Best Vodka?

I don't drink vodka anymore, I haven't in a couple years. It gives me amnesia if I drink too much... and as I tend to have a little too much fun when I drink and end up drinking more than I should that happened enough times I completely cut it! So now it's only tequila for me.... but the best vodka I personally had was Grey Goose. There are other ones like Absolute, but I find it too strong. I don't know many other brands outside of those.

 

I like Smirnoff Vodka and Absolut Vodka the most. That's all I really drink when it comes to vodka and I mix them with the rocks and great tasting juices which make it taste all the more better. I haven't really gotten into flavored vodka, but I want to try out a few of the ones offered by Smirnoff for sure. I'll probably try some of the flavored vodkas offered by Absolut, too.

 

I've been out of the loop with Vodkas lately, I'm mainly a Rum drinker. That said, my friends did turn me on to Sobieski Vodka. It's a middle-to-bottom shelf Vodka but it is very very smooth and tastes fantastic. For the price, its hands down better than Absolut or even Grey Goose in my opinion. We will drink it straight up, it's so smooth. I'm not too crazy about the "top shelf" Vodkas since they aren't really any better - it's all about the branding and marketing. If you get a chance, you should look up the history of Grey Goose Vodka, it's not really "premium" at all, it's all in how they sell it and the image they put out there.

I've also dabbled in some complete bottom shelf Vodkas occasionally as well, because a couple of my friends literally go through about a half gallon a day between the two or three of them - and they can't afford to be buying the top shelf stuff that frequently so the bottom shelf stuff is all they get. Kamchatka recently changed their formula and are no longer a straight Vodka, but rather a Vodka blended with other "spirits" as described on the label. I'm not sure what that means, but the new formula tastes a lot sweeter for some reason. I guess they are trying to mask the gnarliness of it with some sweetness. Korski is probably the only decent bottom shelf one I've tried - the others are pretty harsh.

 

Finlandia for me. It's a bit on the expensive side though, so I often go for a polish one since they are almost as good and a lot cheaper. I rarely drink vodka straight anymore, so the taste of it doesn't really matter THAT much. Russian ones are also amazing for the price that you'll be paying. So yes, for me it's more about the bang for my buck than for the pure taste... Finlandia is awesome but not worth twice the price of some of the others.

However if you go with flavoured ones then I would suggest chipping out the extra $ and getting Finlandia. Their flavoured ones are AMAZING... they still taste like proper vodka but just have a hint of what ever taste they have added. Many others are too strong on the extra flavour and it doesn't taste like vodka anymore... which also leads me to believe that they might as well be using cheaper ingredients to make the vodka and then hide the whole thing under the new flavour.

 

I know it's not the best brand but I like Eristoff, it has some great flavors.
You say you drink vodka with dinner? I've never tried that, what do you mix it with?

 

I am in Australia right now and first thing I did here was looking at the cheap brands of the vodka at duty free shops and to my surprise I found one of my favorite brands Absolute Botanic Berry at @AU$ 18 only (US$15) which is available for $21.99 online. I am glad I stopped and looked for cheaper brands at Don Murphy's store.