of the road, at least.
But I’d say 80% of people couldn’t tell one from the other even if they SAW the bottle, and of the rest probably half are making it up with the “oh it HAS to be x brand” and would fail a blind taste test.
Funny you should mention marketing for Stoli, but not for one of the biggest marketing stories in the history of hard liquor - Grey Goose. Grey Goose was created by the man who introduced Jagermeister to the US via Jager Girls (Sidney Frank). He saw how much some Vodkas were selling for (less than $20 for premium brands), and decided to wanted to introduce a $30 bottle to the US market. He then called a distiller friend and told him to prepare a dozen or so relatively high-end new vodkas, and that they would have a taste test. The winner would get slapped with a big price tag and hit the market.
That’s essentially how Grey Goose was born.
ETA: Here is a link to one of the stories. There are many more on the web.
Got me. I can tell the difference between bad vodka (the kind that sells for $5.00 a quart in the plastic bottle) and plain ol’ vodka, but the subtle differences in flavor between mid-level vodkas like Svedka and Fris and the higher end stuff like Grey Goose are a mystery to me.
Buy Skyyy. If you are buying Vodka to make sure you have Vodka for whatever the purpose is then it is perfectly placed vodka that can be used for almost any occasion and it is not cheap and it is not too expensive either.