Alcolog

Vodka is prolific these days, and for someone that enjoys experiencing alcohol then that makes it a fine time to try new stuff. But if you're in a liquor store staring at the wall of 50+ brands of tasteless, odorless, and colorless alcohol you might step back and come to your senses. These brands can't taste that much different from each other - and you're probably right to think that.
But even with that proliferation of brands, I tend to gravitate towards three vodkas. These aren't "the best" on the market, but they're all versatile and comfortable choices if you're looking to dip a toe into the large pool of unfamiliar brand names.

The first and most frequently purchased vodka in my freezer is the Zubrowka, in the middle of the picture. This vodka is notable for being infused with a shoot of bison grass. The American version isn't technically a fresh blade of grass because import laws forbid it... something about a ban on "coumarin" as a food additive. But it tastes pretty close to the European version and is definitely a head turner for the fact that it's not colorless or odorless.
The second most popular is the Luksusowa on the right. It's fine draw is that it's tasteless and cheap. A bonus is the fact that it's made from potatoes, so it will be slightly smoother compared to a wheat or rye vodka. Smooth enough to sip, but cheap enough to mix. That makes a nice combination.
The third is a recent exposure, and that's the Reyka vodka from Iceland. It's slightly more expensive than the Luksusowa, but it's phenomenal in its crispness. One good test of how good a vodka can be is to drink it straight at room temperature. For Reyka, it was as tasteless at room temp as the Luksusowa is frozen.

I'm sure that there are better vodkas in production and on their way. News from Scotland earlier this week is that a Glasgow company is releasing a "single malt vodka" next year. They're calling it "Valt" and I'm sure it'll make a marketing splash. Whether the ripples become waves is hard to predict, so stay tuned for more on that next year.

Normally someone would have a tasting to show off the diversity of flavors associated with a kind of alcohol. Vodka aspires to be tasteless, so it's not like you're going to get much diversity from it. So it's better to look at a flight of vodkas as being a test - who can be the most tasteless of the bunch.

This is probably one of the factors about why I don't post about vodka. Another factor has to do with its popularity. Practically everyone who drinks hard alcohol will have had vodka at some point in their drinking lives. It's as common a mixer as coke and the primary ingredient in most martinis service today. Vodka shots go down quickly and when chilled tend to pour like water. Not that anything is wrong with this popularity - it just seems easier to abuse something you can't taste.

Take the fine drinking stock of the Russian people. Last week, The Lancet released a study that claimed 43% of deaths in their sample were attributable to hazardous drinking. These habits were both garden-variety overconsumption as well as drinking non-potable forms of alcohol in cologne and cleaning solvents.

But best be wary of wagging a finger at the Russians. The cheapest bottle of the hard stuff is almost always vodka. With a low price point it becomes a cheap default for people who want to get drunk.

Ironically enough, vodka is tarred with the same problems gin had over 100 years ago. In so many ways, vodka is the new gin.

Sorry for the tangent - this actually has a point. Since we aren't supposed to taste vodka, here's a test. Four vodkas of various origins to see if there's a way to draw out taste.

The first part is to get the stuff out of the freezer. If vodka is "frozen", you aren't likely to pick up any volatiles or impurities. That's one of the big reasons you keep the stuff in the freezer. Once it's at room temp, open the container and take a huge snort of air from the bottle. That'll be the alcohol fumes and possibly anything else that's going to be volatile at room temperature.

Now pour some into a wide-mouthed glass like a rocks glass or a brandy snifter. Swirl it around and take another noseful of the aromas. It should smell similar to the noseful from the bottle, though this time it might be easier to pick up the source of the ethanol. The most popular are wheat/rye and potato, though nowadays you can get vodka made from things like maize, grapes, barley, soy, and soon from pineapple juice. And it's not that each of those sources creates a different ethanol. They just have different volatiles that act as a signature for the kinds of ethanol in the vodka.

After a good swig of water to clean your mouth, take a sip. Don't swallow it; the point is to let the ethanol fume into your nose and let what's left stay on your tongue. This is the start of when flavors come out of the vodka. They might be a subtle banana flavor or an odd butter tone. But these are the things that made it through the distillation process and ended up in the bottle.

Finally, one last abuse to the vodka to really bring out the things you shouldn't taste: salt. Refined salt does not impart taste, it enhances tastes present in foods and drinks. As a result, a dash of salt into a relatively tastesless substance like vodka and you'll have those subtle flavors jump out at you. For example, the "3" Vodka made from soy starts tasting more like a rum or tequila. Which makes sense since soybeans are more on the sugar end of the spectrum. The other three came from wheat so they have a bit of a pot-distilled gin flavor to them. Their excess flavors are a bit more subtle, but the salt does help distinguish some of the differences between them.

And the least flavored of them all? Reyka. There might be some wisdom in filtering your vodka through lava rocks.