really just vodka? This one is from more than a year ago, back when I was in Taiwan for a book tour. I bought it, drank some of it it, jotted down some notes, took the rest home, snapped a picture, drank a bit more, and jotted down some more notes. So here it is, finally – Spring Vodka from Taiwan! every country has one Taiwanese vodka? The truth is: nowadays most countries have their own brands. Russia, Ukraine, and Poland are responsible for the lion’s share – if not in gross volume then at least in their respective amounts of brands. But most other countries that might not have a comparably ..read more

so hot and so sweet [40%, sampled in Azerbaijan] You can probably imagine that my final night in Azerbaijan was fun. I mean, I didn’t drink a lot, or at least I wasn’t planning on it. And yet I had to try every one of the vodka bottles I had bought. This one, called Korona, was the third and final one. which is which The shop owner looked at me funny when I gathered all my bottles and walked out. I had asked him to recommend a few brands, and I had added that they didn’t have to be all top-shelf. I wanted something good, something mediocre, and something less good. Right after walking out of t ..read more

fig aroma [40%, sampled in Azerbaijan] And another one from my final vodka night in Azerbaijan. It was called Eskadra, and the owner of the shop where I bought it told me it was supposed to be one of the better ones. cork caps ruin everything Eskadra was a bit less expensive than Belly Parus. It cost 9 manat for 0,7L, which meant that it was about 4,7€ for 700ml. This meant of course that it was well within the margins of a perfect scoring when it came to the price. As is often the case in this part of the word. The design was great. I mean, it wasn’t the best I’d ever seen – that honor b ..read more

fail on so many levels [40%, sampled in Azerbaijan] On October 8th 2018, I was getting ready to leave Azerbaijan. This was when I realized that I wanted to try more vodka brands from there. So I went to a store near the border and bought a few bottles. They were all very affordable, so it didn’t really matter. This one was called Belly Parus. the southern route When I asked the store clerk where this vodka was from, he told me that it was from Akhsu, just like all the other vodka brands from Azerbaijan. I had never been to Akshu, but my way almost led me past there, back when I decided to take ..read more

maybe get a new name? [40%, sampled in Azerbaijan] This one is the fourth and final contender of the Sheki vodka experiment. It’s called Stolichniy, and if the name reminds you of the formidable Stolichnaya, then you’re probably already a bit worried that it might turn out to be a disappointment. clumsy design This one cost 5 Manat for 500ml, so again it was a 4€/700ml deal. It sure is affordable to get wasted in the Caucasian Mountains. The bottle design looked old in a bad way. And I don’t mean old-old, but rather old in the sense that the designers had wanted it too seem old maybe a decade ..read more

drink at four twenty? [40%, sampled in Azerbaijan] Number three of the Sheki vodka experiment was called Sostav. Initially, there were two things that seemed to be particular about this one. Firstly, it cost a tad more than Napoléon or Samovar, as it wasn’t 5 but 6 (!) Manat for 500ml. That put it in the 4,5€/700ml range, which was still a perfect ten, though. hits from the bong Secondly, the bottle looked a bit weird. I mean, it looked like a bong. Or maybe not exactly like a bong, but sort of like one. I figured that this was probably not intended (though many young people in Baku liked to s ..read more

hot water kettle [38,5%, sampled in Azerbaijan] Here we go with the second instalment of my Sheki vodka experiment. This one was called Samovar (Самоварь), a name that made me happy because I love samovars, I really do. nice bottles worry me sometimes First things first, Samovar cost 5 Manat for a bottle of 500ml (or 4€ for 700ml). Prices in Azerbaijan were about as low as in Central Asia, which meant that I wasn’t even surprised anymore. But when I examined the bottle, I suddenly felt worried. Both the name and the bottle design gave me hope: the ornaments on the glass, the pleasantly simple ..read more

where is this vodka really from? [40%, sampled in Azerbaijan] This one was part of my vodka experiment when I was in the old town of Sheki in Azerbaijan in the summer of 2018. I went to a little shop, bought a few bottles, got some food to go along with them, and then I went back to my room and had a good time. This particular brand was called Napoléon, which sounded like it was going to be either very good or very bad. French, Russian, or Azeri One initial problem I had with this vodka was that it had a French name (even with a little accent on the É) while saying GENUINE RUSSIAN VODKA o ..read more

needs some tweaking [40%, sampled in Kazakhstan] I got this in the summer of 2018 when I was in Aktau in Western Kazakhstan waiting for a visa for Azerbaijan. There wasn’t much to do, so I ended up going to the mall sometimes. On one of these occasions I decided to buy a bottle of vodka. no liquor after ten? I told the store clerk that I wanted something from the region, but he shook his head and mumbled something that sounded like there wasn’t any. Then he handed me this bottle. It was called Zerno, and it was from somewhere else in Kazakhstan. When I went to the cash register, the lady there ..read more

from Greenland [44%, sampled in Luxembourg] Oh, how I would have loved to create a new country category for this one: Greenland! It says so on the label of Isfjord vodka: PURE ICEBERG WATER and GREENLAND. But then Greenland belongs to Denmark, and when I checked the Isfjord website I learned that the company headquarters were located near Kopenhagen. So I decided to simply list it as a Danish vodka. the glug The first thing I noticed about Isfjord was its price tag. At a steep 38€ for 700ml, it was even more expensive than Mansfeld. But then it was supposed to be made with PURE ICEBERG WATER ..read more