Vodka----Cheap vs Expensive?

[corkboard]

I received a bottle of Russian Standard as a gift from a Ukranian friend, with the endorsement that it’s all he and his family drink. I decided to expand my palate and start drinking vodka martinis with it. I pick up a different brand every now and then, but keep coming back to good old RS. Although, lately a couple of friends were speaking highly about Tito’s so I gave it a try- it’s actually pretty good.

My wife drinks her vodka/tonics with Luksosowa because it’s distilled from potatoes, due to her gluten allergy. I prefer the RS but this stuff isn’t bad.

[DrDeth]

@Alan_Smithee

Interesting about effect of cabin pressure on taste.

WRT the other two links, neither of them goes to an actual taste test; they each report on what others have reported. Only the second one actually includes a link to the original reporting, and when you follow it here, you find that what they actually discovered is that people prefer Coke served in glass bottles. When they are poured into identical containers, whether cups, cans or glass bottles, the ones who could tell a difference preferred the American Coke, which had been stored in plastic-lined aluminum cans, over the Mexican Coke, which had been stored in glass bottles. No way to tell if that was because of the formulation or the effects of storage, though I admit that it seems unlikely that sitting in a plastic-lined can improves the taste of soda. But it certainly doesn’t seem to hurt it.

Hmm, interesting.

I know I read a blind taste test where they compared HFCS Coke vs Sugar Coke and they found that they had to eliminate the “bottle vs can” issue first, as many testers preferred bottle, even in a blind test.

[buddy431]

So what actually is the difference between high quality and low quality vodka? I mean chemically. No bullshit about taste and smoothness, if there’s a real difference, it should be quantifiable. Is it mostly other alcohols? I know methanol is a common impurity in alcoholic beverages. Is propanol somewhat common? Aldehydes? Seems like it’d be easy to take an alequat and throw it in an NMR and you’d know what’s in there, at least down to the 1% level or so. Mass spec will give you even better detection of low-level impurities.

[rsa]

Used to drink Svedka which is pretty darn good and a good value. Tried something called Strata once - tasted and smelled like industrial solvent. A long time ago I drank Monopolowa which is excellent and was “well” price for a while but has gone up to mid level price. It’s an excellent Polish / Austrian potato vodka. Highly recommended.

What I drink now is Ruskova which is very inexpensive (about $17/1.75 L) and tastes very good. It’s true Russian vodka (from Russia). The glass bottle is definitely Russian quality but I’d rather not pay for pretty glass anyway. On the label it claims to be distilled six times and made from winter wheat and soft rye.