Vodka

[Senator Jack]

Okay, I consider myself a pretty serious cocktailian. Not an expert on booze, but a pretty serious cocktailian. I've tried out hundreds of recipes over the years and my liquor cabinet is better stocked than most bars. I try to stay out of the vodka debate because people get upset, but there are those of us who believe that vodka is pretty much the equivalent of the the wool fedora. Somebody can like the wool fedora, and believe it to be of quality, but you know it's going to be an out-and-out argument when they try to tell you it's as good as your fur felt.


Check out Robert Hess' article at http://www.drinkboy.com/Essays/DistilledWater.html

It says it all.

As for the novel synopsis, WeeGee, let's just say it's a 1950s comic disaster. One too many drinks, one too many women.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Brad Bowers]

Senator Jack,

I'm with you all the way on vodka! However, I do have to stock it at home, as my wife prefers Cosmopolitans. She really doesn't like anything else, no matter how I try. I suspect she's like the majority of younger drinkers that prefer their alcohol with no taste.

I liked the "Training Wheels" analogy in the article you mentioned.

Brad

 

[Briscoeteque]

Russkiy Standart is my favorite, hands down. Stoli's the best I can get in Maine.

Though recently I've become quite fond of Canadian Whiskys, and they are often cheaper then good vodka.

Absolut is trash, it tastes like rubbing alchohol. Grey goose is overpriced.

 

[Senator Jack]

I have to keep a bottle around for friends. They ask me to mix them something with vodka and I'm at a loss. Eveyone else is raving about my drinks and the vodka drinkers think they must be missing something. Of course they're missing something. Flavor!

Every once in a while I experiment with vodka, just so I have something to serve them, but I'll be damned if I can get it to work. I have to make apologies when I hand them the glass.


The drinkboy site is great. Very informative, and the guys who post are some of the top connoisseurs in the country. They've even got the ball rolling for The American Cocktail Museum which is supposed to be in New Orleans, but I guess that got pushed back for a while.


Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[WEEGEE]

Kangaroo cocktail

Thank you Senator for the link and then some.

http://www.drinkboy.com/Cocktails/recipes/Martini.html


Senator Jack

As for the novel synopsis, WeeGee, let's just say it's a 1950s comic disaster. One too many drinks, one too many women.

Will be sure to buy a copy when it makes print.:beer:

 

[jamespowers]

I have to keep a bottle around for friends. They ask me to mix them something with vodka and I'm at a loss. Eveyone else is raving about my drinks and the vodka drinkers think they must be missing something. Of course they're missing something. Flavor!

I can guarantee you that my friend can make you a vodka drink with flavor. It may not have much vodka in it but it is still a vodka drink. I was like you before he started experimenting with new ways to mix a vodka drink. Three words---Chocolate Banana Martini. Until you have one you will never know what vodka can taste like. The guy should be a bartender really. He missed his calling but I am sure a machinist makes more money. Did I mention the best Long Island Ice Tea in the world that he makes? :cheers1:
Otherwise if I am out or at home, I never drink Vodka---even if I have his recipes.

Regards to all,

J

 

[WEEGEE]

POWERS WHISKEY

JAMESPOWERS,


Any Irish relitives living in County Cork making Whiskey?

(good stuff):cheers1:

 

[jamespowers]

JAMESPOWERS,


Any Irish relitives living in County Cork making Whiskey?

(good stuff):cheers1:

Darn. I only wish. I do drink my namesake though. Powers and Sons make a decent Irish Whisky for a good price. I could save myself some money if I was related. I could also get the best stuff they have at a much better price. :cheers1:

Regards,

J

 

[jkath]

I've worked on and off in bars for over thirteen years. I've always been baffled by something about vodka. Among Eastern Europeans it seems to be regarded as something of a manly drink, much like bourbon in the West. However, in the bars of New York, nine out of ten vodka drinkers are women.

And I am one of them!

Try this sometime when you're in the mood for something yummy:
fresh lemonade (I have a meyer lemon tree, so it's extra tasty!) + Vanilla Vodka (smirnoff's is actually very vanilla-y)
Tastes like lemon meringue pie with a kick.


BTW, a couple of days ago, I learned that Grey Goose was sold to the Bacardi company last June (that's what happens when I watch too much Jeopardy)

 

[katiemakeup]

Oh that recipe sounds delish! I don't know much about vodka~ You can definately tell a difference between, say Absolut which is course to me, then GG or Belvedere more smooth.

Does anyone remember Turpenhydrate Cough medicine?? I don't think they make it anymore! When I first had vodka, that's exactly what it tasted like to me- flashbacks of childhood

 

[Dr Doran]

As I'm married to a Polish person, I cannot get away with hating vodka. The one I have drunk the most has been Monopolowa. It's made by Polish people living in France. Trader Joe's used to have it for cheap. It was the best you could get for that price. The Poles are fanatics about vodka and one must have toasts with it at every get-together in Poland or here. Typically the first toast is to the hosts, then the hosts toast the guests, then someone toasts the beautiful women of Poland (and, having been there many, many times, I can assure you that that country is full of beautiful women!). Eventually John Paul II is toasted, Lech Walesa, and, if the people you are with are book-friendly, Czeslaw Milosz. You often bite into a pickle after shooting the shot so the taste is muffled thereby.

Infused vodkas are wonderful. My favorite has always been Zubrowka, which is infused with a special grass grown on a bison preserve in Poland.

I do not disagree with the Everclear comparison. In fact, my wife bought Everclear in Oregon recently to make another infused drink: a honey vodka (but, again, made with Everclear).

 

[Tomasso]

I mainly use vodka for Bloody Marys and Screwdrivers so I don't pay up for the premium brands; For years I used Skyy, now I use Svedka.

 

[Helen Troy]

Infused vodkas are wonderful. My favorite has always been Zubrowka, which is infused with a special grass grown on a bison preserve in Poland.

That is the only vodka I have ever tasted that I think is worth drinking neat!

 

[mtechthang]

Yes. And a new favorite mixed!!

That is the only vodka I have ever tasted that I think is worth drinking neat!

At their website (Zubrowka) they list some "favorite" mixes. My new favorite name for a mixed drink - A Lawnmower!! Kind of reminds me of trying to get home some evenings in college, unfortunately!!
1/4oz Bison Grass Vodka (now I'm already disappointed!!)
1/4oz Gin (they didn't specify but I'm heartened!)
1/4oz Dark Rum (again, no specification- I'm starting to like this one- up to 3/4oz!! ethanol)
1/4oz Triple Sec
2oz Sour Mix (un-oh, is this going well?)
4os Cranberry Mix (now I know Cranberry farmers - they are not going to like that!)
Garnish with a lime wedge

I'm going back to Bourbon!! Or Scotch!! Or, oh, yeah, this is a vodka thread and I'm happy there too!! How about the newish, Hanger1 for a Fedora Lounge appropriate name in a vodka? I haven't had the pleasure but reviews have been pretty good (well, not all). Also, Stolichnaya Elit is great stuff! Chopin is still my personal favorite.

 

[Mojito]

I began drinking vodka with my first job - my boss's late husband was Polish, and she'd picked up the habit from him. I do understand why it's thought to be overdistilled/tasteless (some drinkers even regard these as virtues!), but I love it as a chilled shot or in the right combination - muddled with strawberries, lime and cointreau, for example, it's perfect. Infused flavours can be very pleasant as well - a Cosmopolitan (I know...so 2002) with Absolut Vanilla is one I get a hankering for every now and then. I tried a particular cocktail in New Zealand made with their 42 Below Manuka Honey - lovely and dry, in spite of the word "honey". Can't remember the rest of the ingredients, but that beautiful smell of honey was to die for - taking a sip of it while that fragrence wafted up was bliss.

 

[Phil]

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?

Simply put. Because they can.

 

[Feraud]

But with vodka you are paying for absence of taste. That's the point. With Scotch (which I vastly prefer) you are paying for taste, preferably a complex taste with hints of honey, vanilla, cocoa, almond.

But vodka is the diminutive of woda in Polish, meaning water. (It is also cognate with our word water, as one might guess by pronouncing both words fast, or hearing a baby say them. Both the Slavic languages and English are in the grand family of languages descended from proto-Indo-European.)

It means, literally, "little water" or perhaps better "li'l water." (The -k- infix is a diminutive common to the Slavic languages, if I am not mistaken. Example: "doll" is lala. In north Poland they say "lalka" meaning "little doll." Etc.)

ANYHOW, the point is that vodka is supposed to be clear in color, flavor, odor. Like water.

Ah, the less is more factor. Thanks for the explanation. I never understood the attraction to something that tastes like nothing.
Then again I am a gin man myself.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

My very favourite vodka and, in my mind, the best value-for-money is:

Stolichnaya Gold

Smooth but still has character and it's a good price.

 

[scottyrocks]

My favorite is Finlandia. It's what I keep in the house.

 

[donCarlos]

So, my favourites:

царская золотая - definitely one of the best I´ve ever had, quite expensive, but it´s worth it.
http://www.vodka-czars.ru/ladoga_swf/eng/
зеленая марка - it´s cheap and powerful
and finally Sobieski.

I don´t like all those ordinary vodkas, they are... too ordinary.