Vodka is an unaged spirit that has been distilled and repeatedly filtered to obtain smoothness and clarity. It has a reputation as bland. The Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau used “without distinctive character or aroma, taste, colour, or flavour” for vodka. The Bureau changed its definition of vodka in April 2020. Experts know that vodkas can be made from various ingredients, including grains, grapes, milk, and maple sap.
How do you choose between them? Charles Joly is a spirits tasting judge and the founder of Crafthouse Cocktails. He says that while most people prefer neutral vodka, they also want it to have hinted at the source of the distillate. He is looking for an aroma that hint at the raw materials used to make the vodka. This could be grapes, potatoes or grain. He also wants a smooth, creamy texture without cloying glycerin texture and a clean, delicious finish.
There’s vodka for everyone. Below is a list of the top vodkas you can get, curated by our experts.
Best Overall: Hangar 1
ABV: 40%
St. George Spirits created this small-batch vodka from an old aircraft hangar in California in 2002. Proximo Spirits bought the brand in 2010 and still makes it at the Naval Air Station Alameda in San Francisco Bay. However, they have a new distillery.
A wheat-based, column-distilled vodka is blended with vodka made using viognier grapes, passed through copper pot stills. It has a complex flavour profile that combines subtlety with burns, syrupy and savoury. Hangar 1 vodka is perfect for everyone, whether you’re a newbie looking to add a little fruitiness to your Cosmopolitans or a veteran who wants a more floral scent in your Gibson.
Absolut Elyx is the best for sipping
Region: Sweden | ABV: 42.3% | Tasting notes: Malt, Citrus, Grass
Tony Abou Ganim, star bartender who also wrote “Vodka Distilled,” said that vodka is his favourite drink. This premium Swedish bottle is his go-to for vodka distillation. It is made with single-estate winter Wheat and has a “sharp luminescence,” which he claims “elevates all the malty, grainy flavours” in standard Absolut.
Good to know:
What is the true test for a sipping spirit? It should pair well with food. Abou-Ganim states that vodka is great for sipping and can be cut through caviar “like a knife”; it’s good with pickled herring, stinky cheddar, foie gras, gravlax, or any other cured food.
Square One Organic Cucumber Vodka is the best!
ABV: 40%
This elegant bottle is made from certified organic American Rye. It has a beautiful balance of sweet and savoury notes. This elegant bottle is a perfect blend of carefully distilled vodka and the fresh, garden-fresh flavours of the hand-peeled cucumbers used to infuse it. It also produces a powerful vodka Gibson.
Absolut Peppar is the best for Bloody Marys
ABV: 40%
The Cocktail Professor Anthony Baker says that the best vodka to make a Bloody Mary with is the one that was originally made for it. Absolut Peppar, the world’s first flavoured vodka, has been around for 35 years. It is a popular brunch drink that adds “just enough spice to make you feel it but not burns hot.” Baker says.
It is light in body and mildly smoky, making it a refreshing drink that will enhance the enjoyment of your meal without leaving you feeling deprived of the rest.
Best Polish: Belvedere Smogory Forest
ABV: 40%
Abou-Ganim describes Belvedere as the ultimate Polish vodka: “Big, bold and powerful.” This vodka is made from only Dankowski Gold Rye and artesian water. It then undergoes two filters, which gives it a good amount of refinement to meet today’s vodka standards. It retains the flavour of the grain but has a silkiness that buoys its powerful flavour.
The Langham Hotel Chicago traveller, Slava Borisov, raves about the Smogory forest version. It is one of Belvedere’s new vodkas made with single-estate rye. It is made with grain from Western Poland, near the source of its name. She says that the bottle has “notes of honeycomb, salted caramel, and white pepper”.