Aside from beer, vodka is my favorite libation. Preferred method of delivery is mixed with lemonade. Sweet heaven.
Now, I’ve had many different brands. Dare I say close to as many as different beers I’ve had? Yes, I dare. Based solely on lemonade as a base mix, I can tell the difference in quality easily. (Not brands of a certain class though. But there are very subtle differences)
For instance, mix three drinks using Phillips, Smirnoff and Kettle One, and I guarantee I’ll blind-taste them in perfect order. get Kettle One, Belvedere, Absolut and the Nirvana of vodka, Stolichnaya, and I’ll be able to tell you which is which. Though it may take quite a few sips.
So my question is this. What makes a really superior vodka? Phillips, for example, distills their vodka 4 times “for smoothness”. Smirnoff is ditilled 3 times. Smirnoff wins that battle, anytime. So it’s not the amount of distillation in and of itself. Maybe the quality of grain? Based on the available grain in any given country, I have to think American vodkas would be superior. OTOH, maybe we’re selling Russia the good stuff and buying their less quality grain for our vodka? I really don’t know.
I know Russian vodka is traditionaly made from potatoes (maybe it’s still a part?), but potato vodka reminds me of cherry moonshine a friend brought back from NC a few years ago. Potent, and tasty in it’s own way, but not really a high quality drink by any standards. Is there some secret formula that so many countries are able to devise and keep secret from the US? For God’s sake, the Poles are making better hooch than us!
So what’s the deal? Why the differences in what is supposed to be such a simple recipe?
The quality of Vodka depends largely on removing as many impurities as possible. It doesn’t really matter what you distill it from since you only want the ethyl alcohol, everything else should be filtered out.
I don’t want to disparage the homemade hootch* your friend served you, but I’ve always been told that a high quality potato based vodka is the standard for judging.
I do know there are commercial potato-based brands available. Can anyone recommend one?
*I once tried potato-based homemade from a Latvian farm. But it was pre-mixed with a homemade coffee-flavored hootch to make a “Black Russian”. So no way to judge the vodka portion for smoothness - as I assume a vodka afficionado would do.
Vodka is usually my drink of choice too, and Chopin is a great one. Much too good to mix with lemonade, or anything other than ice, really.
Aside from the amount of distillation I’d think you’d find differences from what the vodka is being made from. Wheat, rye, barley, or any combination of those grains, potatoes, grapes, corn, sugar cane, or whatever.
As another excellent potato vodka, for not much money try Luksusowa. I think it runs $14 at my local store.
The thing I’ve found about potato vodka is that it doesn’t taste at all like a grain vodka. It has a taste of its own that I really enjoy. Served from the freezer with a few rounds of dill pickle…mmm, heaven.
Somewhere out in the vastness of the net (I no longer have the link, sorry), I read an experiment where someone took cheap vodka and filtered it multiple times with a Brita. It got progressively better through the first four filtrations. I have a hunch that even though Phillips distills theirs 4 times compared to Smirnoff’s 3, Smirnoff’s distillation process probably removes more of the undesirables on a given go-round.
Conversely, the unscientific experiment noted that the resulting vodka didn’t have much in the way of character – it was pretty bland. I suspect that the real trick is getting just the right level and type of impurities, which would in no small part be due to the material you start with.
My favorite drink is Grey Goose, club soda and a squeeze of lime. I like GG because it doesn’t have much of a flavor, so the drink tastes light and refreshing with no yucky alcohol taste. I can definitely tell the difference if I have a vodka/club soda with other brands. GG tastes the best to me in that particular drink.
Oh, that’s perfect. Next weekend the shopping list includes a bottle each of Stoli and Kamchatka along with some fresh Brita filters. HIC
I may have to get an extra filter and try this out on Everclear. Hey, here’s a side question. We can get 190 proof Everclear in North Dakota. Last I heard (yeeeaarrs ago) it was only available in about 7 states. Is that still true? And if so does anyone know what other states? Waverly, it’s not marketing. There is a very distinct difference in the taste of vodkas. Would you say the only difference between Andre and Dom is the marketing? Same thing.
You used an extreme example. There is certainly a difference in quality between Mr. Boston and Kettle One. Between Kettle One and Grey Goose? Or between either of those and Absolut? There is a reason why these drinks come in distinctly shaped bottles with pretty designs.
Once you decide to invest in sufficient filtration, there are precious few ways to distinguish your colorless, odorless, libation from the next guy’s. Particularly when most people are drinking them chilled and with at least a hint of additional flavoring. How many people are sipping warm vodka straight up?
Everclear is legal in Texas. It’s perhaps the most alcohol per dollar you can buy, although it’s not the best for mixing. I currently have half a bottle of it.
snailboy, I assume you’re talking the 190-proof variety? Everclear also comes in 80-proof. I would have to suspect Texas was one of the states allowing the high-intensity stuff.
And it is good in mixes, if a bit more bitter due to basically being 2.5x the normal amount of hooch in a drink. The best use is in those large punch bowls known for being spiked.
In my younger days we’d pour a shot, light it and chase it with Mountain Dew. We were friggin’ nuts. :eek:
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So, as far as US vodka is concerned the highest “quality” product is going to be ethanol and water. For those of you who like to mix, the upshot is that bottom-shelf vodka is perfectly acceptable, and if you’re paying for a brand-name US vodka, you’re paying too much (e.g., Smirnoff).
For foreign-made vodkas, the answer is a little more complex. For example, take Absolut. In a book I have (but not on hand, so I can’t quote directly), Classic Vodka, Absolut makes its spirit as pure as possible, but adds in spirit of lesser purity at the end for flavor.
So, of course the vodka makers can make vodka so “good” that you can’t tell one from another. And originally, in days of worse technology, my understanding is that they basically competed on purity and the one that tasted cleanest was best.
So therein lies the dilemma. Horn one: Make vodka according to the original goal (i.e., make ethanol), and be no better than USA-made McCormick’s. Horn two, create a particular flavor profile and be artificial.
At the end of the day, I don’t think a real alcohol fan is going to go for vodka, since vodka was intended to be flavorless, colorless, and odorless (except for all the flavored vodkas out there, of course). The best-quality vodka is a commodity. A mixer.
