According to an article at The Economic Times, India’s youth are taking a liking to vodka. India is likely to witness accelerated levels of growth in sales of liquor in tier II and tier III cities as companies are focusing on retail channels like bars, restaurants and pub joints across these towns apart from huge investments in infrastructure, supply chain, bottling facilities etc. which will also open employment avenues, ASSOCHAM says. With neat molecular mixology
Harpers reports that Zubrowka is getting a branding reboot. The premium rye vodka from north-east Poland will be targeted at 25 to 40-year-old “authenticity-seeking drinkers” with a new look based on the illustrations of artist Kristjana S Williams. Sounds a bit like Absolut Elyx, huh?
The New York Times has a followup article called “Learning from Tito’s Vodka.” I have been asked in the past about what “features” a vodka should have to be successful. I think this quote from the article sums up everything: Be authentic: Don’t try to be something you’re not. Deliver a good product and the market will find you. Tito’s wasn’t a Russian vodka and it didn’t come in a sexy bottle. It took time,
Gizmodo has a nice review of Still Spirits Top Shelf. These small bottles of flavoring can transform your favorite vodka into almost any liquor. Using gas chromatograph, Still Spirits analyzes big-name brands such as Jack Daniels or Bombay Sapphire to determine the difference in the constituents of the liquor, then they create a liquid that contains some of those missing pieces. Adam Southard of Still Spirits puts it simply, “We’re rebuilding molecules from scratch.” Overall,
Diageo, owner of well-known brands like Ciroc, Smirnoff, and Ketel One, now owns 45.5% of Halico, a Vietnamese spirit company, owner of Bluebird vodka. It’s difficult to say what this means for Diageo, a behemoth in the spirits industry, unless they intend to eventually acquire Halico.
According to Market Watch, Shakers Vodka is auctioning everything. After filing for bankruptcy protection earlier this year, the Shakers brand along with all equipment is being sold. The auction conducted by Maas Companies Inc. of Rochester, Minnesota runs through June 26, 2012. You can apparently even bid online. If you want more information, check out the Shakers auction page.
The question has come up a few times recently in personal conversations: Isn’t gin really just flavored vodka? Gin is really a grain neutral spirit infused with various herbs. Vodka is simply a grain neutral spirit. Technically, yes, that makes gin a flavored vodka, but I would imagine ardent gin fans may disagree. Gin martini die hards won’t accept that a vodka martini counts as a martini, for example. Eric Asimov (no clue if he’s
Kara Newman writing for Reuters points out that youth in Moscow are trending away from Russia’s “state drink”, favoring whisky and rum, but there is still a strong vodka culture. She found everything from Russian style vodka cocktails to molecular mixologists. She even found a bar with no menu that’s dubbed “a bar for bartenders” where drinks are made to order. While Moscow might want a small break from tradition, it’s still vodka that courses
Sourish Bhattacharyya, writing for India Today, shares his experience at a cocktail contest hosted by Belvedere. The cocktails they make aren’t your standard faire. The descriptions read like something out of Iron Chef with cocktails using gelatin and even applewood smoke to spice things up. Bhattacharyya calls these mixologists modern druids. If this is where bar tending is going, I might actually start drinking cocktails!
A writer for The Horn known as The Gentleman has posted his take on vodka in a piece called From Eastern Europe with Love. He hits the high points of vodka history and shares his favorite ways to drink vodka. Though not a fan of vodka, he suggests the Cape Cod, Madras, Martini, and Bloody Mary. Timely, though, is the fact that he is drinking a Luksusowa Cape Cod as we just posted our Luksusowa