The latest big-deal flavor is Stoli’s Salted Karamel. The Huffington Post wrote up their thoughts on the vodka, and included a few tweets from the public. Apart from making fun of the spelling of “caramel” (all Stoli products have stylized spellings), there is an undertone of disdain for the flavored vodka trend.
Today, I found out my new go-to cheap vodka, New Amsterdam, is releasing a few flavors and I was a little put off by that. Of course, they already make gin, so they weren’t a far cry from flavored vodkas, but I expected that New Amsterdam could stand on its own. That is, even I am getting a little bored with the flavor craze.
What do you think? Is flavored vodka still a great idea or has the trend peaked?
Henry
Although, I am surprised you are put off by the flavored edditions to New Amsterdam. I’m going to have to say I am a bit excited to try out their new flavors.
Robert Brodrecht
It seems to me that Pinnacle started a trend that a nothing-special vodka can become a huge success by having crazy flavors. At least New Amsterdam isn’t following that trend. I expect they will make their flavors taste more traditional. That is, there is some flavoring in the vodka rather than some vodka in the flavoring. That’s some consolation for me. I guess, though, I was really just hoping for more purist brands to succeed without resorting flavors. I’ll still buy their vodka, of course, and review the flavors when I can.
Henry
I don’t have any expectations for the trend of flavored vodka to become more popular, but I do expect it to last. I use flavored vodka and straight vodka about 50/50. I use flavored vodka for shooting and straight vodka for mixing. I rarely shoot straight or mix flavored. Well maybe on occasion I’ll mix flavored vodka. It’s fun to mess around with mixing.