Vodka, as a category, is full of liars. A rudimentary understanding of how a column still works will tell you the much-hyped ‘number of times distilled’ is completely meaningless. The filtration techniques are a means of hiding poor craftsmanship in the distillation, and they remove anything that might have been interesting to taste or smell from the spirit. The vast majority of ‘hand-crafted’ vodkas are actually rectified spirit purchased and processed — people selling themselves as artisanal craftsman are buying tankloads of industrial spirit from the same same factories that supply perfumers and chemical makers, running it through their little copper still a few times, passing it through charcoal to try to get the esters out, and calling it hand-made.

—

A civilized person, unless their tastebuds have been destroyed by the frozen Siberian air, has absolutely (absolutly?) no reason to spend his hard-earned cash on vodka.

(via jwz)