When I first started out bartending I would taste as many liquors as I could. To be honest, I wasn’t a fan of alcohol unless it came in the form of a beer. Probably a Light beer. You could say I had a very unrefined palate. It all seemed the same to me. Just differing versions of – Fire Water!
But slowly over the years I’ve learned that there are differences in tastes, smells and textures. Even with the purest of alcohols – Vodka.
I had some regular customers in the bar one slow night and the conversation turned to vodka. One of the customers swore he could tell the difference between different vodkas.
We all said ‘no way!’. “If I gave you 3 different shots of room temperature vodka you could tell me the difference? I don’t believe it!”
So we pulled out a 4 different vodkas and decided to do a challenge. I had the Vodka connoisseur turn his back as I poured him 4 tastes of vodka.
In an attempt to be clever, I poured him 4 tastes of the house vodka. If he said he could taste the difference between those, then I’d know he was not able to discern tastes between vodkas. Right?
So he turned around and sampled all four tastes of the cheap house vodka that I had poured him. He sampled them all and looked at me dead in the eye.
‘Those are all the same!”
I was impressed. He didn’t even try to lie about which was which. So we tried again.
This time we poured him four different tastes from different bottles.
The house well, Absolut, Stoli and Smirnoff.
He took a sip from each and quickly declared holding one up, “This is the house swill!”
Correct! Wow. When I asked how he knew he said, “It tastes like despair.”
He sipped them all again. He held another up, “This is Absolut.”
He was right again!
He sipped the remaining two declaring one was Stoli. Right again!!
‘How did you know that? I thought all vodkas tasted the same? Don’t they?”, I asked.
His answer was a simple , “No.”
We then went on to talk about different Vodkas and how they’re made. Although the differences are subtle, you can most definitely tell the difference if you are looking for them and more importantly know what to look for.
So what is Vodka anyway?
Vodka is a clear, distilled alcoholic beverage. It’s origins are in Poland, Sweden and Russia. It was enjoyed originally in the ‘Vodka Belt’ of northern, central and Eastern Europe. But now it is consumed and enjoyed the world over.
Originally vodka was made from ‘cereal grains’ but over the years has been come to be made with potatoes, sugar beets, grapes and other crops.
There has been some talk of getting a standardization to the recipe for it to be considered ‘Vodka’ amongst some members of the EU. Similar to the designation that ‘Champagne’ and ‘Tequila’ enjoy. In fact the EU since 2008 has passed a rule Vodkas must state on the label what they’re made of if its not grain or potatoes.
So how did my regular know the difference? Well, truth be told he confessed he was guessing. But it they were educated guesses! His first guess about the house vodka was simple. It tasted the worst! It burned! Which is funny because in Poland and Ukraine the word vodka originates from the phrases, ‘to burn’ or ‘burning wine.’
So how did he pick the Absolut? Well he’d done this taste test before and swears that Absolut is a little sweeter than other vodka. “Theres a hint of vanilla that creeps through” he swore. “Also it uses winter wheat which gives a softer feel.”
“Stoli on the other hand is distilled using wheat and rye. So it has a spicier kick to it.” He added.
“Plus they are filtered in different ways. Absolut is unfiltered while Stoli is filtered 4 times.”
“And you can taste the difference in that?” I asked
“Sure. It’s subtle but there are differences to be found.” He promised.
And what about Smirnoff? Whats up with that?
“Smirnoff is made from corn. That gives it a slighty sweeter feel. Smirnoff gets a bad rap as being a generic, mass produced swill. Which it is. They’re also guilty of sometimes using plastic bottles which can add a chemical taste to the vodka. Nail polish anyone? Ugh. But to be fair, in it’s purest form, its a perfectly fine vodka.”
So my regular was a fountain of knowledge! I learned a lot from him that day. Theres a lot of history and small steps that are made in producing Vodka. Everyone has an angle and they all hope and can probably claim that there Vodka is the best. Who am I to argue?
Chances are the most popular vodkas are the ones that are marketed the best. Absolut came to the US in 1979 and dominated the market with clever and cool Ad campaigns featuring their iconic bottle. Grey Goose arrived in the 1990’s and created a ‘Luxury Brand’ for their vodka. Was it better than others? It certainly was sold as if it was. Quite successfully.
So a few years ago some friends and I had a vodka tasting party. We each brought a different vodka and blind tasted all of them. We took notes on taste and reactions we each had of the different vodkas.
We had Stoli, Grey Goose, Tito’s, Smirnoff, Absolut, Skyy and Ketel One.
Do you know which one was the clear winner? Which one had the smoothest taste? Which was the easiest to drink?
Yeah, we don’t know either. But it sure was fun drinking all that vodka!!
(To be honest Skyy was voted the smoothest! For whatever that’s worth.)
Vodka is the best first alcohol to learn about. It’s a great pure jumping off point into the other alcohols of the world. The more you know about vodka, the more you’ll know about other liquors too!
I’d love to hear what your thoughts are. Maybe you and some friends can have a Vodka tasting party too! Let us know what you learn.
