Vodka is widely known as the proper mixer, typically used to offer customary drinks a bit extra kick. A measure of vodka in your cola or ginger ale, for instance, is the bottom flooring on the elevator to discovering a complete skyscraper of vodka cocktails.
Nonetheless, vodka is now not nearly merely including alcohol to your apple juice, as producers have a look at including character and flavour to their spirit, from the bottom product to the distillation methodology. The result’s a brand new order of flavoursome vodkas that work as effectively in a unadorned martini as they do in a Moscow mule. To name vodka a flavourless spirit is now to do it a disservice: the flavours could also be delicate, however these intricacies and the distinctions between them are to be celebrated.
Brendan Hodrien is a life-style author who specialises in drinks evaluations. He has written drinks spherical ups for quite a lot of publications, together with The Unbiased, i and the Night Commonplace, typically specialising in whisky evaluations. Right here, he has picked the most effective vodkas, from large names resembling Absolut, Chase and Ciroc, to attention-grabbing small producers and classic bottles.
Go to our evaluations part to seek out over 200 purchaser’s guides, together with style checks of gin, whisky, rum, brandy and extra.
Finest vodkas at a look
- Finest vodka for a dry martini: Absolut Elyx, £34.10
- Finest vodka for a celebration crowd pleaser: Ciroc, £18.95
- Finest sustainable vodka: Black Cow Vodka, £22.70
- Finest vodka for an espresso martini: Portobello Highway espresso bean vodka, £25.25
- Finest recent vodka: Penderyn Brecon 5 Black, £29.95
- Finest vodka for chocolate lovers: Curio cocoa nib vodka, £32.85
- Finest Polish vodka: Potocki vodka, £29
- Finest vodka for beer lovers: Adnam’s Longshore vodka, £34.95
- Finest distinctive vodka bottle: Crystal Head vodka, £55
- Finest uncommon vodka: Chase smoked vodka, £39.95
- Finest vodka for sipping: Sipsmith sipping vodka, £29.95
- Finest fruity vodka: St George all function vodka, £35.75
- Finest London vodka: East London Liquor Firm, £21.95
The perfect vodka to purchase 2022
Absolut Elyx
Finest vodka for a dry martini
Absolut Elyx falls on the luxurious finish of Swedish outlet Absolut’s providing. It is positive to be a mainstay of upscale bars in years to come back, as a result of its affability with dry vermouth and its slick bottle, designed by London company Stranger & Stranger. The elegant butteriness you count on from a wheat-based vodka comes by means of on the palate, together with candy and nutty notes. It pairs brilliantly with a good-quality Martini vermouth, resembling Dolin.
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Ciroc vodka
Finest vodka for a celebration crowd pleaser
Star score: 4/5
Inevitably, Ciroc was going to make this listing. The French titan is uncommon in that it is a vodka constituted of grapes versus a grain. French grapes are made right into a wine which is then five-times distilled to provide the vodka, which rose to famous person vodka fame when it was celebrated by music mogul Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs. Regardless of being constituted of grapes, Ciroc is thought for its refined citrus end, directly crisp and clear. That is one to be served as an uber chilly shot.
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Black Cow Vodka
Finest sustainable vodka
Star score: 4/5
Black Cow Vodka is pondering manner exterior of the field, producing spirit from milk. It is a marvel of sustainability and innovation: when making cheese, milk is separated into curds and whey. The whey typically finally ends up wasted – so as a substitute, Black Cow ferment and distil it into vodka. The tip result’s as creamy as anticipated with a smattering of pepper sprinkled all through an nearly buttery character. That is glorious with soda and a slice of grapefruit.
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Portobello Highway espresso bean vodka
Finest vodka for an espresso martini
Star score: 4/5
No less than 3kg of potatoes go into making every bottle of Portobello Highway vodka. This explicit expression from the distillery, famed for its award-winning gin, entails steeping Colombian espresso beans in vodka-filled espresso pot stills for twenty-four hours earlier than the liquid is then redistilled. The tip result’s a vodka with that morning espresso aroma, a scent which is carried by means of to a creamily clean palate. This can be a vodka crying out to be made into an espresso martini.
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Penderyn Brecon 5 Black
Finest recent vodka
Star score: 5/5
Penderyn Distillery is a Welsh powerhouse, knocking out alcoholic delights from its idyllic premises within the Brecon Beacons. Offered in a placing bottle as black because the charcoal the five-times distilled vodka is filtered by means of, you’ll need to hold this in your shelf lengthy after it’s completed. Freshness is a personality which runs wealthy by means of the distillery’s providing, as you’d count on given the bucolic base and the recent glacier water used. The general profile is clear, crisp and as subtly peppery as it’s fruity. Get pleasure from over the rocks or with tonic and a slice of lemon (within the solar, in fact).
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Masters of Malt (£29.95)
Amazon (£22)
Curio cocoa nib vodka
Finest vodka for chocolate lovers
Produced in a small craft distillery at Mullion in Cornwall, Curio has explored the concept of flavouring its spirits utilizing some pretty unconventional flavours: cardamom, samphire and likewise Peruvian cocoa nibs, which deliver a robust, earthy, chocolatey observe to the vodka. The distillery has actually bucked the development of flavoured spirits, which has now begun to shake off its murky previous of pungent shot glasses and lurid colors. This vodka makes for a really uncommon, however high quality base for an espresso martini.
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Amazon (£32.85)
Potocki vodka
Finest Polish vodka
The previous decade has seen loads of vodkas hiding behind highly-massaged advertising and marketing tales, however amongst them are some true gems – with loads of heritage. Potocki has one of many strongest histories in distillation, with authentic paperwork tracing its manufacturing again to 1784. The spirit right this moment is constituted of rye and is calmly filtered earlier than bottling to retain its energy of flavour and traditional earthy end. A ‘should attempt’ on this listing, for high quality, consistency and historical past alone.
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Adnams Copper Home Longshore vodka
Finest vodka for beer lovers
If there’s one factor that Adnams know a factor or two about, it’s beer. With nice brewing data comes a zeal to experiment with completely different grains and the Adnams Copper Home, a gleaming distillery which appears just like the embodiment of a Jules Verne novel, has produced this vodka utilizing barley, oats and wheat. This offers the ensuing vodka a creamy however deliciously peppery observe.
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Adnams (£32.99)
Amazon (£34.18)
Grasp of Malt (£32.83)
Crystal Head vodka
Finest distinctive vodka bottle
One of the vital eye-catching bottle designs to ever be produced – not simply in vodka, however the spirits world basically – Crystal Head has been developed partly by comedy legend Dan Aykroyd – as soon as a Ghostbuster, now a spirits maker! With the bottle made by Bruni Glass in Italy, the spirit inside is quadruple-distilled then filtered by means of quartz crystals, which have come to be referred to as Herkimer diamonds. Hints of minerals add depth to this real gem of the spirits worlds.
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Chase smoked vodka
Finest uncommon vodka
Not all vodka comes from mainland Europe and this smoked version, made in Hereford, is enhanced by delicate notes from ex-Scottish whisky casks from the island of Islay. It has a slight caramel color to it, taken from the oak barrels through which it has laid slumbering for a variety of months, leading to a style extra akin to a mezcal than a vodka.
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Sipsmith sipping vodka
Finest vodka for sipping
The chaps at Sipsmith arrange their small operation in city West London in 2009 to distill in conventional copper pot stills: the primary individuals to take action in almost two centuries in London. One other small group making a spread of spirits, their now-famous gin is extremely acclaimed, and so is their vodka. Distilled utilizing their 300 litre nonetheless named Prudence, it’s an English rose of a vodka.
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St George all function vodka
Finest fruity vodka
Primarily based in California, the chaps at St George are actually experimental. This vodka is born of a ardour to create a extra ‘regular’ vodka to work with soda, tonic and in a Martini, and so they obtain this through the use of pear juice which is blended with a grain base. And scrumptious it’s too. Clean is the phrase of the day right here.
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East London Liquor Firm vodka
Finest London vodka
Made utilizing 100% British wheat, this hidden gem is made a brief stroll from Mile Finish station within the very coronary heart of London’s East Finish. Their distillery can also be a restaurant, bottle store, bar and a spot the place you may even distill spirits your self. It truly is a playground for the adventurous drinker, and their vodka doesn’t disappoint. It’s pretty much as good over ice as it’s with tonic.
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What’s vodka constituted of?
Simply what vodka is is as easy or as advanced as you need it to be. Merely, it’s a combination of ethanol and water, a impartial spirit. Whenever you look beneath the hood, vodka is lots extra: it’s characterised by its base substances, it is the bottom of myriad common liqueurs. To know the complexities of vodka, it is important to know how this shottable, mixable and sippable spirit is made.
Vodka entails fermenting absolutely anything with a sugar or starch content material – resembling rye, wheat, potato, or molasses – and distilling the pulp to provide ethanol which is then blended with water. The flavour is within the element.
What’s the most effective mixer for vodka?
The way you need to take pleasure in your vodka relies on the night you need to have. Tonic paired with a citrus-hued vodka will make an extremely refreshing drink. Larger purity vodkas, ones which have been distilled a variety of occasions, are crisp, clear and pleasing over ice or served straight from the freezer. The bow-tied elephant within the room is the Martini (shaken, not stirred), and right here it’s open season; for those who want a creamier character, then deploy a potato vodka. If you would like one thing extra peppery to your subtle, serve then flip to a rye-based spirit.
How we examined vodka
We style examined vodkas in quite a lot of methods: served neat and from the freezer, with tonic and, inevitably, in an array of cocktails. We have been in search of smoothness (on the lesser finish of the spectrum the spirit can style like simply that: uncooked alcohol diluted with a spot of water) and a definite flavour profile, a personality which might make you select one vodka over one other.
Vodka cocktail recipes
Put your bottle to good use in one in every of our vodka cocktail recipes, whether or not you are after a traditional combine or new spin on this timeless spirit.
Bloody mary
Cosmopolitan
White russian
Lengthy island ice tea
Intercourse on the seaside
Ardour fruit martini
Vodka martini
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Which vodka do you drink? We might love to listen to your product ideas.
This evaluation was final up to date in June 2022. When you’ve got any questions or ideas for future evaluations, or spot something that has modified in value or availability, please get in contact at goodfoodwebsite@quick.co.uk. For data on alcohol tips, learn our information to ingesting responsibly.
