Start buying the cheap stuff

[twiley]

Story

[Puddy]

Interesting. Vodka became my liquor of choice a couple of years ago. I usually alternate between Stoli and Grey Goose and usually have it with tonic water and lime. Maybe I'll give Smirnoff a chance next time (or god forbid Mohawk )

[evil_gop_liars]

Since I'm usually drinking a bloody mary or salty dog I always buy cheap vodka. If I drink it straight up I'll have a snort of Monopolowa.

[detlef]

Smirnoff is our well. Of course we carry the higher end stuff because people will pay for it but, to be honest, the whole high end vodka thing has always struck me as odd. By definition it is supposed to be flavorless.

 

Mind you, the NC liquor taxes sort of make the point of using rot-gut for you well rather pointless since a $4 tax is levied on every bottle regardless of price. As a percentage, it makes the cheaper stuff less of a deal. Frankly, I'm cool with that because I wouldn't want to serve the absolute dreck anyway.

[wiegie]

Using a premium type of alcohol in any mixed drink always seemed stupid to me as did the notion of high-end vodkas.

[Seattle LawDawg]

I drink Belvedere mainly, Ketel One next, and then Crater Lake vodka after that....typically on the rocks or as a martini. I don't do any other mixed vodka drinks. Crater Lake is surprisingly good but pretty hard to find or I'd drink it more often. I don't notice too much of a taste difference between those and a smirnoff or other but I seem to notice it more then next day when I drink cheaper vodka.

 

We do have a vodka bar in town and many of them are infused but if you want to sit down and compare between a potato, rice, or corn vodka, those are the places to do it. There are a lot of people doing some interesting things with vokda.

[detlef]

If you don't live in a police state like NC where the free market allows liquor vendors to actually give a crap about brining in cool stuff, check out Sochu. It's essentially japanese vodka made from a number of different starches; sweet potato, buckwheat, rices, etc. Really cool stuff with tons of nuance. There's a restaurant in NYC called Brasserie En that does flights and they're quite illustrative.

[Cameltosis]

I don't notice too much of a taste difference between those and a smirnoff or other but I seem to notice it more then next day when I drink cheaper vodka.

 

 

This is absolutely true, and the point the article misses.

[detlef]

This is absolutely true, and the point the article misses.

 

That is a whole lot truer when you are talking about crap vodka like kamchatka, aristocrat, or whatever bulk swag is in your market. In the case of smirnoff, it's pretty clean stuff.

[Furd]

I don't know about the poll.

 

I typically drink vodka straight. While the premiums types don't all taste the same, you can tell the difference between them and stuff like Absolut and worse.

 

My favorite is Stolichnaya right out of the freezer. That's pretty much the only way to drink vodka.

 

On the rare occasions that I want to mix it, I'll throw in a splash of soda and maybe some rocks. I'll typically drink Smirnoff (which is quite good, IMO )with a mixer.

 

If you are going to kill the vodka with tonic, lime and ice, you might as well get well vodka because most of the flavor of the vodka is masked.