Recently in Vodka Category

After preparing all of my test solutions on a, sunny, Saturday afternoon, I decided that a beautiful Tuesday evening was perfect to spend in the lab, the same lab I spent all day in. But the effort was for a good cause, which was to answer the nagging question: Does Grey Goose Contain Glycerol? It's one of those questions that people have debated for a long time, but as far as I can tell, nobody has ever tried to answer scientifically. Today, you will get an answer, but as with any scientific endeavour, we need to look at the results and decide what they really mean.

The people who market vodka are ripe with praise for their product. The machismo from these companies is enough to make Kim Jong-il blush. With a large enough marketing budget, you can create any image you want, and Grey Goose was the first vodka company to prove it. They made an unaged, technologically simple spirit into an ultra premium, must have product. The down side of making a very simple product, and charging twice as much, is the need to  justify the price to the drinker. To do that the marketing types came up with complex stories of water, technology and grain. They also blathered on about purity. So here's the question: Is vodka as pure as virgin snow, or is it a hooker dressed in a school girl uniform?

In the cocktail world there are lots of trends. Right now the classic cocktail seems to be on the rise and the martini craze is slowly slipping into obscurity, thankfully. I hate when people come to the bar and ask; “What kind of martini’s do you have?” I have two, gin or vodka. Usually I’ll guide people away from the martini and into the world of cocktails served in something other than a martini glass. These people are easy because they have an open mind, the hard people are 20 something who think a Red Bull and Vodka is a cocktail and that’s all they drink.

When it comes to vodka I’m not a big fan, or should I say I’m not a blind follower of the vodka phenomenon. Vodka has its place and for some people an ice cold vodka martini, after a long day, is a pleasant way to reward oneself. I make a lot of vodka martini’s for people but I can’t remember the last time I had one myself. I do occasionally drink vodka straight from the freezer, I find the coldness of the vodka very refreshing, especially on a very hot day. As for what brand of vodka I drink, I usually drink anything between $20 - $25CDN ($17 -$21US), so I’ve never owned a premium bottle of vodka, until a package with a bottle of Reyka vodka ($35CDN / $30US) arrived on my doorstep. So this is a good opportunity to see if this premium vodka will change my mind.