Its low price point combined with ever-so-slight herbal notes makes it an excellent all-rounder, no matter the occasion. The options are endless when you’ve got the best vodka on your bar cart. At Luxe Digital, we test and recommend products that we think you will love. If you drink this, you need to do so with extreme caution as it could bring on serious side effects like alcohol poisoning. These include golf, gardening, technology, and a decent cup of coffee or two.
- This Japanese rice vodka is one of the softest, smoothest, and most delicate options out there.
- It’s also the only vodka brand to be awarded the Positive Luxury Butterfly Mark, which recognizes its commitment to quality craftsmanship and environmental responsibility.
- This top-shelf vodka is renowned for being one of the smoothest on the market, and it’s a joy to sip it neat.
- In the U.S., Crystal Head Vodka has a suggested retail price of $50 for a 750ml bottle packaged in a gift box.
- Cîroc also offers several flavored varieties as well as limited edition vodkas — any of which can make fun additions to your bar cart.
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Utopia Vodka is smooth and well-balanced on the palate, with a soft, creamy texture that gives it a rich mouthfeel. The flavor profile is clean, with a strongest vodka brands slight sweetness from the base grain, balanced by a touch of pepper and citrus. The vodka features a subtle hint of herbal or spicy notes that provide depth without overwhelming the palate.
Smirnoff No. 21 Vodka
With the help of our experts, below you’ll find a curated list of the best vodkas to get right now. With no exponential growth in Asia to ease the pressure, the ultra-competitive US vodka market has become a battleground where the chosen weapon is often price. In the U.S., Crystal Head Vodka has a suggested retail price of $50 for a 750ml bottle packaged in a gift box.
Now, some bars may not have caught on to this incredible brand just yet. But that just gives you even more reason to consider picking up a bottle for your own bar cart and start savoring this Icelandic joy at home. In 2002, St. George Spirits birthed this small-batch vodka in an old aircraft hangar in California. Proximo Spirits, which bought the brand back in 2010, still produces it at the old Naval Air Station Alameda on San Francisco Bay, albeit in a new distillery.
This vodka is great for cocktails but also for slow sipping at room temperature. Ice makes the flavors too expressive, so I don’t recommend it served on the rocks. This vodka is sharp but with a very smooth finish, with the typical vodka flavors, but much more intense and expressive. The Belvedere vodka has initially been intended for slow sipping, but with time, it has become one of the bartender’s favorites to mix.
Absolut: Overall best vodka
I’ve attended more than three-dozen formal trainings and workshops related to beer, wine, sake, amari, and liquor. And I was a judge on the gin panel at the American Distilling Institute’s International Spirits Competition in April 2023. If you want to imbibe, but you prefer not to taste a lot of alcohol, Stolichnaya Vodka is mild, neutral, and easily muted. On its own, it finishes quickly and has pleasant notes of cool aloe, fresh lime, and peppery nettles. But when mixed with other ingredients or served over ice, it fades into the background. Moreover, the higher alcohol content of Belvedere Intense emphasizes the taste of Polish rye and gives Belvedere Intense a stronger peppery finish.
Methodology: How we select, test, and rank the best vodkas
Mid-palate, it tastes like vanilla, sage, white pepper, and cream, finishing on a crisp note, sharply but very smoothly at the same time. Devil Springs is ideal in mixed drinks and even concocting your own flavored vodkas. This vodka is thinner and less creamy than Kirkland Signature American Vodka. But if that pick is unavailable, or you don’t have access to Costco, Smirnoff is enjoyable on its own or mixed. It has a fresher citrus character than our other picks, yet these notes are understated until coaxed out by other ingredients in sweeter cocktails or sours.
These ultra-potent vodkas are not for the faint of heart and are often sought after by those who enjoy intense and robust flavors in their drinks. Grey Goose is one of the original ultra-premium vodkas on the market and offers a delightfully crisp taste with a smooth finish. However, watch out for potential cross-contamination and hidden gluten in vodkas that may add flavorings or other ingredients after distillation. For flavored vodkas, it can be more difficult to fully guarantee that flavored ingredients haven’t come in contact with any trace of allergens during the suppliers’ production processes.
The brand is virtually everywhere and seems to rake in cash from thirsty consumers. Of course, there’s a reason why it’s such a beloved vodka variety, and the hype is more than warranted. “It has a beautiful natural taste that is light and crisp with a smooth warmth to finish it off,” says Fred Flynn of Wilmington, N.C.’s Manna. Grey Goose saw its brand score rise by 4% this year, nudging ahead of Stolichnaya. While it already maintains a successful portfolio of vodkas, this week the brand announced the launch of Grey Goose VX – an ultra-premium hybrid spirit combining vodka with Cognac. As the US economy returns to growth, Stuart Whitwell, joint MD of Intangible Business, expects people to be increasingly happy to pay a premium for their chosen spirit.
- An industry reset in the 1990s saw to that, with some of the world’s most respected and well-known brands appearing during that time.
- Absinthe potent greenish spirit produced using anise, wormwood, and other botanicals.
- With a pH value of 8.3, our water is naturally alkaline, which adds to the softness of our vodka.
- The brand is known for its boldness and creativity, from its unusual-shaped bottle to its out-there marketing campaigns and variety of flavored bottles.
- Pinnacle may not be for serious vodka connoisseurs, but it is for people who think drinking should be fun.
- To achieve a pleasant mouthfeel, Stoli 100 Proof is distilled 3 times.
Absolut 100
Harridan is a woman-owned craft distillery based out of New York (we told you vodka can be made anywhere) that uses corn as the base of its vodka. According to Camille Wilson, founder of The Cocktail Snob blog and author of Free Spirit Cocktails, Harridan is one of her favorite bottles to keep at home. It has a higher alcohol content than most other vodka varieties, clocking in at 88 proof, and Wilson notes that it’s “super smooth” if you decide to drink this neat or on the rocks. Its corn factor adds some sweetness to it, plus a fuller, creamier mouthfeel than lower-proof vodkas. The opinions and recommendations are based on our expertise with vodka, along with our personal preferences and firsthand experiences when sampling the vast majority of listed vodka brands.
The No 57 is triple distilled from non-GMO grains and filtered ten times to get out any impurities. Made in Sweden, Svedka 100 is column-distilled five times from Swedish winter wheat. The aged product will remind you of an apple and fruit-flavored brandy but is much sweeter, almost liqueur-like lacking the breathtaking strong alcohol taste. The base products used in the distillation process include 5 of the finest cereal grain and is only distilled in small batches. The result is delicate and fragrant aromas and a sweet taste with smooth and creamy texture.
Almost any grain can be used to make vodka—whether it’s rye, barley or wheat—but it can also be distilled from potato or fruit. Vodka is distilled many times to create a clean taste, before being filtered and bottled anywhere between 40% and 55% ABV. A lot of vodka comes from Russia or Poland, but it can be made anywhere in the world from the US to Japan. Now, like several other brands on this list, we wouldn’t recommend drinking New Amsterdam straight or in a spirit-forward cocktail like a martini. After all, it’s not necessarily smooth, so brace your palate for a bit of a burn. We love Absolut because of its phenomenal range and impressive quality.