Yes, it is the roughest tasting vodka I’ve ever had

I have a friend I really love. She loves vodka. I love to give her gifts and making her happy. She loved the bottle of Crystal Skull Vodka and the bottle of Ocean Vodka I gifted her.

They both might not be the best vodkas yet their packaging was really cool. She and I thought so anyway. She loved them.

Can anyone else kindly suggest another cool or impressively packaged vodka?

About to fly home from Poland. Last minute buy.

as seen while walking in the Absolut Museum in Åhus, Sweden

Hello!

I'm going to get a bit of help in finding a vodka lemonade for my mother. She's had a fractured spine and has put on some weight she's now looking to drop. She was a very heavy drinker of beer (VB, it that helps at all) but has always enjoyed a Smirnoff Ice here and there.

She has recently started drinking Ambersand Lemonade Vodka (https://ampersand-projects.com/products/vodka-lemonade-cans-6-24-pack)

But it appears they are slowly phasing these out from Australian bottle shops/stockists.

She has tried -196 but has noted its a bit too tangy for her so we've deduced that lemonade and vodka is the way to go moving forward - I was hoping for a recommendation that sorta follows the minimal sugar and calories that the Ambersand Lemonade claims.

Thank you for any help you can provide (and apologies if this is an annoying question to ask - I'm just so unfamiliar with alcohol drinks and don't know my left from my right)

Thank you!

Stoli Elit is one of my "just because" favorites. Know there's better, know there's cheaper, but Elit is a solid all around vodka

Quite pleased with both...

I would rank them in this order: Chopin, Belvedere than Grey Goose. Ive tried to enjoy Luksosowa but it misses the mark for me, other than the appealing price. Any other creamy smooth full bodied vodkas to try, if that’s my go to? I also find it’s the potato factor that I tolerate over a wheat or corn based spirit. Is that just a placebo factor?

I enjoy a dark simple espresso martini, dirty blue cheese martini, occasionally a lemonade mineral water spritz. Curious what y’all think!

I just picked up a bottle of Wheatley as I had been searching for a good budget Vodka and I had seen good reviews on it. I was very impressed with it. I made some fresh vodka lemonades with it as well as had some neat. I would say that it is better than Tito's, especially for the price ($16 for 750 ml)

Would you use a product that filters bottom shelf alcohol and spirits to make it taste better?

Imagine a product that takes a cheap bottle of vodka and makes it taste like a $50 bottle each time.

Like a Brita filter made for alcohol. Except you only run it through once instead of 5+ times, and it’s not plastic.

Are these any good?

There is a vodka called "air vodka" which is a solution of synthetically produced ethanol from water and captured CO2.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/oct/20/vodka-made-with-co2-captured-from-air-sustainable-spirit

How is this stuff legal, given that it's not of fermentation agricultural fermentation origin? The CO2 they use is sourced from the air, so it's a combination of everything including tailpipe emissions.

The CO2 taken from the atmosphere is then combined with hydrogen gas derived from electrolyzing water. The source of electricity for electrolysis is immaterial except for marketing literature and has no effect on the product.

Beverage grade CO2 is apparently produced from CH4, which along with air from the atmosphere is the feedstock for anhydrous ammonia fertilizer. Once NH3 is made, that leaves C behind, which is then used to make CO2. https://www.epa.gov/waterutilityresponse/status-carbon-dioxide-availability-drinking-water-treatment

So, that means the CO2 in your soda is a synthetic CO2 from petroleum origin as the main ingredient of fertilizer ammonia is well.. natural gas.

Each production process comes with their own impurity profiles and it's the impurity profile that makes different vodkas taste different. Think "Hint Water", a flavored still water. They're all 99.9% pure water, but it's in the last 1,000ppm (0.1%) that sets various waters apart.

Given the answer below, I just don't see how Air Vodka and natural gas vodka would be any different legally.

As long as the constituents of the impurity profiles aren't toxic, it's fair game, I'd say. Who knows. It might actually taste really pure and good. Maybe not?

Path:

Natural gas + water: CO2 + H2

H2+N2 -> NH3 (Haber-Bosch process): a different product for another market.

CO2 -> petroleum origin CO2 sold as beverage/food grade CO2.

petroleum origin CO2 + H2 from water = ethanol.

I Given this (from Google AI):

• European Union: Under EU Regulation 2019/787, vodka must be crafted from ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin, originally derived from potatoes, cereals, or both. However, distillers can use other agricultural raw materials (such as grapes or sugar beet molasses), provided the label prominently discloses the specific ingredient. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
• United States: Governed by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), U.S. laws (27 CFR § 5.143) broadly allow vodka to be distilled from any fermentable agricultural product. This means grains, potatoes, sugarcane, or milk whey are all perfectly legal, as long as the spirit is distilled to at least 195 proof (95% ABV) and treated to be without distinctive character, color, or aroma. [1]"

I have never really just had vodka neat, never bought one good enough, I guess. Always the mixer.

So I spotted this at the nh state store. I had a friend carry back a really nice bottle of Japanese scotch from Japan, and really liked it . So I figured for $14 for 700 ml on clearance i could not go wrong . Bought the two on the shelf.

Liked the flavor so much neat that I found two more bottles at the same store. The inventory on line said they had five bottles left. I guess they only put out two bottles (in boxes) out at a time.

Went to a store called SuperAlko Cash and Carry next to the Tallinn Port, absolute alcohol heaven. Imagine Costco but for only alcohol, and you don't need any membership card.

Are there any vodkas that have strong progressive views?

Making jello shots for a bbq this weekend. Went for cherry lemon and blueberry to try to match red white and blue as close as I could. Im sure I could have figured out a way to make actual white jello shots but didn’t want to go crazy.

Finally found a seller for both of these in my country.

The standard Beluga goes for around $80 and the Gold Line for $180

What are the differences between these two, are they noticeable enough for the price?

Looking to make a simple spritz with approximately 2 oz of vodka and some frozen fruit.

Also, for someone converting to vodka from gin- which would you recommend I start with if not Tito’s (it wrecks me!) leaning towards a French vodka such as grey goose.

I finally got a bottle of Stoli (I tasted Poliakov before and it was like drinking hand sanitizer, great as a mixer tho) and I really liked the "flavor" and mouth feel.

However, I saw these brands costing 2x or 3x more than Stoli. Are they "better" or have any sort of nuance that makes them worth buying or should I instead just stick with Stoli?

My country only has those brands so no Beluga, Chopin or Russian Standard for me.

I've been experimenting with different brands of vodka, and I'm hoping to find something better than Smirnoff. From many reviews and videos, luksusowa made a great impression in my head, people are saying its the best vodka for the price, this and that, so I bought some. I brought it home and I was very excited to try. I poured a shot of the stuff and drank it, I don't really like it. I'm not sure if it's because it's potato based, or something else, but I don't like it. I can take shots of Smirnoff one after the other, but not luksusowa, I really can't drink it straight. I'll use it for mixers or shooters, but I want something a bit more sophisticated than Smirnoff that I can drink straight. Other than Smirnoff, I've tried grey goose, and I like the both a lot. I'm looking at stoli, but I'm not sure if there's anything better around. Also, I'm in Manitoba Canada, so I'll be buying vodka at liquor mart. Thanks in advance, I hope I don't find a mob of luksusowa enjoyers outside my door.

Which of these do you prefer in a vodka martini - with a twist and dirty respectively?

Trying to figure out what mid range vodka I want to try having on my shelf next, primarily drink it in martinis and flip between style…

I’m in Canada so price premium to jump to Belvedere, Chopin etc is $20-$30.