On this blog one of the things I strive for is innovation. I try to do cocktails that haven’t been done before, or if they have I try to put a little spin on them. What makes my job easier is when spirit manufacturers decide that they’ve had enough citron vodka and honey whisky and decide to do something strange. Some of these flavours are delicious and their creators deserve a pat on the back, while others are gimicky and really only drinkable when drowned in mixers. That being said I am a huge proponent of the “throw it against a wall and see what sticks” philosophy when it comes to this. 1. Bakon Vodka
Let’s just get it out of the way. Holy dang, there’s bacon vodka! Bakon is, like most bacon-flavoured things, vegan. You’re not secretly screwing up your vegetarian friend’s diet by slipping this into their bloody mary. Even if I ate bacon, I would boycott this monstrosity on the sheer principle that bacon has somehow managed to slip into every aspect of our lives. Weird trendiness aside, reviews for the product aren’t terrible and at least the serving suggestions are primarily bloody mary focused, which is already a savory cocktail. But they also recommend trying it in a chocolate cocktail, which gives them points for creativity but makes me shudder.
2. Crop Cucumber, Meyer Lemon and Tomato Vodkas
Crop Harvest Earth Organic is actually a pretty cool company that uses organic ingredients in their products. The “artisinal flavour” is a bit of a gimmick. It’s just their unflavoured vodka. Of these flavours though I’ve had the opportunity to try the cucumber and tomato vodkas. If you read my previous post you know that I love my cucumber cocktails, and Crop’s veggie-infused vodkas did not disappoint. It was suggested that I try the tomato one in a bloody mary, but that seemed like a waste to me. So I had them both straight up, and then served with ice and soda water.
3. Vodquila
Vodquila is the answer to a question nobody asked. As the portmanteau suggests it is a blend a vodka and tequila. Best served as cold as humanly possible to dull your tastebuds. In short, Vodquila is a pointless amalgamation destined to be the highlight of every 2-4-1 night at your local creepy club with unisex toilets. Vodquila is the laziest entry on this list, it’s not trendy, it’s not creative, it’s just different.
4. Oddka Wasabi
Oddka appeals to me because of their shear dedication to the strange. And because this is not a post about the tastiest vodkas but the most innovative. I would like to talk about how much I appreciate their strangeness. As far as the quality of the base spirit, Oddka but like I said this is about creativity.
It’s difficult to find a complete list of Oddka flavours, but this is what I was able to put together.
Twisted Melon
Peach Bellini
Fresh Cut Grass
Salty Caramel Popcorn
Electricity (Some sort of grape thing)
Apple Pie
Wasabi
Some of the flavours make sense, such as Apple Pie, others are just variations on other popular flavours such as melon and peach. Salty Caramel Popcorn is jumping on the salted caramel trend that’s not quite as annoying the previously mentioned bacon trend, but there is some real interesting stuff here. Fresh Cut Grass is basically Bison Grass vodka, but still I’m a huge fan of the fresh and earthy flavours you find in grass vodka (probably because it reminds me so much of gin). I haven’t tried Electricity and the descriptions of its taste are varied, everyone agrees it’s some sort of grape flavour, but some claim that they can taste spice and copper tones in the flavour.
The real originality of Oddka is in their wasabi flavour. Now, adding spice to spirits is nothing new. Absolut has their Peppar vodka (green capsicums, chili and jalapeno) and New Orleans (black pepper and mango) both of which are delicious, and Southern Comfort has that Tabasco travesty. But Anyone familiar with spicy flavours knows there’s a distinct difference between the capsaicin heat present in hot peppers and the mustard oil (allyl isothiocyanate) flavour you find in mustard, horserarish and wasabi.
Other than the brand Indio, a small-batch company in Oregon, Oddka is the only company to make and distribute a mustard oil based vodka. There are no horseradish vodkas available, and other and Indio, no company makes wasabi vodka.
The obvious choice is to throw it into a bloody mary, but I’d say that’s a waste. Like putting the tomato vodka in one. Instead I’d suggest playing up the wasabi flavour, maybe try blending it with ginger flavours, or maybe even some soy sauce. I’m going to try to get my hands on some and I’ll post a cocktail once I’ve got one.
5. Three Olives Dude
I’ll make this brief. I gave this the top spot on the list because it is the most innovative flavour of vodka I’ve ever seen. If you can’t tell it’s Mountain Dew-flavoured. They call it lemon-lime, but it’s Mountain Dew.
That said, I hate everything about Dude-flavoured vodka. The taste makes me gag, the colour is super offputting and the marketing surrounding it is insufferable. These are some of the cocktails on their website. Put bluntly: they are stupid. The Dude-O-Politan: A Cosmo made with Dude, plain and simple, made so that you and your brahs don’t have to worry about getting cooties or something from drinking a cocktail. The Surf’s Up: Dude, Kraken, and lemon-lime soda, so vodka, rum and more Mountain Dew. Cool. Finally, there’s the groan-inducing Bromance. A shot of Dude (ew) dropped into lager. I have no idea who these are supposed to appeal to, and don’t any of them were treated before they were put up on the website. Frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t use crushed Doritos rim in any of these
What Ales Ya? 