Vodka
The drink that is explicitly not supposed to taste of anything, and thus ended up in half of all cocktails. What vodka is, what it is made from and which glass goes with it.
The best-known vodka brands
Three brands from three corners of the shelf: Swedish grain, English mass production and French grapes.
Absolut
From Åhus in southern Sweden, made from winter wheat and water from a single source. The round apothecary bottle is almost as famous as its contents.
About Absolut →
Smirnoff
The best-selling vodka in the world, with Russian roots and an English address. Triple-distilled and filtered ten times.
About Smirnoff →
Cîroc
Not grain but white grapes from Gaillac and Cognac. That makes it noticeably fruitier and softer than the rest.
About Cîroc →Grey Goose, Żubrówka, Puschkin, Esbjærg and Trojka are also on glazen.nl.
As neutral as possible, and that is harder than it sounds
Vodka is a distilled spirit that is meant to taste as neutral as possible. That is the whole premise: while whisky and gin depend on their own character, vodka is made to bring little of its own flavor. The base ingredient is distilled several times and then filtered, often through charcoal, until little remains beyond alcohol and water. The legal minimum in the EU is 37.5%.
Neutral does not mean tasteless, and that is exactly where the difference between brands lies. The base ingredient remains noticeable: grain vodka is clean and lightly peppery, potato vodka fuller and creamier, and grape vodka fruitier and softer. The water matters too, and especially the degree of filtration. Put two vodkas side by side neat and ice-cold and there really is a difference; drown them in cola and it disappears.
In brief
Four bottles, four ingredients
The percentage makes little difference. What does make a difference is where the alcohol comes from.
Grain vodka
The most common type: distilled from wheat or rye. Clean and lightly peppery, with a smooth body. Absolut is the best-known example.
At the minimum
Bottled at the legal minimum, triple-distilled and ten-times filtered. The world's most widely poured vodka.
Grape vodka
Made not from grain but from white grapes, producing a noticeably fruitier and smoother result. An outlier on the shelf.
Flavored
Vodka with added flavor: lemon, raspberry, vanilla or bison grass. Legally still vodka, but intended not to be neutral.
If you are mixing, vodka at 37.5% is fine. If you drink it neat and ice-cold, you can definitely taste the difference.
Clean, with a bite you only taste when drinking it neat
Virtually nothing
A good vodka smells like very little: some alcohol, and in grain vodka, a faint note of barley or rye. If you smell more, it is usually not a compliment.
Soft with a peppery bite
Smooth and slightly oily, with a peppery tingle at the back. Potato vodka is fuller and creamier here, while grape vodka is fruitier.
Short and clean
Short, clean and warm. The better it is filtered, the less it burns; that is where most of the price difference on this shelf comes from.
Flavor profile of a neutral grain vodka. Grape vodka scores higher on fruitiness; flavored vodka scores much higher on sweetness and fruitiness.
Three ways to drink vodka
Vodka should be ice-cold when drunk neat; in a cocktail, shake it as cold as possible. Warm vodka is a missed opportunity in both cases.
Ice-cold from the freezer
3 cl in a small glass, straight from the freezer. Vodka does not freeze and becomes syrupy, which softens the bite and brings its body to the fore. In Poland and Russia, it is served with food, not a mixer.
Glass: shot glass →In a Moscow Mule
Pour 5 cl vodka and 1.5 cl lime juice into a copper mug filled with ice, then top up with ginger beer. The ginger does the work and the vodka keeps it dry; that is exactly why vodka works so well here.
Moscow Mule recipe →In an Espresso Martini
Shake 5 cl vodka, 3 cl fresh espresso, 2 cl coffee liqueur and half a cl of simple syrup vigorously with ice. Vigorously shaking it is not a detail here: that is what creates the layer of foam.
Espresso Martini recipe →The best-known vodka cocktails
Because vodka brings little flavor of its own, it provides the base in which the other ingredients have plenty of room to shine.
Moscow Mule
Vodka, lime and ginger beer in a copper mug. Refreshing and zesty at the same time.
Espresso Martini
Vodka, espresso and coffee liqueur, shaken hard. The foam layer is part of it.
Cosmopolitan
Vodka, triple sec, cranberry and lime. Pink, tart and approachable.
Bloody Mary
Vodka with tomato juice, lemon, pepper and Tabasco. The only savory classic.The right glass for vodka
A small glass that can go in the freezer for drinking neat, and a highball or cocktail glass for everything else. These are the glasses we recommend ourselves.
Everything you still wanted to know about vodka
Is your question not listed? Check out our cocktail recipes or get in touch.
To the cocktail recipes →