Not only was it news to me that many hard liquors are low calorie, sugar free, and carb free, it was news to me that you could drink while on a Ketogenic diet. In my research I read in many places that while the alcohol being processed in your liver may inhibit fat burning while it’s processing, it’s not necessarily a major no-no if you’re trying to stay on the Keto diet but also have a few drinks at the party.
The problem of course, is the mixers. Most people don’t like to drink their liquor straight. My wife and I fit in this camp and so it was here that we decided to try to find a vodka that was smooth enough to drink over ice or maybe with some plain soda water and a lime. Why vodka? It probably stemmed from the idea that in tasting vodkas we would just be looking for the smoothest, easiest to drink- a simple rating. If we wanted to try whiskeys, Tequilas, or something else, we would need to then discover if our distaste for the spirit was related to the quality/taste, the aging, barrels, or various other flavors of each particular spirit. With vodka there seem to be a lot less variables.
I scoured the internet looking for lists of best vodkas that were also not crazy expensive.
The most obvious answer from almost everyone’s list was Tito’s and on my first trip to the liquor store they were having a sale, so that was our first test. I’ll admit, however, considering that it was everyone’s choice for best budget vodka, it’s a bit more expensive than I had been hoping for. Not as expensive as Grey Goose, so there’s that, but it’s not what I’d call a budget vodka either.
I offer the following notes as nothing more than a few details on our experience. I do not pretend to be an expert or to have a refined palate, quite the opposite. I just wanted to offer some notes for anyone else who might be on a similar journey. I will keep updating this as we try new brands and do more blind taste tests.
Tito’s: Everyone’s favorite “budget vodka.” Except that it’s the top shelf option at some places. Anyway, it was fine. We drank it. Drank it on the rocks with lime and with soda water. It was drinkable. We have had worse. But it left me thinking “Welp, it’s vodka, what did I expect?” Not a ringing endorsement.
Pinnacle: Not too bad, actually. Probably half the price of Tito’s and I’d say not really any worse. For our tastes, this was our leader at first. We did a blind taste test between Tito’s and Pinnacle and preferred Pinnacle.
New Amsterdam: It was fine, not particularly good or memorable. But decent. and I made a note to try to taste test it against some other ones, but we didn’t have any at the time and haven’t revisited it.
Platinum 7x Distilled: My general rule of thumb is that the more times a product tells you that it’s premium, the worse it probably is. I should have listened to this instead of the employee at the store. I went in planning to try Burnett’s unless they had another, more expensive brand on sale but I figured I’d ask her if she had any recommendations. I knew I was in trouble when she said “well, this label says it is distilled seven times, and that’s what you want from vodka, give it a shot…” I know that distilling matters, I saw Mythbusters put vodka through a Brita filer, but I also know that there are ways to twist the facts. And Platinum was not on any list that I had read. Anyway, we tried it. We had headaches, it had way more bite than the previous two brands, it was generally less smooth and drinkable in pretty much every way.
I went to the store next with the purpose of sticking to my list. They had Russian Standard for sale so I bought a small bottle. And I also bought a bottle of Burnett’s which was the one I was supposed to get last time.
Russian Standard: Pretty much the same experience as Tito’s. It was fine. It’s vodka. It was at this point that I started to think that maybe I was expecting too much. You can’t expect to actually like a vodka, can you? It easily won a blind taste test against the last bit of Platinum 7x, but that’s not saying much. But here’s where it gets interesting.
Burnett’s: *Spoiler Alert* This is the winner. Burnett’s, to our taste, beat Russian Standard. We took it to some friends’ house, everyone preferred the Burnett’s. And no headaches.
Luksusowa: It’s a potato vodka and it was clear that it had a different flavor than the previous ones. There was a bit more bite than some others, but with that came a really unique flavor that no other vodka had. Burnett’s wins because of how smooth and easy to drink it is, and still no hangovers, but Luksusowa had a unique taste and almost sweet finish that the others didn’t have.
Costco French Vodka: you might read that this is the exact same stuff as Grey Goose. You might even read that it’s literally the same, from the same distillery but poured into a different bottle. Do not believe this. Where we live you can only buy spirits in the ABC store so Costco and Sam’s Club do not have liquor. So while in Florida I was told this lie (that Costco French is the same as Grey Goose) so we bought three huge bottles because when you get a chance to get Grey Goose for $20/bottle you do it. Funny story: we bought them but didn’t open them. Drove home and happened to see friends and told them the same story that we had heard. So they went to Costco and bought a bottle of the Costco French, along with a bottle of Grey Goose, and a bottle of Rain.
Sidenote: I had Rain a few years ago. I way overdid it and had an awful hangover the next day. Similar story with Skyy. I had no interest in including Rain or Skyy in our taste tests.
Anyway, back to Costco French vodka. Our friends wind up hosting a taste test between the Rain, the Grey Goose, and the Costco French. Nobody picked the Rain. Obviously. There was one vodka that had a very odd flavor, to me. It was almost as if there had been something foul in the cup before it had been poured. So I picked the easiest to drink, then the harsh, bitey vodka, then the odd tasting one. Best one to my taste was Grey Goose. Rain was harsh and bitey. Costco had a weird flavor. Then I tried the Costco from my wife’s cup. Still had the odd flavor. Then I opened up my bottle at home, weird flavor. In Costco’s defense, a couple of our friends did choose the Costco for their best one even over the Grey Goose, but everyone agreed that it was not the same as Grey Goose. Not a single person tasted both and said that they tasted the same. So all that to say, Costco’s French vodka I guess would get a similar treatment as the Luksusowa in that there is a flavor to it that some people might like. But theirs isn’t sweet, it’s off putting to my palate.
To this point in our tastings Burnett’s is far and away the winner, which is especially an accomplishment when you consider the price tag. I had made a long list of vodkas I had wanted to try at the beginning of this venture, I’ll post the rest of the list below. At this point I’m not as curious to try many of these anymore, I’m more curious to taste test the Burnett’s against Grey Goose, New Amsterdam, and Pinnacle.
Koval Vodka
Jovelle (a French vodka like Grey Goose)
Thatchers
Monopolowa (another potato)
J. Rieger & Co. Midwestern premium
Menage a trois
Deep Eddy
Sobieski
Huber Starlight
Smirnoff
Pride
Wheatley
Monopolowa
Slavianskaya
Stoli
