Some friends organized a set of vodka flights once (house party, so the cost was just the bottles of vodka).
I was shocked at how much difference you could taste between different brands/tiers of vodka. I had always figured that vodka’s whole purpose was to be sort of a “blank slate alcohol”, great as a base for mixers or getting drunk efficiently but not really something you’d appreciate on its own.
Vodka should be as pure an ethyl alcohol as possible. Flavorings make it less pure, and is akin to Gins. Look up the marketing masterpiece that is Grey Goose vodka. It’s pretty much the same bullshit as premium Gins. Basically cheap clear alcohol with flavorings. Whiskys, Rums, Brandies on the other hand can have decades of maturing, making them way more expensive to produce.
All vodka has flavor added back in. Well, fients or water at least. Vodka is distilled to a much higher percentage than its sold at, so there is a process to water it down, and that part can change and alter the final product.
The only vodka I’ve ever had that tasted good - enjoyable and not just something I tolerated for the alcohol - was a shot of buffalograss(?) flavored vodka at a polish restaurant in London.
It was delicious. Apparently can’t get it here in the states.
One of the weirdest things about that experience was that I witnessed some anti-polish racism? Like this British guy walked in and was just savage to all of the employees. Didn’t realize hating polish people was still a thing.
They do sell a version of it here, but it can be pretty hard to track down, it’s definitely not available in my state (PA) But I’ve seen it in a couple stores in other states.
I think bison grass isn’t allowed to be imported to the US, so they use something else that’s pretty close in flavor. For a while I think they were branding it as “Zu” but that may have changed.
I had a $150 shot of vodka once.
It was just as terrible as the cheapest shit I’ve ever had.
Some friends organized a set of vodka flights once (house party, so the cost was just the bottles of vodka).
I was shocked at how much difference you could taste between different brands/tiers of vodka. I had always figured that vodka’s whole purpose was to be sort of a “blank slate alcohol”, great as a base for mixers or getting drunk efficiently but not really something you’d appreciate on its own.
Vodka should be as pure an ethyl alcohol as possible. Flavorings make it less pure, and is akin to Gins. Look up the marketing masterpiece that is Grey Goose vodka. It’s pretty much the same bullshit as premium Gins. Basically cheap clear alcohol with flavorings. Whiskys, Rums, Brandies on the other hand can have decades of maturing, making them way more expensive to produce.
There’s the thing, we weren’t taste testing flavored vodka. They were all supposed to be plain ordinary vodka.
Not the same as flavorless, though. Kind of a trip.
All vodka has flavor added back in. Well, fients or water at least. Vodka is distilled to a much higher percentage than its sold at, so there is a process to water it down, and that part can change and alter the final product.
The only vodka I’ve ever had that tasted good - enjoyable and not just something I tolerated for the alcohol - was a shot of buffalograss(?) flavored vodka at a polish restaurant in London.
It’s called Żubrówka, and it’s flavored with bison grass
It was delicious. Apparently can’t get it here in the states.
One of the weirdest things about that experience was that I witnessed some anti-polish racism? Like this British guy walked in and was just savage to all of the employees. Didn’t realize hating polish people was still a thing.
They do sell a version of it here, but it can be pretty hard to track down, it’s definitely not available in my state (PA) But I’ve seen it in a couple stores in other states.
I think bison grass isn’t allowed to be imported to the US, so they use something else that’s pretty close in flavor. For a while I think they were branding it as “Zu” but that may have changed.