Does Premium Vodka's Taste Live Up to Its Price Tag?

[NeoTexan]

Comments? Chuck?:cool:

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=3201973&page=1

[Vange]

I co-authored a vodka article awhile ago. Here is the link. I tasted them all slightly chilled neat.

http://orig.app.com/goodlife/Holiday2006/topshelf/topshelf.html

Jewel of Russia Ultra and Chopin were my 2 favs by far. Both had a creaminess to them that all the others lacked. Skyy90 was not very good. The Jean Marc XO had a really nice cinnamon taste to it.

[cowdery]

Famously, the New York Times conducted a tasting and Smirnoff won.

"Vodka tasting" seems almost an oxymoron to me, so it's hard to know where to start.

The ABC News test seemed well done. There are a million ways you could do such a thing. The result doesn't surprise me, just like all the tests that have been done proving Coke loyalists can't tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi.

There's nothing wrong with people drinking vodka, if that's what you like. There is a difference between "bad" vodka and "good" vodka. "Bad" vodka has a very chemical flavor and odor, and costs under $10 for a 1.75 L. "Good" vodka smells and tastes like water and starts at $15-$20 a bottle for a 750 ml.

For all the stuff above that, there are taste differences and you might find one you like better than another, but the price differences have nothing to do with additional quality. They are about provenance, packaging and marketing.

When the actual product cost so little to make, you can spend a lot on all that other stuff and still have enough left over for obscene profits.

If anyone believes a $200 vodka is ten times better than a $20 vodka, they deserve to have their pocket picked.

[ILLfarmboy]

.... The result doesn't surprise me, just like all the tests that have been done proving Coke loyalists can't tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi......

If anyone believes a $200 vodka is ten times better than a $20 vodka, they deserve to have their pocket picked.

Which tests are you referring to, Chuck. The "Pepsi challenge" paid for by Pepsi-cola, wherein subjects purportedly chose Pepsi as "tasting better" not necessarily indistinguishable. I assure you I can tell the difference. Many has been the time I have ordered Coke (fountain pop) and gotten Pepsi instead, because the establishment only carried Pepsi products, but failed to inform me.

As to the vodka I agree 100%. Super premium Vodka is as silly as "oxygen bars".

[bigtoys]

Saw the abc story on tv the other night. Loved the woman who hated the taste of her beloved Grey Goose. Makes sense given what vodka is.

I keep a lot of bourbons and scotches around, but am trying to pare down. Realized the other night that I like Knob better than Woodford, but will confirm it with a blind taste test, too.

Like to think that I can tell peaty Lagavulin from smoky Talisker. Harder to tell some of the other regional scotches apart, I think. Even there, I think there is diminishing returns for the 25 yr old and up single malts.

One of the most amusing stories I've seen is on Penn and Teller's BS show. They filled fancy water bottles from a garden hose and had a water sommelier sell people water for up to $$$ per bottle and they thought they could taste differences. They also compared NY city tap to bottled water and people liked the tap. You gotta see this story--it's great.

[Barrel_Proof]

Saw the abc story on tv the other night. Loved the woman who hated the taste of her beloved Grey Goose. Makes sense given what vodka is.

I keep a lot of bourbons and scotches around, but am trying to pare down. Realized the other night that I like Knob better than Woodford, but will confirm it with a blind taste test, too.

Like to think that I can tell peaty Lagavulin from smoky Talisker. Harder to tell some of the other regional scotches apart, I think. Even there, I think there is diminishing returns for the 25 yr old and up single malts.

One of the most amusing stories I've seen is on Penn and Teller's BS show. They filled fancy water bottles from a garden hose and had a water sommelier sell people water for up to $$$ per bottle and they thought they could taste differences. They also compared NY city tap to bottled water and people liked the tap. You gotta see this story--it's great.

It is no secret that NYC has great tap water. It is one of the city's defining qualities.

[T47]

Have you seen the Myth Busters episode where they try and run bottom shelf Vodka through a Britta filter to make it taste like a "top shelf" Vodka?

Jamie, Kari, and a guy named Anthony Dias Blue did a taste test. Mr. Blue is listed as a "vodka expert" he is the executive director of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

They took a bottom shelf Vodka and ran it through britta filters 1-2-3-4-5 and then 6 times. They also had a "Top Shelf" vodka. Mr. Blue did a taste test and was able to put the shots in correct order, from the Un-filtered bottom shelf up through the various levels and then the Top Shelf.

His conclusion was that the extra filtering improves a bottom shelf vodka, but does not make it a top shelf vodka. Maybe a little off track on this thread but I found it kind of interesting.

They said they did a test of the chemical composition of the unfiltered and filtered vodka's and there was no difference between them...even after the 6 extra filtrations.

[TimmyBoston]

IMO Premium Vodka is far better than the cheap swill. But with some Vodka prices rising above $60, I could never justify that amount however the better $20-$30 bottling are worth it, (if I were a vodka drinker) because the generic bottlings are no better than terpentine.

[nickynick]

I find this post very interesting. Because the vast majority of my friends are vodka drinker's. I can't tell the difference form kettle one, to grey goose, from whatever. Now there may be a little difference from say gordon's, but I would say its a huge difference. Most of my friends swear that kettle one is the greatest vodka ever. Myself, I don't see the reward in drinking something that tastes like nothing. I have however been able to sway at least one of my friends to at least think about drinking whiskey. I took him to a tasting and he is starting to see that there are many more flavor possibilities with whiskey. I gotten him to try and like some Bourbon, he likes some Scotch, and he likes almost all Irish whiskey I have shared with him. Maybe he is starting to see the light. But in this mix drink society we live in, young people(which I am) will probably keep drinking vodka. I try however to share some of my bourbon with those of my friends who are willing to try it. Most are pleasantly surprised.

[jburlowski]

In a word: no.

[Gillman]

Ketel One is very good though.

Gary

[Pappy's Friend]

I find both Ketel One and Chopin to be quite enjoyable (although not in the same league as bourbon!). I used to be a Ketel One on the rocks until I was forever changed in Louisville. I don't think I've had a vodka since I started drinking bourbon!

[Martian]

The vodka craze used to amuse me. Now I am getting irritated. I tire of waiters asking me if I want vodka or gin when I order a Martini. Vodka has only one useful purpose. A Bloody Mary. My answer is no.

[chperry]

I haven't much use for vodka. I drink Martinis with Gin (of course) and even mix my Bloody Mary with Gin! I like many spirits, but I am not sure where vodka fits in as it hasn't much flavor.

[Keenan]

Buffalo Trace now distills a vodka called Rain. It is made from organic white corn, and distilled seven times. I guess that is supposed to be a lot. It sells for around $20, and tastes like nothing. I also suppose that is good for a vodka.

[sysrick]

This interesting blog entry

http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2007/09/fightin-words-on-vodka.html

references two recent articles on this subject -- one in Advertising Age and the other in the Weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal. Here is a quote from the Advertising Age article:

Bacardi wishes to sell preposterously expensive ultra-mega-super-premium vodka to showoffs, wannabes and snobs. […] It's the hoariest gambit in the world: to flatter customers into imagining they are not conspicuous consumers but discriminating ones. That when they belly up to the bar calling for Grey Goose, they can tell the difference between it and Stoli and Absolut and the rail vodka, because they have rarified tastes that the mere hoi polloi could never understand. That they are, sniff, a cut above.

[jburlowski]

Buffalo Trace now distills a vodka called Rain. It is made from organic white corn, and distilled seven times. I guess that is supposed to be a lot. It sells for around $20, and tastes like nothing. I also suppose that is good for a vodka.

Vodka, by definition, is supposed to taste like nothing,

[Phischy]

Of all the Rums and Bourbons I like, I keep 1 brand of vodka: monopolowa. It's great, high quality and cheap b/c it has zero ad campaign. Won double gold medals and is good in vodka/7's. although I would like to get a bottle of Rain.

[mgilbertva]

When my brother and I did the BT tour, they let us try Rain. I'm one of those that doesn't see the point in drinking vodka, but I had to agree, it was good. Sweeter than a typical vodka, and more oily. Compliments of the corn, I suppose.

I've also had an opportunity to do a couple of blind vodka tastings: Goose, Kettel, Chopin, Stoli, and Absolut. I definitely noticed a difference, subtle though it may be, between the different brands and was able to rank them by preference. I preferred the Absolut. I think I placed Stoli second. Maybe that's because I used to drink those before I discovered a liquor that actually tastes good.

But overall, to me the exercise was something like trying to choose between different shades of off-white to paint a wall, and about as entertaining. Yeah, I can see the difference, and eventually I was able to pick one. But it's not something I want to do everyday.

[jburlowski]

What amazes me about the vodka wars is that most people drink vodka mixed with something else that makes any taste differences (real or imagined) a moot point.

An example: a few months back I was having a drink (Pappy 20, by the way) in the bar of a high-end hotel in the Midwest. A guy comes into the bar and asks if they have Brand X vodka. The bartender apologizes but says no, and proceeds to list the seven or eight top-shelf vodkas that they do have. The customer (becoming loud and indignant) is adamant... he has to have Brand X.

The bartender, going way above and beyond, calls around to the other bars and restaurants in the hotel and locates one that has Brand X. SHes leaves and goes and gets a bottle. Returning, she asks: "How would you like that sir?" "A cosmopolitan", is the reply.

[HighTower]

I was looking through the pages of a liquor store's website the other day, to see what bourbons they have.

They had a 'new' section I decided to check out and I stumbled across Bong Vodka. I bet this is one bottle in Holland that doesn't make the recycling bin!:slappin:

Scott

[Joeluka]

I was looking through the pages of a liquor store's website the other day, to see what bourbons they have.

They had a 'new' section I decided to check out and I stumbled across Bong Vodka. I bet this is one bottle in Holland that doesn't make the recycling bin!:slappin:

Scott

The bottle is made thicker where you would drill holes for the bowl post

and carb. The manufacturers do this intentionally so you can't make a real BONG out of it.

[cowdery]

Maybe I just have a dirty mind, but my first thought wasn't bong.

[NeoTexan]

Maybe I just have a dirty mind, but my first thought wasn't bong.

You were not alone.

[Gillman]

My wife picked up a bottle of Roth vodka recently in New York, this one (like the Ciroc brand) is made from grapes. She said there is buzz in New York about Roth vodka, anyone heard about it or tried it?

Gary