Ocean tears me in two. On the one hand, Ocean is doing great work (circa 2013) to bring an organic, gluten free, sustainable vodka to a big market. You can go take a tour on the island of Maui to see the cool stuff they are up to. I’ve had friends visit Ocean’s distillery that had also taken tours of the Jack Daniels Distillery and they left impressed after their visit to Ocean’s distillery. It sounds great and I really want to visit one day.

But, I just don’t like the vodka.

Their minis are unique. The bottle is a small round ball; it’s scarily round since it is made of glass, with a cute little cork unlike any I have seen on a 50ml bottle before, that I protected carefully lest it drop to my tile floor. But the attraction ends there for me.

Maybe it’s the mineral water from the island. I don’t know for sure, but it’s hard to drink. It’s harsh on the swallow and I don’t find the aftertaste pleasant. It has no distinctive flavor or anything particularly appealing to keep me interested. It doesn’t feel bad in the mouth like a low quality vodka would, but I just can’t get into the vodka.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had this vodka. I tried it before a few years ago and had the exact same experience. I hoped it would improve over time. While I deeply appreciate what Ocean is doing, I think there might be a disconnect between the effort that I whole heartedly agree with and the final product.

Rated 3 out of 5.