What To Eat When Drinking Vodka
A dolls got to eat, doesnt she? But what goes well with vodka? The answer to that depends entirely on how you like your vodka. For example, vodka cranberry would have a completely different food pairing than a dirty vodka martini. This vodka doll loves her martini dry and dirty, and it always tastes best with a naturally salty dish like King Crab or New York strip loin. When I am enjoying a sinful molten lava cake my drink of choice is a vodka with cranberry juice the berries and chocolate make for one happy belly. A well-balanced vodka drink should be a perfect blend of flavours and I would never want to throw that off by pairing it with the wrong food. The other two flavours to consider are sour/bitter and spicy vodka drinks. I would love to enjoy a Vodka Sour with a summertime salad or a Spicy Keg Caesar with a blue cheese lettuce wedge. The best way to enjoy vodka is starting with a mix that suits your taste buds, be it sweet, salty, spicy or sour/bitter and choose a dish that complements the mix. It may not be as easy as pairing beverages like beer, sake or wine, but once you understand the characteristics of vodka and their mixers you will always know which food works best. Which food and vodka pairings do you like best?
Infuse Your Vodka With Fresh Or Dried Botanicals
One of the best ways to upgrade your vodka soda is to simply infuse your vodka with a fruit, herb, or other botanical.
Some of my favorites are hibiscus, strawberry, chamomile, coconut the list goes on! Fruits or herbs can take hours or days to infuse, but teas like hibiscus can take just minutes, meaning you dont have to do a whole lot of planning ahead either.
Ive included instructions below for creating a Strawberry Hibiscus vodka infusion, but if you leave out the strawberries, you can have infused hibiscus vodka in about 10-15 minutes!
Strawberry Hibiscus Vodka Soda
Tomato Juice Or Bloody Mary Mix
Yes, youll need a few more flavoring agents to really make it a truly tasty beverage, but at its base, a Bloody Mary is essentially just tomato juice and vodka. This savory delight works best when youre hungover or when you are out at a bottomless brunch. If you want to make one at home with full flavor, we suggest having plenty of one of these Bloody Mary mixes on hand.
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Best Overall: Hangar 1
Region: California | ABV: 40% | Tasting notes: Orange, White pepper, Cinnamon
In 2002, St. George Spirits birthed this small-batch vodka in an old aircraft hangar in California. Proximo Spirits, which bought the brand back in 2010, still produces it at the old Naval Air Station Alameda on San Francisco Bay, albeit in a new distillery.
There, a wheat-based, column-distilled vodka gets blended with vodka made from viognier grapes that have been run through copper pot stills. The result boasts a layered flavor profile that spans the divide between syrupy and savory, between subtlety and burns. Hangar 1 is a vodka that will please everyone at the party, from newbies wanting a slightly fruity touch to their Cosmopolitans to seasoned imbibers looking for a rounded floral perfume in their Gibson.
Top 19 Vodka Mixers For A Perfect Home Bar
May 5, 2020
- Pin
Because vodka is largely flavorless, it can be combined with any number of mixers, especially those with a strong flavor of their own. For example, adding any type of juice or any type of soda to vodka works just fine. Even so, there are some vodka mixers are better than other, so in this list were focusing on the most powerful and the most interesting mixers.
Its also worth mentioning that vodka still has some impact on your drink. For one thing, it imparts an alcoholic kick. The vodka also impacts the texture of your drink.
Some vodkas, particularly low-quality ones, do have a little flavor as well. Any flavor comes from impurities and is generally undesirable. If youre using a fairly intense mixer, like cranberry juice, then low-quality vodka isnt likely to be a problem.
On the other hand, if you are using a more subtle mixer like soda water, the quality of your vodka will make a difference. You dont need to be extravagant, but try to avoid the cheapest of the cheap.
When youre looking at mixers, also consider the strength of the final drink that you want. If the mixer is on the mild side, then the alcoholic undertone of the drink will be quite distinct. This undertone tends to be masked by stronger mixers, to the point that you might not notice it at all.
- Starbucks Refreshers
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Best For Sipping: Absolut Elyx
Region: Sweden | ABV: 42.3% | Tasting notes: Malt, Citrus, Grass
I love sipping vodka straight from the freezer, says Tony Abou-Ganim, star bartender and author of “Vodka Distilled.” Its a beautiful, velvety liquid when it gets to that temperature, then it reveals itself as it warms up. The go-to in his deep-freeze is this premium Swedish bottle. Made with single-estate winter wheat, it has a sharp brightness, he says, that elevates all those malty, grainy flavors in standard Absolut.
Good to Know: The true test of a sipping spirit? Make sure it pairs deliciously with food. Great sipping vodkas, Abou-Ganim says, cuts through caviar like a knife it goes with pickled herring, stinky cheese, charcuterie, foie gras, gravlaxanything cured.”
Best Club Soda: Fever Tree Club Soda
Courtesy of Amazon
This one was a difficult one for me, but if I had to choose I would go with Fever-Tree, says Gill. They have so many great options for mixers that have great flavors, from different types of tonics to club sodas. Cant go wrong with them.
The club soda is simple and refreshing, made using spring water and bicarbonate of soda that yields a satisfyingly bubbly experience. Add some vodka to this and a slice of lime for a simple, refreshing drink.
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Best For Highballs: Broken Shed
Broken Shed
Region: New Zealand | ABV: 40% | Tasting notes: Citrus, Grass, Honeysuckle
As Abou-Ganim points out, theres been a return in the highball, a three-ingredient cocktail of spirit, bubbly water, and crucially, ice. Tall, cool, and refreshing, the highball is the drink of summer for home bartenders, and the New Zealand-based Broken Shed vodka works beautifully in the glass. Distilled from whey and pristine aquifer and mountain water, this spirit has a floral honeyed character and a creamy, luscious body. Yet, theres nothing overly sweet or cloying in there.
It has a beautiful natural taste that is light and crisp with a smooth warmth to finish it off, says Fred Flynn of Wilmington, N.C.’s Manna. Flavorful yet bright, it makes you want to go back for another sip.
Best Flavored: Ketel One Cucumber & Mint
Region: Netherlands | ABV: 30% | Tasting notes: Cucumber, Mint, Crisp
Made with non-GMO grain, naturally extracted cucumber and mint essences, and no additives, this Dutch-flavored vodka is crisp as can be, but its also packed with personality. Slava Borisov of Travelle at The Langham Hotel in Chicago, calls this bottle of Ketel One playful.”
At just 60 proof, it’s light on the alcohol making it a smooth and friendly spirit for low-ABV drinks, says Borisov. Perfect for “light, refreshing spring and summer cocktails enjoyed in the garden, the fragrant vodka mixes well with sparkling sodas, sparkling wines, and floral liqueurs.
Region: California | ABV: 40% | Tasting notes: Chile peppers, Lemongrass, Citrus
The base spirit for this spicy elixir is distilled from organic grapes sourced in California wine country, where the family-owned Hanson of Sonoma distillery is located. Sweet and smooth with a fruity appeal, its a worthy bottle in and of itself, but infuse it with locally sourced, organic chileshabaneros and half a dozen other varietiesand the resulting flavored vodka bristles with complex heat. Still, it retains its grape-based character. A little bit of sweetness and a whole lot of spice mingle together for a complex, multilayered spirit with just the right flavor you’d want for an exemplary Bloody Mary.
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Six Of The Best Vodka Mixers According To Us
Vodka is supposed to be flavorless, says the TTB, the government bureau that regulates alcohol. Some bottles may have grassy undertones and others a sharp bite , but, ultimately, understatement is the name of the game.
And so mixers matter when youre making vodka cocktails. To determine the best juices, sodas, and other dance partners for vodka, we turned to an utterly subjective source: ourselves. We gathered VinePair staff and extended family for a taste test.
Our criteria? All mixers had to be widely available, disqualifying that tasty Concord grape syrup a friend from Maine sometimes brings to Thanksgiving. We prioritized simple, two- or three-ingredient drinks and, for sake of consistency, made every cocktail with one of our preferred affordable vodkas, Prairie Organic.
drop!
Here are six of our favorite vodka mixers, ranked.
Vodka not your favorite spirit? See our mixer picks for gin, rum, tequila, and whiskey.
Best Budget: Ch Vodka
Region: Illinois | ABV: 40% | Tasting notes: Vanilla, Pepper, Wheat
Joly likes the low-priced, CH vodka so much that he uses it in the Moscow Mule in line with his bottled mixed-drink, Crafthouse Cocktails.
Made in Chicagos Pilsen District, its a small-batch, artisan product from sourcing to bottling. It starts with certified-organic Illinois winter wheat and rye, and, in a rarity for the vodka category, its milled, mashed, fermented, and column-distilled entirely in-house. Flavorful but approachable, this spirit delivers alluring, complementary notes: a big, soft serving of vanilla followed by a spicy, peppery kick.
Region: New York | ABV: 40% | Tasting notes: Clean, Crisp, Smooth
You pretty much cant get any more virtuous with your vodka drinking than this scientific breakthrough: Vodka made from nothing other than carbon dioxide, water, and sunshine. Its Brooklyn-based producer uses a special, solar-powered technology to convert carbon emissions into ethyl alcohol, removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere as it amps up our Moscow Mules. No farming, no irrigation, no resource extraction. No wonder its a NASA prize winner. It tastes pretty good, too: smooth and light.
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What Kind Of Fruit Goes Well With Dragon Fruit
Blend the ingredients until mixed evenly. Other fruits that go well with dragon fruit are mangoes and strawberries. With antioxidant compounds, mangoes are recommended to combat and protect against certain types of cancer, such as colon and breast cancer. This delicious fruit also helps maintain healthy eyesight and clear skin.
What Are Best Food Pairings For Vodka
Vodka Food Pairings
Such as wine is to cheese and crackers, vodka is to a wide assortment of foods. In fact, in Russia there is a distinct appetizer served known as a Zakuski and it is a perfect vodka & food pairing. In most countries , there are traditions for cooking with vodka, eating with vodka, and joining in celebrations, traditions, and life altering events with their favorite vodka. Realistically, most vodka experts state that vodka is indeed better when paired with certain appetizers and foods, and vise versa. In addition, vodka food pairings is often thought to be much more fun and pleasant than wine food pairings.
Vodka food pairings have been underrated, however many chefs are finding that it is a definite asset to have in the kitchen. Vodka can be used with spices, herbs, and fresh foods to come up with delightful sauces, appetizers, meals, and side dishes. Some of the best gourmet food chefs are using flavored vodkas such as peppercorn vodka, pear vodka, vanilla vodka, and citrus vodka to infuse and combine flavor to their dishes. It is incredibly versatile and absolutely provides more options than cooking with wine. Here are a few tips for creating the best vodka and food pairings:
- Piroshki
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Best For Vodka & Tonic: Boylan Tonic Water
Courtesy of Amazon
Sure, the Gin & Tonic gets all the hype, but a Vodka Tonic can be just as tasty. Obviously, the tonic water you choose is going to have a big effect on your drink, so its important to pick a good one.
Boylan Bottling uses a blend of citrus to balance the bitterness from the quinine, bringing a crisp hint of sour to the mixer and making this tonic water stand out from the rest.
The Best Juices To Mix With Vodka
Traditional vodka is colorless, odorless and tasteless, allowing it to take on the flavor of whatever it is mixed with. According to the mixology professionals behind the classic “Mr. Boston Bartender’s Guide,” vodka lovers drink the spirit for its mouth-feel and finish — both may be subtle or harsh, depending on the brand. Because vodka offers a neutral flavor, you can mix it with any juice you have on hand, but bartenders recommend a few classic combinations. Vodka mixed with orange juice is a classic combination. credit: Jon Feingersh/Blend Images/Getty Images Mix orange juice with vodka to make a classic drink known as the Screwdriver. Pour 1 1/2 oz. vodka and 5 oz. orange juice into a highball glass filled with ice. Stir thoroughly. Tomato juice is the base for the Bloody Mary. For the simplest version of this drink, combine 1 1/2 oz. vodka with 3 oz. tomato juice in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice. For a spicier cocktail, add a dash of lemon juice, 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce, two or three drops Tabasco sauce and salt and pepper to taste before shaking it up. Garnish and stir with a stalk of celery. Sometimes called an Adam and Eve, vodka mixed with apple juice offers a light, sweet cocktail. Fill a highball glass with ice and add 2 oz. vodka. Fill the glass with apple juice, and add a splash of lime juice if you want a hint of citrus. Garnish and stir with a stick of cinnamon.Continue reading > >
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Iced Tea And Lemonade
Iced tea and vodka, third-wheeled by lemonade, create a light and refreshing summer drink. Its okay to solely use lemonade to mix with vodka . But if you want to include both, its called a John Daly, named after the American golfer and his infamous alcohol problems.
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The Real Drink Recipe
A proper Vodka Cranberry also uses a touch of Roses sweetened lime and some orange juice to bring out the best of the cranberry flavor.
Because vodka doesnt really change the flavor of the cranberry juice, this cocktail would just taste like straight cranberry juice without some help. The orange and lime add hints of something sharp and bright.
This cocktail recipe is pretty light on the alcohol, so feel free to vary it according to your taste and tolerance. The only alcohol in this drink is vodka, so you can add a little more if you prefer.
You can also leave it out completely when you want a mocktail. That makes it great for parties where some guests might not be drinking.
If youre making it as a virgin cocktail, you might want to add a little more of the orange and lime to make it extra special. It doesnt take much just a few dashes, or maybe half an ounce.
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Muddle Fresh Fruit Or Herbs
The next way to add flavor to your vodka soda is to simply muddle some fresh fruit or herbs.
This is the quickest way to ramp up the flavor of your drink, and bonus: a few slices of cucumber or a couple of berries isnt going to ruin your diet either.
I like to think of this kind of vodka soda as a way to incorporate your daily serving of fruits or veggies into happy hour.
One of my favorite ways to use muddled fruit in a vodka soda is to muddle some cucumber with a squeeze of lime juice and then garnish with fresh mint.
Its cool, refreshing, and the perfect light cocktail to have when you want a drink but dont want to feel weighed down. Tip: be gentle if you muddle mint, it can release an off-putting flavor if muddled too vigorously.
Cucumber Mint Vodka Soda
Drinking Vodka Without A Mixer
Another option is to drink vodka neat/straight or in a glass over ice. Vodka has a very unique taste and for some can be hard to drink straight or over ice but it is a drink that can be enjoyed and is enjoyed already by many. To drink vodka neat/straight or over ice, we would recommend a smooth vodka like Belvedere or Grey Goose in an old fashioned glass.
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