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The 10 Best Flavored Vodka Brands to Try in 2022
Flavored vodka is one of the fastest-growing alcohol markets as brands move away from traditional neutrality to hunt for quality expressions with unique verve. The best vodka brands are distilled multiple times and use the best water possible in filtering the distillate down to make their spirit, adding natural additives to the process as a means of adding flavor and individuality.
The vodka industry now accommodates innovative craftsmanship and regional personalities, which means your mixology knowledge has to be up to scratch, even in a home bar. Making the cleanest, crispest vodka with little flavor or aftertaste was once the goal for many vodka distillers, while ultra-premium vodka expressions were more interested in taste and function.
The following list of the best flavored vodka includes great bottles from the world’s top producers, new entrants, and old favorites that are sure to spice up your cocktail making and vodka enjoyment.
Best Buy
1. Ketel One Botanicals Collection
Dutch distillery Ketel One offers real ingredients and natural flavors within its range of botanical flavored vodka. The vodka is blended and distilled through a copper pot still and then infused with the natural essence of fresh, crisp, and fragrant herbs. These botanicals are good health-wise, offering no carbs, artificial flavors, sweeteners, or sugars, and are crafted from 100% GMO grain.
The Botanical Collection includes:
- Ketel One Peach and Orange Blossom
- Ketel One Cucumber and Mint
- Ketel One Grapefruit and Rose
Ketel One flavored vodka options are fantastic for the experienced vodka drinker looking for spirits with a personality that you can add to a simple drink such as a vodka tonic or vodka cranberry juice, or help amplify a premium vodka cocktail.
2. Ciroc Premium Vodka: Summer Watermelon
Ciroc is a grape-based, gluten-free vodka that drinks clean and crisp, with just the barest hint of fruit on the palate in their unflavored vodka. The standard Ciroc ultra-premium vodka is distilled five times from mauzac blanc and ugni blanc grapes to create a spirit with a creamy mouthfeel, smooth taste, and zesty notes of fruit on the finish.
For flavored vodka, Ciroc offers many great expressions, however, I really like the gentle summer sweetness of their limited edition watermelon expression bottle, which is great for use in cocktail making or for crafting a simple vodka soda or mixed drink over ice.
3. Skyy Vodka Infusions Citrus Vodka
Born and bred in San Francisco, Skyy’s process of quadruple distillation and triple filtration creates a dry, medium-bodied vodka with a smooth taste and creamy mouthfeel. If Skyy’s plain vodka doesn’t tickle your fancy, there is a range of flavored vodka choices you can utilize for different flavored vodka variations for a companionable mixed drink. There are a lot of these infused vodka variations (I’ve yet to try the Georgia Peach), but they’re extremely handy for those who enjoy modern cocktailing.
It’s easy to just drop a couple of measures of Skyy Infusions Citrus Vodka into a glass with ice, soda, and a garnish, rather than spend time crafting delicious Skyy cocktails from fresh ingredients and the original unflavored vodka. Skyy is a cheap vodka offering tremendous value for the taste and should suit every type of vodka lover, but those with a penchant for partying and enjoyment of different flavor ranges most of all.
4. Absolut Citron Vodka
One of the world’s most popular vodka brands, Absolut Citron is arguably the most enjoyable of the Swedish brand’s collection of flavored vodka expressions. The water for Absolut Citron comes from a deep well in Åhus, Sweden, where it is protected from impurities.
The winter wheat is sown in Åhus in the fall and grows under the Swedish snow, developing into a hard grain that helps give Absolut its signature wheat vodka taste. The citrus fruits used during distillation are just as natural as the rest of the ingredients – lime juice, orange juice, and lemon juice – creating a smooth, crisp, wheat vodka with tremendous layers of citrus flavor.
5. Belvedere Peach Nectar
This Belvedere Polish vodka flavor is a tremendously innovative and unique drink that can be used in any situation, from the ultra-chilled round of shots to start the party to the classic Belvedere vodka cocktail you can enjoy at a gala event or opening. Belvedere Peach Nectar is a sweet but natural tasting blend of juicy California peaches and Polish apricots, the two fruits combining during Belvedere Vodka’s unique maceration process to create a brilliant flavorful spirit.
This premium vodka bursts with ripe and aromatic summer fruit to put a twist on your favorite dirty martini, or provide a welcome refreshing taste in a simple vodka drink. It’s a great tasting expression for the vodka lover who understands a quality distillation and filtering process is key to the success of the spirit.
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6. Hangar 1 Makrut Lime Vodka
Hangar 1 is a beloved independent vodka brand that’s changed its label slightly over the last few years. Hangar 1 production methods remain fantastically craft style; the vodka is pot-distilled from a blend of wheat and viognier grapes.
Lime can be difficult to distill, but makrut lime is a great difference maker; the Thais use this citrus because of its high aromatic oil content and bold flavor. Makrut limes help create a smooth yet lively vodka that’s bold citrus with hints of lemongrass and ginger, plus a taste of cucumber and coriander. Hangar 1 Makrut Lime vodka has a somewhat thick, oily mouthfeel that translates well when poured into a superbly chilled cocktail glass as part of a Moscow mule, classic martini, or citrus vodka cocktail.
7. Dixie Black Pepper Vodka
Dixie Southern Vodka is based in Charleston, South Carolina, and has become the largest craft vodka produced in the Southeast and one of the fastest-growing craft spirit brands in the United States. Clear in color, Dixie Black Pepper Vodka features aromas of char-roasted and marinated green and chili peppers.
Dixie Southern Vodka is steeped with fresh Serrano peppers for a week and then infused with Sichuan and Madagascar peppercorns; resulting in a perfectly balanced black pepper vodka with a savory kick and little ethanol bite. Dixie Black Pepper Vodka is a staple premium vodka for any Bloody Mary or oyster shooter, as well as spicing up a cranberry juice or a variety of creative cocktails.
8. Pinnacle Vanilla Vodka
Pinnacle vodka is an inexpensive brand owned by Beam Suntory, distilled in France from French wheat then exported to the United States where it’s flavored and bottled (750 ml bottle) in Kentucky. Another cheap vodka on our list, the clean, gently sweet taste of vanilla bean with little afterburn makes Pinnacle vodka expressions brilliant for bartenders and mixologists looking to make classic vodka cocktails.
With the quality inexpensive brands, you can get three or four bottles to make a different flavored vodka base and go to town mixing and matching the flavors – from vanilla bean to watermelon – to craft perfect inexpensive cocktails with better ingredients than frozen slush or cheap cordial.
9. Stolichnaya Cucumber Vodka
Stoli Cucumber is a classic Russian vodka that’s the first new release from the brand since 2012. It’s clean and crisp on the palate, the savory cucumber flavor uplifts the neutral neutrality of the spirit to give it a great, smooth finish.
It’s a pure, clean, and natural tasting cucumber Russian vodka that’s perfect for your Stolichnaya Moscow mule, a Bloody Mary, or for sipping a tasty mixed drink that needs a bit of savory balance in the flavor profile.
10. Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka
This American-made Vodka is a blend of Deep Eddy’s award-winning Original Vodka and real, whole-leaf black tea that’s been sweetened with a hint of organic honey. Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka is handcrafted in Texas, distilled 10 times in a state-of-the-art column still.
The vodka uses the finest Texas water, purified through reverse osmosis and real corn, then filtered eight times through a proprietary system to ensure a smooth finish with no alcohol bite. You won’t find high fructose corn syrup or processed sweeteners in Sweet Tea Vodka. It’s bottled at a 35% ABV so is perfect for summer sipping in a contemporary vodka tonic or mixed drink.
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