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This is not quite accurate. Planet Money recently did a special on this. The difference is indeed in the “tails”: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/02/23

This is not quite accurate. Planet Money recently did a special on this. The difference is indeed in the “tails”: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/02/23/588346329/episode-826-the-vodka-proof https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/02/23/588346329/epis... https://www.npr.org/transcripts/588345420 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/588345420 The short version is there are certain chemical compounds that some individuals can taste or have an allergic reaction to that might be present in those tails and there are measurable differences between distillers.

gunshai 7y ago
Ya I've listened to that. However you left out the portion of that where they dive into the route origins of high end vodka. And the part at the end where they compare high end to other vodkas. My ultimate point is in marketability, no vodka markets it self as "the one that gives you less of a hangover" nor do they even report the compound composition to inform of consumer choice.
- shanecleveland 7y ago
  And there part where they rate the makeup of the high-end vodka as inferior to at least on of the other samples.
- binarycrusader 7y ago
  I did not “leave anything out”. The argument was that Vodkas “all basically have to be the same by law and you probably can't reliably identify a difference in a double blinded application”. My sole point was that particular assertion wasn’t wholly accurate. The law effectively only applies to the first two parts (heads and hearts). The Vodka origins do not detract from my point at all. Yes many Vodkas have similar origins, but not all of them do, and so they can vary subtly in taste and effects because of the tails which do vary between different Vodkas as noted in the podcast. And yes a cheap Vodka can actually be rated higher from a subjective chemical composition standpoint. But note I never claimed that a “high end vodka” was better. I won’t claim to be one of those people but based on that report I think it’s plausible that some or many people can tell a difference. In short, there is a measurable chemical difference between some Vodkas and some test labs assert that those differences are where differences in taste and effects lie.

gunshai 7y ago

Ya I've listened to that. However you left out the portion of that where they dive into the route origins of high end vodka. And the part at the end where they compare high end to other vodkas. My ultimate point is in marketability, no vodka markets it self as "the one that gives you less of a hangover" nor do they even report the compound composition to inform of consumer choice.

shanecleveland 7y ago
And there part where they rate the makeup of the high-end vodka as inferior to at least on of the other samples.
binarycrusader 7y ago
I did not “leave anything out”. The argument was that Vodkas “all basically have to be the same by law and you probably can't reliably identify a difference in a double blinded application”. My sole point was that particular assertion wasn’t wholly accurate. The law effectively only applies to the first two parts (heads and hearts). The Vodka origins do not detract from my point at all. Yes many Vodkas have similar origins, but not all of them do, and so they can vary subtly in taste and effects because of the tails which do vary between different Vodkas as noted in the podcast. And yes a cheap Vodka can actually be rated higher from a subjective chemical composition standpoint. But note I never claimed that a “high end vodka” was better. I won’t claim to be one of those people but based on that report I think it’s plausible that some or many people can tell a difference. In short, there is a measurable chemical difference between some Vodkas and some test labs assert that those differences are where differences in taste and effects lie.