Pash-ion for Vodka #5 - Mayfair Vodka

On a recent trip to the Vanquish Office I got the chance to try some Mayfair Vodka and was lucky enough to be able to take some back to the Institute for a more vigorous testing. Mr Hartley and I find Mayfair's brand concept very interesting—rather than looking at one specific product their aim seems to be focusing on the Mayfair brand so that becomes trusted by their customers and becomes synonymous with a guaranteed level of quality.
They have a concise, yet informative, website, my favourite part being some helpful tips on how to be a gentleman. I'm particularly attracted to the idea that "Good flirting is a form of politeness".

In the current range are a vodka and a gin but a champagne is in the pipeline.

Mayfair vodka is bottled at 40% ABV, made from British grain and is distilled six times. A small portion of this distillate is then re-distilled in a pot still; according to Mayfair, this helps to soften the vodka.

But how does it taste?

Own (Room Temperature):
Minimal nose some alcohol, pleasant; tastes a little musky, a touch bready. Smooth but flavorful and a touch of floral/perfume at the end.

Own (Freezer)
Syrupy texture, the musky, bready elements are really accentuated and there is a little chalkiness too. Still quite smooth with warmth at the end.

Martini
Smooth and lightly perfumed. Again the slight breadiness comes out; slightly sweet but rather good.

A Pash-ion For Vodka #4 - Precious Vodka

Last Wednesday, Mr Hartley and I put down our test tubes, switched off the Van-de-Graaf and headed to the docklands on a field trip; our destination: Distil 2011. We tried a variety of interesting potions and draughts during our visit and we especially enjoyed a wine and chocolate tasting with Bava (the folks behind Cocchi Americano).

But one of the most eye-catching products that we tried would have to be Precious Vodka.

Precious Vodka is part of Jewel Lines Global and, although represented from Poland, it is actually made in Bulgaria, this is because the desired water source for the vodka was located here. Precious Vodka emphasise the importance of their water source for the quality of their vodka.

Precious Vodka is a grain-based vodka, distilled six times and charcoal filtered three times. What is immediately noticeable about the vodka is the rather unique bottle: it is shaped like a deep Brilliant-cut (Pre-Tolkowsky) Diamond and at the top is a small compartment which contains a gemstone. There five different types of gemstone available:

Sapphire

Emerald

Ruby

Topaz

Peridot

So after the background, let's look at the taste:

Neat (Room Temperature)
Quite alcoholic on the nose, the taste is much more impressive: sweet and smooth, with a touch of honey-like viscosity and maybe even a little bit of honeyed sweetness. Quite short on the finish, but when you can taste the vodka it provides a full sensation in terms of taste and texture.

Frozen
Very, very clean, with only the faintest hint of burn and very light, sweet grain at the end.

Martini (Shaken)
I like it; very clean and very crisp. Perfect when served with an olive or a twist of lemon. For me, the olive was my preference. A very classic vodka Martini.

A Pash-ion for Vodka #1: Chase Smoked Vodka

This is the first of a new series of articles looking at Vodka, it used to be the darling of the spirit world but recently has become a bit less popular, at least with drinks writers, it seems.*


A good friend of mine, Mr. Pasha, comes from Moscow and on his periodic trips to the UK he usually brings me a bottle of something he has picked up in the Motherland. In fact when Mrs. B and I got married our wedding present consisted of several bottle of vodka and some caviar (much better than a toaster, I'm sure you'd agree!).


That said the first of these articles will actually focus on a British Vodka that I've been meaning to write about for a long time. But rest assured there will be more Russian Vodka to come.


Chase English Oak Smoked Vodka

When I purchased up it was a toss up between this and the Chase Marmalade Vodka, I've not yet tried that but I was still really pleased with my choice of the smoked. The vodka was inspired when one of the folks in the distillery was tasting some fine local smoked salmon; the vodka is smoked in a similar way to the fish. The smoke from the oak permeates Chase's award-winning Potato vodka in a specially designed smoke chamber for about a week.

The run of Smoked Vodka was very limited and although it is currently discontinued there are still bottles about. Mine was about £30 for 70cl.

The Taste

On its own
Nose: neutral grain and a little smoke
Taste: Wow! There is the smokiness, moving from Bavarian smoked cheese to smoked fish to a great smoked meat. To my mind this beats any peated whisky. Despite the smokiness it is still remarkably smooth with a pleasant sweet pick-up on the finish.


Smokey Mule
Moscow Mule using Chase Smoked, quite a pleasant way to enjoy the vodka; Chase holds its own in this drink and the fieriness of the ginger beer is followed by the smoke of the vodka. (No pyro-puns intended)


Martini (5:1) - SHAKEN
Strong flavours of smoked cheese and Palma Ham, the vermouth (Dolin) added a little green herb element, not unlike olives. These flavours combine to create a sort of antipasto misto in a glass. Cool, crisp and delightful. I've never had anything like this.


Frozen Chase
An easy one to make this, it's just smoked vodka straight from the freezer. A very strong smokey flavour, unusual as freezing usually curbs the flavour of the vodka. The vodka is delightfully smokey and almost textureless. it is as if cold smoke vapour is passing down my throat after leaving a warm tingle on my tongue.


In Conclusion
Chase Smoked is the best smoked spirit I've ever had and with its flavour of smoked cheese and meats we at the Institute think that this is what a good bacon vodka should taste like. With that thought comes a plethora of cocktail ideas…


Sadly this has currently been discontinued by Chase but I, along with the dozen people who have sampled some of my bottle sincerely hope that it is brought back.


*Maybe it's just because I move and shake in the gin-set

London Cocktail Society Xmas Bash

Team 1 get busy creating their cocktail

An invitation came last week to what turned out to be a very jolly affair on Monday, the Christmas party of the London Cocktail Society. I think the LCS has only been in existence since September and it’s the brainchild of a clutch of drinks bloggers—Mark the Cocktail Geek (find him on twitter as @thecocktailgeek), Kate of London Cocktail Guide (@londoncocktail) and Emma the Gin Monkey (@ginmonkeyuk). You can check it out and sign up at www.londoncocktailsociety.co.uk.

The results of the first round

Highlight of the evening was the Ready Steady Shake competition: each team was given a box of ingredients, at least three of which they had to use to make a cocktail—and the more ingredients they used the more points they would score, though the teams were all ultimately judged by the quality of the drink. Teams also had access to an array of standard cocktail ingredients and equipment and had two minutes to examine the contents of the box and just four minutes to create the drink.

Our own concoction was a variation on the Bloody Mary featuring muddled red chilli pepper, a sage-rubbed rim, three different citrus juices and rocket pesto! It was garnished with a strawberry, though having tasted it after the event I think it would have benefitted from the sweetness of a few strawberries muddled in the mix. Still, I think we managed to use everything from our box. We came third which, out of just six teams, is not exactly stellar, I suppose.

Our own cocktail is judged, it would appear, against a raw potato

There was also a Swap Shop table where people brought in samples, particularly of their home-made tinctures—needless to say DBS produced some wanton peculiarities such as Perigan’s so-called Cannabis Gin and his own bacon vodka, by which the guests were appropriately horrified.

Big thanks to the organisers and suppliers of the goody bag contents—vodka from Chase, Old Tom gin from Hayman’s, Fevertree’s Mediterranean Tonic Water, cocktail vouchers from The Loft and a discount offer from Gerry’s.

This unlucky team find a tin of cat food in their box. They don't use it. (Though it did give me the idea of
simply smearing the outside of the glass with it and calling your cocktail a Dirty Protest…) 

David gloats over the Swap Shop table. Note his bacon vodka in the foreground