Slight hijack if I may.
You guys ought to live in the Soviet of Washington. State liquor stores. Cheapest vodka is $9.95 for a 750 ml bottle. The good stuff is around $35 to $40 per bottle.
BTW, I didn’t come up with that “Soviet of Washington” business. That’s what Jim Farley, FDR’s Postmaster general, labeled Washington way back in the 1930’s.
As you may have heard, Utah also has its share of weirdo liquor laws (including state stores for any alcohol except for 3.2 beer)…
At least in WA, you can get great beer/wine at the grocery store or gas station.
I dont usually drink the hard stuff, so in my many visits to Washington (mostly Seattle) I dont remember going to a package store more than once or twice. That being said, I am shocked that the Utah state liquor stores are less expensive than the Washington stores!!!
In Post number 5, I mentioned one of my favorites, Youri Dolgoruki. The other Russian vodka I like is The Jewel Of Russia Classic. But there’s always a bottle of Youri in my house.
ETA I swear they used to have a website (that’s how I know there’s a bottle with a full Russian label that I’d love to get), but I can’t find it now.
Can’t find the site, but here’s the Russian label
http://justminivodkas.com/frosted1.JPG
For what it’s worth, Mythbusters tested this and found that is wasn’t the case. They also found no chemical difference between the filtered and unfiltered low-end vodka.
I think the overall conclusion was that filtering may make it taste somewhat better, but not enough to justify the expense of water filers versus just buying the better vodka in the first place. The top-shelf still tasted better than the low-end after six filtrations.
This is a link to an unofficial summary of trhe episode http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/04/episode_50_bullets_fired_up_vo_1.html.
Many people who make lquers and cordials at home add a small amount of glycerine to their concoctions, to mke the drink smoother. My question: suppose you set out to make youe own vodka: you buy a quart of “EVERCLEAR” ( 180 proof grain alcohol), then add spring water, to bring the alcohol concentration down to 40% (80 proof). Do you now have a decent vodka?
Next time try Russian Standard. You might discover a new favorite.
I like it better than both Yuri and Jewel of Russia.
ETA: I see you’ve tried Tito’s. Surprising how good it is, huh? They need to redesign the label or something because no one believes me when I tell them that it’s good vodka.
I like the vodka, I also like the odd looks from other members of my party when I order a “Tito’s n’ Tonic”
Buy a brita water filter pitcher (or any other brand that has a high quality charcoal filter)
Run the vodka through the filter several times.
voila, premium vodka.
This process can be done with any cheap vodka, or even the stuff you make yourself by mixing everclear water.
The thing to remember with ANY vodka whether cheap or expensive, the starting process is the same. The only differences between them is the level of filtration.
Cheaper vodkas are not filtered as many times. Expensive vodkas have been filtered additional times (read the marketing, they will often brag how many times it has been filtered)
The more a vodka is filtered, the less impurities there are. The less impurities the smoother and less harsh the flavor and more importantly the lesser the potential hang over the next day.
Note: this concept over all is true of any alchohol product, the cheaper stuff (whether tequila, gin, bourbon, etc) all are typically filtered less and have a harsher potential hangover effect and a stronger alchohol taste (even if its not actually stronger effect)
However with most alchohol it would be difficult to filter it at home because you are dealing with mixtures that contain additional flavor combinations, you would be filtering those out as well. You dont have this problem with vodka, you arent filtering any extra flavor out of it (unless it is a flavored vodka)
To replicate a flavored vodka, do your filtering first and than add your flavorings (such as putting a vanilla bean in the bottle, the longer you wait to drink it, the more developed the vanilla notes will be. I typically wait at least 3 weeks)
Anyway, you can either start with a cheap vodka or as you suggested everclear plus water. Either way, the more times you run it through the filter, the cleaner the taste and the lesser the hang over. I personally suggest at least 9 times through the filter (though if you like a slightly stronger alchohol flavor you might want to experiment in the 3 to 5 times filtered range)
You will wear out the filter faster than you would filtering water. I suggest getting one that tracks the volume you have filtered in some way and replace it about twice as often as you would compared to water. So if it says replace after 100 gallons for water, replace it at 50 gallons for vodka. You may need to replace it sooner if you find the taste of your vodka changes noticeably even though you’re filtering the same number of times as previous attempts.
I have tried the Brita filter before and it really worked.
How do the impurities give you a worse hangover?
nm
I haven’t tried much Vodka, but I know of all the ones I’ve tried I like Smirnoff, even if I am a heathen and get lime flavored (is that a heathenish thing to do? No idea). All I really know is that I absolutely cannot drink any vodka straight, it’s the only alcohol that lives up to the words “firewater,” once it hits the throat it feels like liquid fire. So perhaps I’m not the best judge of vodka quality only being able to mix it an all.
Arrrgh! Zombies on vodka!
The key, as mentioned above, is how you will drink it and why you will drink it.
Plastic bottle vodka will save you money:
My personal favorites:
Grey Goose: I like the fruity aftertaste, it tastes good on the rocks, straight up.
Kai Lychee Flavored Vodka: One of the few I enjoy straight up, but I suspect it’s 50% or more sugar.
Fleischmann’s: The cheapest of any drink in my area, roughly $3 a pint. I usually mix it with water or drink it straight up with a chaser.
From what I have seen there are three tiers of vodka.
Lowest - plastic bottle garbage. I wouldn’t ever buy this stuff.
Mid-grade - good for mixing. Svedka is probably the cheapest mid-grade vodka and I do like it in mixed drinks. Skyy is good (especially if you can find it on sale or something, they do rebates occasionally), but I think Absolut is overpriced. Mid-grade is what I always buy because I only drink vodka in mixed drinks.
The good stuff - good for drinking straight or martinis, but that isn’t really my style. Expensive, too.
My first-ever SDMB thread.
It’s good to see that Dopers haven’t lost their taste for booze and trivial arguments…
I just bought a bottle of Svedka the other night. At under $10 bucks a bottle, it’s a pretty good deal. I still can’t tell much difference from top shelf brands (Ketel One, Absolute, Stoli) and most domestic “budget” labels (Popov, Taaka, Potters) but for only a buck or two more, sometimes it’s worth having a bit of an upgrade for guests to enjoy.
The ideal vodka is nothing but ethanol and water. The top shelf brands come closest to this by fermenting only wheat, carefully controlling the distillation process to eliminate the inclusion of other forms of alchohol (and other substances with similar properties), and thorough filtering. Some people still like the taste of the cheaper brands which contain other substances that can be detected in the flavor. Ethanol may be considered flavorless and odorless by some, based on poor definitions, but people can detect the presence of ethanol, and impurities in it. I drink Stoli’s. I do not perceive any bad tastes in it, but I do in some other vodkas. That’s my personal taste, anybody elses may vary.
Me and my friends attended a party in california and saw 2 types of vodka being served, one was grey goose the other one was VuQo vodka. VuQo vodka got my attention because it was made out of coconut. We did a taste test between grey groose and vuqo. I was surprised that almost everybody liked the coconut vuqo vodka better than grey goose. Not sure if they sell it in other states, but i’ll definitely buy it gain.
There’s really no difference in “the good stuff” and the mid-grade, such as Smirnoff. Blind taste tests have proved this.
I prefer Svedka. It is tolerable neat and makes a great and relatively cheap mixer.
I just tonight graduated from years of drinking the cheap plastic bottle 1.75 L stuff (I always rationalised it as there being a standard for neutral spirits that all vodkas had to achieve, so why not just get the cheapest?) to Svedka. I’m a cheapskate, so I could never imagine going higher; but since I have slowed down my rate of alcohol consumption so much in recent years that it had taken me months to go through my last bottle of Aristocrat vodka, and it was only seven bucks more for the intriguing 1.75 L Svedka in glass instead of plastic, I went for it.
I have not done any kind of double-blind comparison, but unless I’m really kidding myself, it does seem to be a lot better tasting. I am more than willing to believe that going any higher than this is just a waste of money, so I’m happy to settle into this new groove.