Let me begin this post by arguing for the positive side of vodka.
I adore vodka. It’s my second favorite spirit to sip neat after Speyside Scotch. I use the same kind of tall shot glasses one uses for tequila, or sometimes a Glencairn if I am feeling particularly in that kind of a mood. If that makes me weird, and it does, so be it. I won’t judge how you drink, so don’t judge my vodka. But vodka, by its nature alone it seems, gets a bad rap for its wholly inaccurate definition which relegates its best uses to being mindlessly blended into drinks where people don’t care what they’re drinking as long as it’s alcoholic. That definition is simplified as:
Colorless.
Odorless.
Flavorless.
And it’s wrong!
Alright, so vodka is colorless, but then so is gin. So is moonshine. So are white rums and silver tequilas. Being colorless shouldn’t limit vodka anymore than it does these spirits.
As far as odorless and flavorless go there’s more argumentation to be made here. Try a few vodkas side by side, and one can pick up subtle nuances that differentiate them, even just on the nose. There are spicy vodkas, fruity vodkas, medicinal vodkas. (I am not just referring to flavored vodkas, either, so don’t go there). Sure, the flavors are quieter than those in its louder spiritual cousins, but that doesn’t make them any less present. Ignore the press, ignore the stigma, ignore bold claims of distillations with diamonds and charcoal and ignore country of origins and really think the next time you find yourself face to face with a vodka.
Rye, wheat, potatoes, sugarcane and anything else that can be distilled under the sun all produce vodkas of unique natures, flavors, and textures. In the same way that sommeliers discuss the body of wines, think about the feel of the vodka. Think about the subtle nuances of the vodkas you’re tasting, and then think about how you can create the same subtle differences in the drinks you mix. Think of, instead of having vodka disappear into a drink, having vodka accentuate the wide range of mixers out there and make them come alive!
We all might have our preferences, and that’s the fun of the diversity of drinking. I’m not saying that if you’re a bourbon drinker or a gin drinker that you’re going to fall in love with vodka this way. I’m just asking that it be treated with respect. That is what I intend to do with this session of the Gimlet Battle Royale.
My base spirit of the day is my favorite go-to vodka: Chopin Potato. On its own this vodka reads of mild vanilla blossom, white pepper, citrus pith, and heavy notes of fresh cream that come through further on its rich, nearly oily palate. It finishes clean, smooth, and a bit refreshing. I am intrigued to see how to will stand up to the battery of Gimlets I am about to prepare.
The rules are the same as before, but now feature vodka! 5 points each for nose, taste, and overall impression. A 2oz vodka to 2oz mixer ratio, stirred for 30 seconds. On the rocks and up. Rose’s Lime Juice, fresh lime juice, simple syrup, and Demerara syrup.
Chopin Potato Vodka Gimlet (2oz), Rose’s Lime Juice (2oz), Stirred, Up: I will state again for the record that mixing a clear spirit with Rose’s makes for a uniquely disturbing ghostly green-hued drink. By this point I fear myself growing used to it. The nose of this Gimlet read of mild aromas of lime, a hint of something sweet, and clearly displayed the vodka, 3/5. The palate, in a wonderful bit of anticlimax, tasted like Rose’s Lime Juice, only less sweet and with a whisper of alcohol, 2/5. Overall, this is fine? I guess? It’s at the very least inoffensive, and the vodka served well in cutting some of the sweetness of the Rose’s, 3/5. Final Score: 8/15.
Chopin Potato Vodka Gimlet (2oz), Rose’s Lime Juice (2oz), Stirred, Rocks: By and large, we’ve discovered that Gimlets served on the rocks lose a great deal of their aromatic quality, and it shows here again with the faintest of noses, 2/5. Bizarrely, however, the added dilution and chill obscure almost all of Rose’s cloying sweetness and give way to something tasting suspiciously like fresh lime. Not half bad to sip, 4/5. This, overall, was refreshing, mild, and easy to drink, 4/5. Final Score: 10/15.
Chopin Potato Vodka Gimlet (2oz), Fresh Lime Juice (1oz), Simple Syrup (1oz), Stirred, Up: We’re back to the familiar Gimlet color. The nose here is actually kind of incredible. There’s the fresh lime, inviting and bright, with the whisper of pepper and cream from the vodka. It’s all there in the nose, 5/5. This Gimlet does read sweet on the palate, quite sweet actually, but finishes creamy and long with a good tartness, 4/5. This is a solid Gimlet, and I find myself barely missing the gin in favor of the complexity brought by, yes I am going to say it, the vodka, 4/5. Final Score: 13/5.
Chopin Potato Vodka Gimlet (2oz), Fresh Lime Juice (1oz), Simple Syrup (1oz), Stirred, Rocks: I was almost amazed at how little a nose this Gimlet had. It wasn’t mild, it was nonexistent, 0/5. The palate itself had nothing to fall back on, and was completely uninteresting, 1/5. Overall this was a hollow, bland Gimlet and I really can’t say much more about it than that, 1/5. Final Score: 2/5.
Chopin Potato Vodka Gimlet (2oz), Fresh Lime Juice (1oz), Demerara Syrup (1oz), Stirred, Up: Once more Demerara brings that familiar golden-brown color to the Gimlet. I’m still unsure how it makes me feel, but maybe that’s a feeling in and of itself? What does amaze me is the nose of this Gimlet. It’s layered, dark, and absolutely lovely. The darker sugar mixes well with the fresh lime, and the vodka manages to remain present, 5/5. However, the palate was a cloying mess, and utterly unbalanced with neither the lime nor the vodka cutting through the sweetness, 1/5. This was an awkward, incomplete Gimlet that offered more than it delivered, 2/5. Final Score: 8/15.
Chopin Potato Vodka Gimlet (2oz), Fresh Lime Juice (1oz), Demerara Syrup (1oz), Stirred, Rocks: The nose here is of mild cream and some lime, again annoyingly faint, 2/5. The sweetness on both of the Demerara incarnations here has been surprising. Once more I find it dominated by the sugar, although the vodka notes do come through better than the version served up, 3/5. This is a shaky, somewhat sippable Gimlet, 3/5. Final Score: 8/15.
We find ourselves here with a clear first-place winner of the round: The Chopin Potato Vodka Gimlet, Stirred, and Up (13/15). I find it to be a decidedly complex, wonderfully refreshing Gimlet that I wouldn’t turn my nose up to just because its base spirit wasn’t gin. In second, we find ourselves looking at the Rose’s on the Rocks version, with a score of 10/15. Not something I’m mad at, quite nice to sip, but I will repeat my message from the Chemist round and wonder why you’d want to mix this version. There’s a three-way tie for third, which either speaks to the difficulty of a scoring system based out of 15 or the differing limitations of each of the versions (Rose’s Up, and Demerara Up and on the Rocks). The results of the two Demerara versions make me wonder about messing with their ratios later. Hm…
While the winning Gimlet had scores on par with the contenders from the Gin round, there is a noticeable average drop of scores across the board. Does this immediately negate my pro-vodka rant from earlier? Not necessarily. The winning Gimlet here was as tasty as the other winners, and there were a few examples that weren’t exactly terrible drinks, either. Perhaps this would require a different vodka to test in a future round of the Gimlet Battle Royale? Not in the foreseeable future, I’ve consumed a lot of gin and vodka in the past few weeks.
Feel free to experiment at home with this formula and see if your conclusions match mine! The Gimlet is a wonderful cocktail and I am very happy to have gotten to know it more intimately. As the weather gets warmer, at least I’ll have a go-to reference for what I feel like mixing the next time the call for this refreshing drink calls out to me.
Cheers, everyone!