Yes, there is such a thing and it doesn’t sit on the bottom, or even the middle, shelf at the liquor store. There is a reason they call it “top shelf”, and it is a very good reason.
Vodka has always been my distilled spirit of choice. I have tried several different brands, but I almost always drink Grey Goose. It is even pretty smooth straight up. Yes, I am a vodka snob, and no… I do not drink often. With the price of liquor here in Washington you cannot afford it, and it is also just not my thing to drink liquor all the time. Wine doesn’t count.
As with all things in life, you pay for quality, and quality returns the favor. Buy a decent tent from REI or The North Face (among several other “top shelf” tents) and you will probably sleep dry. Good shoes make your feet smile. Good vodka is the same and you gotta spend some money to get a good one.
I am getting a tax refund this week so I decided to get myself a treat. Today I finally acquired my first bottle of Crystal Head vodka. It came in a gift box with two mini skulls for shot glasses and the day I first saw it I KNEW I had to have one. It is the one vodka I have been wanting to get a bottle of for a long time (I first tasted it in Colorado when I bought an “airplane bottle-sized” skull of it a few years back), but it is pricier than Grey Goose. This set was actually priced pretty decently, plus the little skulls are pretty cool as well. In case you did not know, here is a bit of trivia about who makes it: http://www.crystalheadvodka.com/about#the-founders.
No, it is not necessarily about the skull aspect of it. The bottle IS pretty cool, but this, to me, is quite possibly the finest and smoothest non-flavored vodka currently produced. Granted, I have not tasted them all, but I have tried several and this one is, er, heads above the rest.
I usually avoid flavored vodkas (except for my own Grey Goose/pineapple infusion) because, well, they are usually lousy quality and taste horrible – you know the ones I am talking about… they taste like paint thinner and there is no fruit taste at all. They are cheap FOR A REASON! There is, however, a really good tasting and high-quality huckleberry vodka produced by 44 degrees North. It is a really good potato vodka that has a nice flavor.
Happy Refund to me!
Cheers!
