Hand-made vodka brands are showing up in city bars, making for a curated experience. By Team Viva
As the spirited search for a premium experience, why should the neutral vodka be left behindIJ And so it is that hand-made vodkas using farm-fresh organic ingredients and distilled traditionally are gradually climbing up the global popularity charts for their smooth roundedness and finish.
The Indian market is not immune to this trend and is opening up to brands like Tito’s, Kors and Dash. Each known for their delicate curation of accents, the boutique pleasure is being lapped up at bars across the metros, the cocktails acquiring a new texture and surprise. After crafted beer, it is the turn of crafted vodka.
So how is hand-made vodka differentIJ Commercial brands are usually made in column stills, which means putting any starch-containing distillate content (potatoes, corn, rye etc) on the top of a massive column and flushing it with incredibly hot steam. But hand-made brand Tito’s claims to make it at its oldest legal distillery in batches, using old fashioned pot stills, thereby allowing for greater control, skill and ensuring the best flavour profile. Tito’s hand-made vodka is also certified as gluten-free and made with the best variety of corn. Makers distill the corn mash six times because they believe corn retains some of its smoothness after distillation. The process is similar to making fine single malts and high-end French Cognacs.
Tito chooses corn for a very specific reason, essentially because it retains some of its smoothness after distillation. And with vodka, where flavour is relatively absent, most character comes from the body. Tito’s has a smooth, silken feel but has a gullet burn at the end that reminds you of the classic vodka feel.
Grain-based vodkas, which are the most popular, tend to be smooth and fruity. Vegetable-based vodkas are a tad sharper. But free of residuals, Tito’s is a bar man’s pick.
Kors vodka, too, maintains tradition in distilling small quantities in pots. Once considered a lost recipe for the “Tsar’s Vodka,” the diamond-lined distillation pot, water from Italian Alps and hand-selected grains are some of the reasons Kors is the most exclusive vodka available on the market today. This one is made out of rye and wheat. Each year grains from 12 countries are brought to distilleries in Italy and Finland. Everything is hand selected so that the taste would be as smooth as possible. At the end only the finest grains are approved for production.
When diamond distillation pots were first used over a century ago, the creators didn’t know that they were on a verge of something truly extraordinary. The smoothness of taste achieved with this method is something no other technique can provide. But the quality doesn’t come without a price – this technique is unarguably the most expensive but the end results are simply staggering. The tradition further continues with gold tubes that are one of the key elements needed for distillation of Kors. Some of the tubes are still the same used for production of “Tsar’s Vodka” over a century ago.
Meanwhile, DASH hand-crafts its gluten-free recipe with raisin mash in a primitive pot. Founder and master distiller Ali Ansari spent more than a year meeting with master distillers throughout Europe and experimenting with different fermentation and distillation methods to perfect the recipe for DASH. Upon doing so, Ansari returned to Texas to pursue his dream of producing his ultra-premium vodka. DASH is distilled seven times through a handmade copper hybrid still. It is finished with purified mineral water, filtered through crushed coconut shells, plate filtered and micro-oxygenated. The resulting spirit—the smoothest vodka in the market.
Such artisanal alternatives to multi-national giants are easily being lapped up by mixologists and culinary experts across the globe because of the complexity and care of detailing that make for an enriched dining experience.