5-Shot
Member
Years ago I read an interview with the head of one of the major distillers. He was asked the difference between their high priced vodka and their economy line. His response was “Pricing policy.”
Ed
Ed
Vodka Expensive vs. cheap
- Thread starter cougar14
- Start date
To any of you that think the only difference between Absolut and Popov is price...I laugh at thee.
I was a latecomer to vodka drinking. I first tasted influenced by a Finn aquaintance.
My vodka is "Absolute".
I don't usually make soft drinks out of liquor. With 2 exceptions. I like gin tonic (I like it too without the tonic
my choice is Bombay Saphire for both). And I like "Cuba libre"(like rhum all by itself too,
but, if anything goes with "Cuba libres" if it is just rhum, I'm having "Habana Club" anejo).
My vodka is "Absolute".
I don't usually make soft drinks out of liquor. With 2 exceptions. I like gin tonic (I like it too without the tonic
my choice is Bombay Saphire for both). And I like "Cuba libre"(like rhum all by itself too, but, if anything goes with "Cuba libres" if it is just rhum, I'm having "Habana Club" anejo).
pmosley
Member
I prefer Ketel One, cold over ice cubes - Titos is not bad either if Vodka is the choice.
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Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk
LoadedRound
Member
You know I might be strange.......
but I think I can taste the difference.
To my palette, the best I've had is Wheatley's.
The best for the money is Sam's Club "Member's Mark American Vodka" This stuff is $14 for a 1.75 and it's seriously good.
Either will make you amazingly happy when consumed in substantial quantities. Probably because they're both made in Kentucky
but I think I can taste the difference.
To my palette, the best I've had is Wheatley's.
The best for the money is Sam's Club "Member's Mark American Vodka" This stuff is $14 for a 1.75 and it's seriously good.
Either will make you amazingly happy when consumed in substantial quantities. Probably because they're both made in Kentucky
hoosierone
Member
Smirnoff is my go to vodka. I admit I probably couldn't tell the difference in that or Grey Goose or Tito. The real cheap stuff, you can tell the difference. Maybe the extra filtration makes a difference.
Does anyone recall in one of the James Bond books he put pepper in the drink to get rid of impurities or something?
Does anyone recall in one of the James Bond books he put pepper in the drink to get rid of impurities or something?
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DWalt
Member
"And because distilling up to the 95% ABV (190 proof) required by law for vodka is hard with a small still, most "craft distillers" buy that stuff too, and just run it through their still again, so they can legally claim they distilled it and charge "craft" prices, like Tito's Vodka; "made in Texas" my patootie. "
Not just hard, but impossible. At 95% (actually 95.6%), ethanol-water is an azeotropic (constant boiling) solution and high ethanol concentrations close to 95% can be produced only by using very special and expensive distillation procedures to break the azeotrope, not ordinary distillation. Indeed the industrial ethanol produced today mainly for use in gasoline blending by ADM et al., is the very same ethanol used as a starting material to make many Vodkas and other liquors. That's where a large percentage of U. S.-grown corn goes today.
Not just hard, but impossible. At 95% (actually 95.6%), ethanol-water is an azeotropic (constant boiling) solution and high ethanol concentrations close to 95% can be produced only by using very special and expensive distillation procedures to break the azeotrope, not ordinary distillation. Indeed the industrial ethanol produced today mainly for use in gasoline blending by ADM et al., is the very same ethanol used as a starting material to make many Vodkas and other liquors. That's where a large percentage of U. S.-grown corn goes today.
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I am an avowed beer guy but I will stray for one of these brunch treats. Vodka brand is not important.
FlyFish
Member
The only way to really know if there's a difference in taste among vodkas, and at the same time find out which one you really prefer, is to do a "double blind" tasting. A while back my wife and I bought nips of a dozen or so vodkas over a wide price range - most of the big-name popular brands and a few of the more obscure ones. With her out of the room, I poured each of them into identical glasses and assigned each glass a number. Then I left the room and she substituted a letter for each of the numbers, and moved the glasses around. That way, neither of us knew which was which (making it "double blind"). Then we tasted each of them. Two important observations:
First, we found there were definitely huge differences in flavor among the various vodkas, and you didn't need to be any kind of expert (we aren't) to discern that.
Second, much to our surprise (and relief), we both preferred the rather neutral taste of the brand our state liquor stores sell for $12.99 per 1.75L. Nice to be able to save a little money.
First, we found there were definitely huge differences in flavor among the various vodkas, and you didn't need to be any kind of expert (we aren't) to discern that.
Second, much to our surprise (and relief), we both preferred the rather neutral taste of the brand our state liquor stores sell for $12.99 per 1.75L. Nice to be able to save a little money.
It was supposed to take the fusel oil to the bottom. As a result of that passage we always assumed that fusel oil was a poisonous component of cheap or bad vodka. In fact it is a combination of small amounts of non-ethanol alcohols that come about as part of the distillation process. For all I know, the pepper thing may be an old wives’s tale. Then again, it might not.
anglertoo
Member
When distilling you get a wide cut of alcohols (dozens).
Filtering (charcoal) and re-distilling eliminate the outlying (headache maker) alcohols and adds smoothness.
Smoothness, not taste.
Sip it neat, aerate in your mouth and savor.$$$$$$$$$$
or
Guzzle the cheap stuff.$
Filtering (charcoal) and re-distilling eliminate the outlying (headache maker) alcohols and adds smoothness.
Smoothness, not taste.
Sip it neat, aerate in your mouth and savor.$$$$$$$$$$
or
Guzzle the cheap stuff.$
I would think after tasting twelve different shots of vodka almost any brand would taste great.
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Vodka trivia: Pepsi had a problem when they first started to export Pepsi to the USSR. How to get paid? Rubles weren't able to be exchanged for anything else at the time. So Pepsi took payment in Stolichnaya vodka.
Due to various problems with that system, Pepsi and the USSR moved on to other forms of barter...like submarines.
When the Soviet Union Paid Pepsi in Warships - Gastro Obscura
Due to various problems with that system, Pepsi and the USSR moved on to other forms of barter...like submarines.
When the Soviet Union Paid Pepsi in Warships - Gastro Obscura
Hunter8282
US Veteran
Retro commie pickle, no doubt...
MORSNO
US Veteran
I'm a long time vodka drinker and prefer grain vodka's over potato vodka's. Many of the respected Russian and Polish vodka's are potato based, but are not my preference even though I'm Polish. My current favorite is Gray's Peak small batch from Princeton MN, it is much smoother than most.
Attachments
Vodka has no appeal for me.
No flavor and just something to mix with some flavor of any kind.
Now Rum, Bourbon or Scotch is a different thing.....
No flavor and just something to mix with some flavor of any kind.
Now Rum, Bourbon or Scotch is a different thing.....
daglockman
Member
I don't drink it anymore, but I love vodka. I seen to gravitate more towards corn-based vodka as though. There is a small distillery in Golden Colorado called Vanjak that is very smooth to me. I prefer to drink it straight over ice. Smirnoff, grey goose, and absolute taste like paint thinner to me. But it seems like I always gravitate towards corn-based alcohols. Grain based stuff made from wheat and rye taste very sharp to me no matter how expensive they are.
