#1 Vodka is 0% Vodka!
It was time to buy a new bottle of vodka. I've had my eye on a few different brands lately. Some I've had before, some are new to me. I chose to wait until I'd finished off 1 of the 2 bottles of vodka in my cabinet before buying another. That's how I manage my "drinking problem"- which applies not just to the size of my wine collection but hard liquor, too. Well, thanks to all the Quarantinis I've been drinking recently I polished off one of those bottles of vodka. Time to go shopping!
Along with buying a half dozen bottles of wine (my collection was down to the "fill" line) I selected this bottle of Tahoe Blue Vodka. It's got that prominent #1 label on it- which actually didn't mean a lot to me. I was more swayed by it having good customer reviews at two sites I checked and finding it on a good sale. Oh, and I like the Tahoe shtick. For centuries distilleries have been about their water source.... Lake Tahoe is some amazing water!
I set up an impromptu taste test with the other two bottles of vodka in my house, Russian Standard Gold (the one I was finishing off) and Ketel One. I poured each at room temperature and added a tiny piece of ice. Russian Standard had the most "vodka" taste, with just a bit of a peppery burn. Ketel was the smoothest but also blandest. Tahoe Blue had the most refreshing taste, very clean and with just a touch of sweetness. Tahoe Blue is the one I'd most enjoy sipping straight.
As I pictured sipping Tahoe Blue on a warm evening on a deck overlooking Lake Tahoe it bothered me that there was just something... off... about the taste. It tastes great, just not really like vodka. Then I read the finer print at the bottom of the bottle. This "#1" vodka isn't even vodka!
Yeah, look at those ingredients. Sugarcane, grape, and corn. It's not vodka, it's a rum-wine-corn liquor blend!
Traditionally vodka is distilled from potatoes and/or grain. This "vodka" has neither of those. Under alcohol labeling laws in the EU and Canada it's illegal to call this one a vodka. Permissive US laws, though, allow any clear, mostly-flavorless alcohol "without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color" to be sold as vodka. So here we are. Rum-wine-corn hootch is now vodka. Well, at least it's tasty hootch!
Along with buying a half dozen bottles of wine (my collection was down to the "fill" line) I selected this bottle of Tahoe Blue Vodka. It's got that prominent #1 label on it- which actually didn't mean a lot to me. I was more swayed by it having good customer reviews at two sites I checked and finding it on a good sale. Oh, and I like the Tahoe shtick. For centuries distilleries have been about their water source.... Lake Tahoe is some amazing water!
I set up an impromptu taste test with the other two bottles of vodka in my house, Russian Standard Gold (the one I was finishing off) and Ketel One. I poured each at room temperature and added a tiny piece of ice. Russian Standard had the most "vodka" taste, with just a bit of a peppery burn. Ketel was the smoothest but also blandest. Tahoe Blue had the most refreshing taste, very clean and with just a touch of sweetness. Tahoe Blue is the one I'd most enjoy sipping straight.
As I pictured sipping Tahoe Blue on a warm evening on a deck overlooking Lake Tahoe it bothered me that there was just something... off... about the taste. It tastes great, just not really like vodka. Then I read the finer print at the bottom of the bottle. This "#1" vodka isn't even vodka!
Yeah, look at those ingredients. Sugarcane, grape, and corn. It's not vodka, it's a rum-wine-corn liquor blend!
Traditionally vodka is distilled from potatoes and/or grain. This "vodka" has neither of those. Under alcohol labeling laws in the EU and Canada it's illegal to call this one a vodka. Permissive US laws, though, allow any clear, mostly-flavorless alcohol "without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color" to be sold as vodka. So here we are. Rum-wine-corn hootch is now vodka. Well, at least it's tasty hootch!