At Types of Vodka we aim to give you just that, all the info you need for every type of one of the worlds most popular alcohol. From the clearest of the clear vodka to the most fruity of the flavored vodka, there is more variety than you might think.
Vodka may owe its origins to eastern Europe but there is no doubt it is now a world wide drink. Whether straight or mixed, Vodka is enjoyed by many and its dominance sees no sign of slipping.
Owned by Bacardi, Grey Goose is a brand of premium vodka made in France. It is made from wheat and is 40% ABV 80 proof. Distilled in a column still and then blended with spring water from the Cognac region of France. Grey Goose also comes in a small variety of flavored vodkas.
The brand was sold in 2004 to Bacardi for $2.2 billion. Unlike most vodkas Grey Goose vodka is bottled with a reusable cork rather more used screw-top design.
Grey Goose was designed by Sidney Frank, his ideas was to aim the brand solely at the American market. He used Americans view of french products being high quality to pitch his product as a premium vodka brand.
Russian Standard Vodka is a major premium Russian vodka.
Introduced as the “Russian Standard” vodka in 1998 by Rustam Tariko. The Russian Standard vodka established the brand as one of the top vodka brands in Russia.
After its successful Russian launch the world expansion was started. In 2009 the brand was active in 70+ countries with sales over two million cases a year. Advertising highlighted being produced by Russian recipe, from only Russian materials, distilled and bottled in Russia.
Production of the Russian Standard is based on a four tier system
Russian winter grains are milled and fermented. Then the spirit is distilled four times.
Then blended with a glacier water from Lake Ladoga.
The product is then filtered four times through charcoal.
The alcohol then sits for 48 hours in tanks and is bottled and packaged.
SKYY vodka is produced by SKYY Spirits LLC in California. When SKYY Spirits LLC first launched in 1992 SKYY vodka was its first product. Created by Maurice Kanbar and claimed to be nearly congener free due to its unique distillation process. SKYY Vodka has a distinctive cobalt blue bottle with a plastic label. In 2008 SKYY expanded their Vodka line with five new flavored vodkas.
SKYY Vodka is relatively new on the scene compared to established brands such as Smirnoff and Absolut. This hasn’t stopped SKYY taking a healthy chunk of the US vodka sales with revenue over $300,million in 2008.
SKYY Vodka currently comes in just over 10 varieties, mostly flavored vodkas including
How SKYY will play out globally is still yet to be seen but having a strong foundation in the US is likely to be crucial to this.
Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka produced in southern sweden. Absolut is the third largest brand of alcoholic spirits in the world after Bacardi and Smirnoff. Absolut Vodka has over 40 varieties both clear and flavored and is sold in 126 countries.
Absolut Vodka was founded in 1879 by Lars Olsson Smith in Åhus, Sweden. Smith challenged Stockholm’s liquor marketing monopoly with his vodka. It was sold cheaper than the monopoly’s product, just outside the city border. Smith even offered free boat rides to the distillery and made Smith a fortune. In 1917, the Swedish government. monopolised the drinks industry and the Vodka was then sold nationwide under the name “Absolut Rent Brännvin”. In 1979, the old name Absolut was picked up when the upper-price range Absolut Vodka was introduced. Renat is still a euphemism for spirits in Sweden.
Absolut Vodka was introduced globaly in 1979. Since its launch, Absolut has grown from 90,000 liters to close to 100 million liters. The vodka is made from winter wheat. Approximately 80,000 metric tons of wheat is used each year to produce Absolut Vodka. Over one kg of grain is used in every liter bottle.
Absolut vodka comes in many flavored varietys with the core absolut flavors being
Smirnoff is a brand of vodka produced by British company Diageo. Smirnoff began with a distillery founded by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831–1898), the son of illiterate Russian peasants.
Pyotr Smirnov founded his distillery in Moscow in the 1860s under the name of PA Smirnoff, pioneering charcoal filtration in the 1870s, and becoming the first to utilize advertising along with charitable donations to stifle anti-vodka sentiment, capturing two thirds of Moscow’s market by 1886. His brand was reportedly the favourite of the tsar. When he died, he was succeeded by his third son Vladimir. The company grew and produced more than 4 million cases of vodka per year.
In 1904 the Tsar nationalized the vodka industry and Vladimir Smirnov was forced into selling his brand. During the 1917 Revolution, the Smirnov family fled Russia. Vladimir Smirnov re-established his factory in 1920 in Constantinople. Four years later he moved to Lwów and started to sell the vodka under the French spelling of the name, “Smirnoff”. The new product was a success and by the end of 1930 it was exported to most of Europe.
Now Smirnoff has over 30 different products under the name and is distributed in 130 countries. Smirnoff has won countless awards including double gold medal at the 2009 World Spirits Competition.
Smirnoff products include vodka, flavored vodka, and malt drinks. In 2006 Diageo claimed that Smirnoff vodka was the bestselling distilled spirit brand in the world. There are a wide selection of Smirnoff flavors, some harder to find than others.
Smirnoff Vodka Flavors:
The other main type of Vodka is Flavored Vodka, as apposed to clear vodka. Flavored Vodka has been produced from the start, originally to hide the flavor of the first primitive Vodkas, but later to show off the distillers skill. The East Europeans still market dozens of flavors. Some of the better known types are:
Pertsovka -Pepper-flavored, made with red chili and black peppercorns.
Kubanskaya - Flavored with dried lemon and orange peels.
Limonnaya – Flavored with lemon, usually with a touch of sugar added.
Starka – Old Vodka, a holdover from the early days of Vodka production, infused with everything from fruit tree leaves to brandy, Port, Malaga wine, and dried fruit. Sometimes aged in oak casks.
Okhotnichya – Flavored with a mix of lemon peel, ginger, cloves, coffee, and anise. Blended with sugar and a touch of a wine similar to white port.
Zubrovka – Flavored with buffalo grass, an aromatic grass favored by the herds of the rare European bison.
More Recently other flavores have been launched on the world market. The most successful of these have been fruit flavors such as currant and orange.
Flavored Vodkas tend to be closer to 30%Vol of alcohol
Clear Vodka is one of two main categories of Vodka, Clear and Flavoured. This is the type of vodka people are usually most familiar with. Clear Vodka is a liquor manufactured from ethyl alcohol. It lacks color, and normally has very little taste or aroma. The typical % of clear Vodka is around 40% alcohol and can be seen up to 50%.
All Vodka starts out as a clear, colorless spirit, but Vodka from a pot still will contain some of the delicate aromatics and flavor elements of the crop. Pot stills are relatively inefficient, and the resulting spirit from the 1st distillation is usually redistilled to increase the alcohol proof of the spirit. Vodka from a more efficient column still is usually a neutral spirit.
Clear Vodka is the base for many cocktails but people often drink it straight or mixed with a soda.
Well known brands of clear Vodka are Absolut, Smirnoff and Skyy