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| It clearly must be easy to outdo vodka distillers. Dave Arnold at the French Culinary managed to make extremely high-quality flavored vodka out of pure food-g

| It clearly must be easy to outdo vodka distillers. Dave Arnold at the French Culinary managed to make extremely high-quality flavored vodka out of pure food-grade alcohol --- an industrial supply! --- for a couple bucks a gallon. So there's an easy counterexample. In the US, by law, flavored alcohol is not "vodka". Vodka is a tasteless, colorless combination of ethanol and water. (Trace quantities of various things are allowed.) Furthermore, vodka with additives is illegal in many jurisdictions. This necessarily leads to a shortage of distinctive vodkas.

kscaldef 16y ago
Citation? Neither of these wikipedia articles makes such an assertion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka_infusion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka_infusion. There's certainly no shortage of what I've always heard called 'flavored vodkas' on the shelves of any liquor store I've been to lately. What do you call them?
- nkurz 16y ago
  I have no particular knowledge, but this looks like an appropriate citation: § 5.22 The standards of identity. Standards of identity for the several classes and types of distilled spirits set forth in this section shall be as follows (see also §5.35, class and type): (a) Class 1; neutral spirits or alcohol. “Neutral spirits” or “alcohol” are distilled spirits produced from any material at or above 190° proof, and, if bottled, bottled at not less than 80° proof. (1) “Vodka” is neutral spirits so distilled, or so treated after distillation with charcoal or other materials, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color. This definition does not seem to preclude the existence of "flavored vodka": (i) Class 9; flavored brandy, flavored gin, flavored rum, flavored vodka, and flavored whisky. “Flavored brandy, “flavored gin,” “flavored rum,” “flavored vodka,” and “flavored whisky,” are brandy, gin, rum vodka, and whisky, respectively, to which have been added natural flavoring materials, with or without the addition of sugar, and bottled at not less than 60° proof. http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div8&view=text&node=27:1.0.1.1.3.3.25.2&idno=27 http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn...
tptacek 16y ago
And Absolut Citron is what, then?
evilduck 16y ago
>vodka with additives is illegal in many jurisdictions. Better not explain what gin really is then!

kscaldef 16y ago

Citation? Neither of these wikipedia articles makes such an assertion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka_infusion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka_infusion. There's certainly no shortage of what I've always heard called 'flavored vodkas' on the shelves of any liquor store I've been to lately. What do you call them?

nkurz 16y ago
I have no particular knowledge, but this looks like an appropriate citation: § 5.22 The standards of identity. Standards of identity for the several classes and types of distilled spirits set forth in this section shall be as follows (see also §5.35, class and type): (a) Class 1; neutral spirits or alcohol. “Neutral spirits” or “alcohol” are distilled spirits produced from any material at or above 190° proof, and, if bottled, bottled at not less than 80° proof. (1) “Vodka” is neutral spirits so distilled, or so treated after distillation with charcoal or other materials, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color. This definition does not seem to preclude the existence of "flavored vodka": (i) Class 9; flavored brandy, flavored gin, flavored rum, flavored vodka, and flavored whisky. “Flavored brandy, “flavored gin,” “flavored rum,” “flavored vodka,” and “flavored whisky,” are brandy, gin, rum vodka, and whisky, respectively, to which have been added natural flavoring materials, with or without the addition of sugar, and bottled at not less than 60° proof. http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div8&view=text&node=27:1.0.1.1.3.3.25.2&idno=27 http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn...

tptacek 16y ago

And Absolut Citron is what, then?

evilduck 16y ago

>vodka with additives is illegal in many jurisdictions. Better not explain what gin really is then!