Vodka with flavor, or flavorless?
What's your favorite style of vodka? The goal, in the United States anyway, is to distill the vodka down to a clean/clear and often "neutral" to the point of having no taste. People love it, they're very brand aware and pick a brand to love. However, in Europe, it seems many vodka's have slight nuances and flavors that aren't "flavored" with juices, but just maintain some of their original natural flavors.
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For the most part, the point of distilling the vodka down five times is to remove the impurities, those same impurities often lend their own flavors. Do you like true neutral vodka's or ones with slight nuances?
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In the cocktail community, vodka isn't look at as a big player in the drink. It adds nothing but alcohol to the cocktail and most mixologists and cocktailians are making tasty cocktails as it was a high end cuisine. If the alcohol adds nothing to the cocktail, why add it at all? "Getting drunk" isn't really the end goal of a good cocktail.
Comments
Vodka
Depending on the type of coctail Im makeing, I like diffrent vodkas. I do like a vodka that you can taste some of the original flavor of, because I like the taste of vodka. Normally I use Boru brand vodka imported from Ireland. Its not too expensive and has a good flavor. Theres a few others that I enjoy, Sex brand vodka would be my number 2, but I am very picky about my vodka..... well Im very picky about all my alcohol... and food.... Ok Im just picky.
Spaz0uT
Greygoose.
I got to try Greygoose on a christmas party, and that was really good! Anybody else who like this one? Its expensive as nobodys buisniss though (135 dollars for 100cl) :o But it was very good!
-Even monkeys fall from trees-
Yes
Greygoose is a popular one at the bars around here, people constantly order a "greygoose and tonic" or whatever they put vodka in. They call it out by name. However, I'd take Tito's over Greygoose any day of the week because it's a quarter of the price and I bet most people wouldn't tell the difference in a blind tasting.
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However, Tito's is not all over the world. Greygoose is, and if you're going to drink a huge international brand Greygoose is probably the way to go. Others swear by Absolut... I think that Absolut is just over-marketed.
Where i live (Norway), Vodka
Where i live (Norway), Vodka is the thing that everybody gets for their parties to get drunk with. Because, like you said, it is almost tasteless, so it ends up tasting like whatever you mix it with. I too used to mix only vodka with juices and sodas, and everybody thought it was fine because they got drunk off it, but i found it to be very boring, and i dont thing the purpose of having a party is to get drunk off your ass. Now i use less and less vodka, and rather spend my money on other kinds of liqours, like Cointreau, as Cointreau is acctually cheaper than vodka over here. The one and only vodka i now use is Bison Grass. Bison Grass brings more to the table than just a tool to spike a drink. I really like how it taste, and when you add it do a drink you can tell that its there, unlike "normal" vodkas. I dont think i will ever need another type of vodka than Bison Grass (unless its for a spesific flavour, like vanilla or lime vodka.) Conclusion: Vodka that has some "personality" and taste is a hundred times better than the tasteless stuff for getting you drunk. Atleast thats my opinion.
Growing up
That story sounds much like "growing up." When we realize that there is more to cocktails than getting wasted as fast as possible. I concur, I believe most people will (if they haven't already) come to much the same conslusion.
devil's advocate
ok, I'm not a fan of vodka (too much of it is drunk here in Poland, apparently we're similar to Norwegians in some cases). I prefer flavoured vodka over the pure vodka.
but, in my opinion vodka has its uses in cocktails. I'm not a mixologist, professional or even experienced, mind you. I might be totally wrong about it, but would black russian be the same without vodka? vodka martini? screwdriver? vodka might not change the cocktail taste much, but it changes its... feeling, characteristic. Especially in case of drinks with low number of ingredients. The more ingredients recipe calls for, the easier it is to leave vodka aside.
Now, I'm not into getting wasted quickly, but isn't the light head feeling one of reasons we make alcohol drinks, and not alcohol-free concoctions?
I Agree
I agree. Vodka has some good uses; many good drinks would not be the same without it. I know many people enjoy the alcohol buzz, but for me the alcohol is only there for taste. A martini would not be taste the same if it was alcohol free, the same goes for whiskey (It would taste dirty water). I've tried to evaporate some spirits (Light/Dark Rum, Sambucca, Frangelico, Amaretto, Triple Sec). None of them except the Sambucca tastes good when loosing the alcohol. As far as I can see there is two explanations for this: 1. The alcohol brings out flavours hidden in the spirit 2. The evaporation removes some of the taste (other then the ethanol).
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I didn't think the Vodka Forum would be of much use, but I can see it becoming interesting =)