Vodka

[Story]

This stuff has been out for a year or so, haven't seen it mentioned here (or my googlefinger failed me).

Inspired by 500 years of vodka making expertise, Absolut has spent the last decade inventing a new vodka. Crafted from hand-selected estate wheat, and blended with soft and naturally filtered water, Absolut Elyx is a true expression of quality. It is a small-batch vodka, produced according to craft techniques, in an authentic 1929 copper rectification still.

http://popsop.com/41963

*

The advert

*
The movie short

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

I used to think vodka was vodka until I had Belvedere. An independent grocery here bought several flats and was selling it at a bargain price. After I tried it I went back the next day and purchased a case.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I am curious about vodka. It has no flavor.....so why is some vodka so much more expensive? The French charge high prices for Grey Goose....but the French are crazy to start with.

Schmernoff (i have to misspell once in a while or the nim-rods would have no life) is half the price of Absolute. Why?

Advertising.

There are only 3 or 4 distilleries in the United States that make vodka. Liquor companies buy the stuff in bulk and package it in their own bottles. The different brands all come out of the same vats.

As far as French vs American wines, they all come from French vines grafted onto American roots. True.

In the 1850s a root mite got from North America to France and devastated French vineyards. The only cure was to import American wild grape vines, which were immune, and graft the French vines onto them.

 

[Poonhound]

I prefer a Vodka thats NOT made with grain or rice but with potatoes.(Hint: It's from Poland)

 

[rue]

I drink Skyy normally, but I usually drink mixed drinks, so it doesn't matter that it doesn't really have a taste. If I'm drinking it straight I ask for Stoli with a twist.

 

[Flicka]

French vodka just seems... wrong. Vodka should be from the "Vodka-belt", i.e. old Imperial Russia, Poland, Finland and Sweden. Traditionally, we drank clear distilled spirits like it was water. 200 years ago, men here had a morning shot of 'brännvin' (our traditional name for clear distilled spirits) with their breakfast and then just continued drinking through the day. Absolut has got its name from one of the brands of 'brännvin' sold in the 19th century here. There was 'Purified' (Renat) brännvin and then the twice-purified version which was called 'Absolute Purified' (Absolut Renat). When the vodka (which is essentially very pure brännvin, but sounds fancier) was launched, they used the old name. Hence 'Absolut'. They still sell 'Renat' here too, but that's... Not so good. Tastes very raw. Works well for making 'snaps', i.e. traditional flavoured spirits though (if anyone ever tries to get you to drink the snaps 'Beska Droppar', duck. It's flavoured with wormwood – an English friend summed it up as 'tastes like earwax').

Someone mentioned the Polish kind with buffalo grass - have you tried that with apple juice? It tastes of apples and cinnamon, just like apple pie. Delicious!

 

[John in Covina]

I like just a few drinks made with vodka. Although I can say that the finer quality vodkas do make a difference in some drinks. The definition of vodka is that it be relatively flavorless so i am always confused by flavored vodkas.

 

[mflemming]

I used to think vodka was vodka until I had Belvedere. An independent grocery here bought several flats and was selling it at a bargain price. After I tried it I went back the next day and purchased a case.

Good stuff, I love that hint of vanilla that's in it.

 

[mflemming]

The best vodka I've ever tasted was bootlegged from Siberia in a suitcase. The label was all in Russian. Not much hope of finding that brand around here.