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[jay-ell]

Note: You guys have got to start giving me clever sign-offs if you're going to keep submitting Booze questions.  Either that, or specify that it's OK to use your handle.  

Help me, Obi-Wan Jaynobi:

I know you're sick of booze related questions, but I'm not sure where else to turn.

I like cheap vodka. Is this so wrong?

I mean, I can appreciate the quality of Ketel One or Grey Goose -- I'm not a philistine. But when I'm honest with myself, I prefer the $8.00 1.75 liter of Heaven Hill vodka I pick up at the drugstore. I'm not this way with bourbon, scotch, wine or beer. Just vodka. Is there something wrong with me?

Signed,

 -- Some Guy

Dear Guy;

All I have to say about the first part is, I'm not the one threatening to shoot a gun up my own butt.  Yet.  

As I read your question, I remembered a passage in a book my best friend bought me for my birthday last year by the name of The Martini Book: The First, The Last, The Only True Cocktail.  Basically, it explains that vodka has no flavor whatsoever; it is simply pure, "neutral" alcohol.  Here is a quote.  

"Many people will argue that more expensive vodka tastes better or is smoother.  However, vodka shouldn't have a flavor to begin with, unless it is a flavored vodka.  The only way to resolve this argument is to buy a bottle of bargain vodka and a bottle of premium vodka, remove the labels, and chill them to freezing.  Sip one, then the other, and see if you can tell the difference.  You can't.  Of course others will tell you that you can -- that Ketel One is better than Stoli, and Absolut is the best.  In the end, it's up to you."  

I'm inclined to agree with this viewpoint, but with one caveat: this "taster's challenge" is based upon the vodka being chilled.  As we learned in Absolut Confusion I, room-temperature vodka may have a more distinctive flavor, depending what your brand of choice is made from.  While vodka is traditionally made from distilled potatoes, but can be made from wheat, corn, or other grains.  The differences, however, will be extremely subtle, and will only be noticeable straight up and at room temperature.  Additionally one potato vodka should be completely indistinguishable from another potato vodka.  For mixed drinks and chilled shots, even your most discerning guest is unlikely to be able to distinguish premium vodka by flavor alone.  

[AugustWest]

Uh, OK, I'll fess up.  

I'm the cheap vodka lover.  In fact, I drinking a big ol' glass of Gilbey's Vodka on the Rocks as we speak, er write.

So, you snotty vodka snobs can stick it.  I use the money I save on cheap vodka to buy a bottle of Knob Creek.  And you can't have any.

[jough]

I thought the whole vodka pride came from the vodka having no distinct flavour of its own.

So one would imagine that unlike most other liquors, wodka isn't something you need to be too discerning about.

[slink]

Hmmmm, I was alwaus under the impression Vodka had a flavour. I mean obviously different depending which. But it's why I tend to drink it straight. It has a spice to it. Maybe it's just the Stolichnaya that I get occasionally. Or the particular cheap one that I got up until I stopped drinking enough to make it worth getting some nice stuff.
But, I don't really know vodka, I'm more of a gin/whisky/bourbon drinker, and more discerning at those.

[Pedro Picasso]

If we're all going to 'fess up' on the board who we are when we send in our requests for advice, why not just post advice requests as new topics?

Is it so that our lovely and charming den mother can choose which of us losers really needs to be answered, or is it so that we can dramatically cast aside our clever mini-aliases and reveal our true aliases at just ... the right.....

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............................................................moment.

[jay-ell]

If we're all going to 'fess up' on the board who we are when we send in our requests for advice, why not just post advice requests as new topics?

Becuase Fuddes putzed it up for everyone else when he posted a question about explosive diahrrea, and now Jough and I are the only ones who can post a new topic to this forum.  

Also, because somebody might want to be anonymous, someday.  

Could happen.