First off, let my just say that the first meeting of The Cock's Tales was awesome. We had a great turn out and a lot of fun! There were a couple additions to the tasting line up and I want to talk about them real quick before we get to the results.
Crevasse: This vodka, to the best of my knowledge, is exclusive to the chain of liquor stores that I work for in this area. This means that if you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area you can only get this vodka at a Centennial, Big Daddies, or Majestic. However, if you live elsewhere you may still be able to find it, but it's complicated. It may be under a different name, or it may not have a very wide distribution. Anyway, the vodka its self is made from pure imported glacier water and American wheat and it is bottled in Lewisville, Texas.
Russian Standard Platinum: As the name implies, it is from mother Russia, made from wheat. There is also a regular Russian Standard, it is made the same as the Platinum but not distilled and filtered as many times. The regular one is the #1 selling vodka in Russia. I've tasted both of them before this party and I was excited to see how the Platinum (witch was created to go head to head with many of the premium uber distilled and filtered vodkas that are so popular in America) would hold up in the tasting.
And here are your Cock's Tales Vodka Tasting Results!!!!
But first, let me reiterate, that my friends and I are not professional tasters, we don't work for The Tasting Panel, or have special certifications that qualify us a professionals, but that's what makes this so fun. How many times have you picked up a bottle of wine and read on the back of the bottle; ripe robust flavors of cherries, black berries, currents, and a soft finish of light honeysuckle, only to buy the bottle, and say to your self, 'hummm, taste like wine,'? It's not a bad thing, the real question is, did you like it? And that's basically how we rated the vodkas. Did you like it, did you not like it or were you ‘meh’ about it. Some people could pick up on citrus flavors and what not, and I did ask people to see if they could tell the deference between potato vodka and wheat vodka. But the big thing was, do you like it? So let's take each one, and answer that question.
Tied, with the least number of likes was, Smirnoff and TAAKA. Now, just because these two got the most dislikes doesn't mean that they were all that bad.
Let's take a look at Smirnoff first, now given, most people commented that it was 'not good' or 'bad' or in one case 'duper bad.' But, we did all agree that it is not a half-bad mixing vodka, and if you are use to drinking it and the price is right, there is no reason for you to change brands. However, if you've never had it before, you're not missing anything, don't bother picking it up.
Now for TAAKA... This really was a surprise, it may have tied for least desirable, but there was no one on the fence about it, everyone either really liked it, or really hated it. That being said, it got quit a few likes too, some even really really likes. So, yes, there were more dislikes than likes, but if you are on a budget, I'd say give it a try. It's $1.99 for a half pint so you won't lose much and you may really really like it.
With 5 dislikes each, Chopin and Ciroc are next on the list. I find it odd that these two are together on this list because I feel that they have complete opposite flavor profiles. But no matter, here they are.
Chopin: I've said it before, and I'll say it again, potato vodkas are not for everyone. Clearly, they are not for 5 of the people who participated in the tasting. So, is it a bad vodka, especially for the price (it is a bit pricy)? I will say this, as a professional sales associate in the spirits industry, if you are use to popularized wheat vodkas and you tend to mix them with sweet things like fruit juices, you will probably not like a potato vodka. However, if you are looking for a bold intense vodka with some, sometimes, interesting flavors (one taster described it as ‘JP4 jet fuel’), and like drinks like, dirty martinis and bloody marys, try a potato vodka, then try a high end potato vodka, then try Chopin. After having a few potato vodkas outside of this party, I can tell you it is a step above the rest.
Ceroc: many tasters described it as being citrusy and… different. No one really picked up on the sweetness that Ceroc clams to have. Being made from grapes, you would think that it would have more sweetness to it, right? Overall people just thought that it was strong, and very ‘rubbing alcoholy.’ My question is, P Diddy, is your high end French grape vodka over rated? The short answer, yes. But it’s not a bad vodka, and being made from grapes does make it different, but it is expensive. So if you fancy yourself a vodka connoisseur, defiantly try it, but if you just want an every day good vodka, it’s not worth the hype.
Next are the mid-rangers, the mehs: Tito’s, Shakers Rye, and Absolute. Each of these got the same score; 4 dislikes, 4 mehs, and 1 like. Which would make them more bad then good, but the comments on each of these were so overwhelmingly underwhelming I’m just going to say that they were meh…. So I’m really not going to spend much time writing about them.
Tito’s: this one surprised me, it is a huge seller at work, and the only person who liked it at the tasting was the one person who normally drinks it anyway. It’s interesting to note here that the people who had a brand that they tended to stick with, could pick it out in a blind taste test among 8 other vodkas, I was not expecting that.
Shaker’s Rye: Most people just wrote ‘burn’ on their comment card… but rye vodka is a lot like potato vodka. So don’t take the negativity as a huge strike against it. It’s different, it has a spiciness to it that can be mistaken for an alcoholy burn. The one person who liked it wrote on his comment card, ‘BEST ONE YET!!!’ And I have to admit that it is one of my personal favorites. So try it or any other rye vodka if you are looking for something different. If not, pass it up.
Absolut: Almost everyone commented that this one had a bad after taste. And two people were convinced that this was Chopin, and considering that most people didn’t like Chopin either, I’d say this was a bad thing. Bottom line, do you want a vodka with a bad aftertaste? I say, there are plenty of other vodkas out there that are the same price that are better.
Russian Standard Platinum kinda falls into the category of meh, but it had two likes unlike the three listed above. Most people described it as smooth, but nothing special. Because it is imported from Russia and because this is the premium version of their regular vodka, it is pricy. Based on the comments, I’d say it’s not worth the price.
And finial, we come to the winner of the tasting!!! With an overwhelming 4 likes, the winner is: Crevasse! Yeah, I was surprised too. Most people agreed that it started off a little spicy and finished very sweet, making it a friendly mixer for just about anything. It was also quite smooth. We ended up making Midori melon balls with this vodka and everyone loved it! And, even though we stared the party off with a 750 of this vodka, there was very little left by the end of the night. So if you want to give it a try, stop by my store and I’ll hook you up.
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