From its beginnings in Poland and Russia over 1,000 years ago, vodka has become one of the most popular beverages in the world—and the alcohol of choice for drinkers who prefer to partake in the fruity, creamy, or even tangy creations that are served up with this versatile spirit. From Bloody Marys to White Russians, Screwdrivers to Moscow Mules, vodka is at the heart of many of our favorite cocktails and mixed drinks. Sales of vodka make up a full 25% of the spirits market today. And while trips to breweries and wineries are popular getaways, spirits distilleries get a little less love for their equally impressive production processes and far more versatile products—perhaps because shots of pure vodka don’t exactly scream “romance” so much as “party.” Nevertheless, as one of the most popular spirits the world over, it’s important to know where and how what you’re drinking came to be.

The Production Process: How is Vodka Made?

So how do vegetables and grains eventually become the neutral spirit that we all enjoy? At its most basic level, yeast is added to a mixture of vegetables to convert sugars like dextrose and maltose into ethyl alcohol. The pure form of this then becomes the delicious and versatile beverage that we add to our mixed drinks. Let’s take a closer look at the commercial distilling process used today.

Materials

• Fermentable Ingredients—Vodka can be made from almost any vegetable or grain. Although it was originally made from potatoes, most commercial vodka is now distilled from wheat and other grains.
• Malt Meal—Malt grains are soaked in water and ground into a powder once they germinate. This meal helps to convert the starches in the vegetables and grains into sugar.
• Yeast—The yeast Sacchasomyces cereviseal is added to produce alcohol by extracting oxygen from starches and sugars.
• Water—Water helps to thin out vodka, lowering the alcohol content from nearly 190 proof to our 80 proof standard.

Production

1. Mash up the fermentable vegetable or grain base and add the ground malt meal to help convert the starches into sugar. Commercial manufacturers use an automatic mash tub that rotates and breaks up the grain.
2. Heat the mash until it boils in order to sterilize it.
3. Inject the mixture with lactic-acid bacteria. This will raise the acidity level it will need in order to ferment and create alcohol.
4. Heat the vegetable/grain and malt concoction again to prevent any harmful bacteria from growing.
5. Put the mixture into stainless-steel containers, add yeast, and close the lids.
6. Leave the containers alone for two to four days. This allows the mash’s sugars to turn into alcohol. Usually, the mixture will be done when it finishes bubbling.
7. The alcohol is then cycled through stills and steam heated until the alcohol is separated from the impurities. Commercial stills are large stainless-steel columns with vaporization chambers, the still heads, on top. While the alcohol vapor rises to the top, the impurities flow to the bottom where they are removed.
8. Once the vapors are collected, water is added to make the mixture palatable. Straight out of the distilling process, vapors are as much as 100% alcohol. That’s 200 proof—a far higher alcohol content than the average cocktail calls for.
9. The finished vodka is now bottled in glass. Plastic and other materials are not used to bottle vodka because they have the potential to change its chemistry, and therefore its taste and quality. Commercial distillers can bottle as many as 400 containers of vodka a minute.

Vodka Varieties: You Are What You Drink

Back in the 10th century, Russians and Poles didn’t have many options when it came to drinking vodka. It was probably made from potatoes, perhaps in a backroom, and definitely in small quantities. Since vodka exploded on the international market in the last 100 years, a dizzying array of vodka varieties have popped up from triple and quadruple distilled to a whole hodgepodge of flavors.

Traditional vodka flavorings include the Russian pertsovka with honey and pepper, Polish zubrowka made with bison grass, and Swedish kryddat braennvin, seasoned with herbs, spices, and fruits. These days, you can find a million and one daring and unusually flavored vodkas at your local liquor store including cinnamon churros, iced cake, pineapple coconut, and even bacon!

There’s always room to learn more about this classic beverage—visit a local distillery or read up on the internet. One thing’s for sure--the next time you concoct your own Moscow Mule at home or order a vodka-based cocktail at the bar, you’ll think a little bit harder about how this delicious spirit was manufactured to become one of the world’s favorite beverages.

A GUIDE TO CHOOSING THE PERFECT VODKA

Now that we know how it was made it is time for the fun part. Picking the Vodka that is perfect for you. The quality of the ingredients that are used to make any cocktail will have a big influence upon how it tastes. As one of the main ingredients in any cocktail it's especially important to be careful when selecting the type of vodka that you will use in your drink. But how do you tell a premium quality vodka from a low grade vodka? In the past, simply looking at the price tag was normally sufficient, but nowadays there are so many brands that claim to offer "premium grade" vodka that it can be very difficult to distinguish one from the next. "Downing" a quick shot or two isn't any good either if you don't really know what you're looking for. So just how do you select the perfect vodka for your Moscow Mule? We're going to provide you with a few tips during this article that will help you to assess just how good a vodka really is.

Tasting Vodka: The Right Way

Before you even think about actually tasting the vodka, you first have to prepare it properly, which means freezing it. "Freezing???" I hear you cry. Yep, you absolutely should freeze vodka before you taste it, preferably overnight, but a few hours will do if you're pushed for time. The reason being is that lowering its temperature helps to bring out the flavour in the vodka and also the proper consistency.

What Next?

After you've had the vodka in the freezer for at least a few hours, it's time to take a clear glass, which you should also put in the freezer for roughly 60 minutes. You're then ready to get the tasting underway. Pour a good amount into the glass, pick it up and hold it for a few moment before drinking it. The reasoning behind this is that, as you can probably have guessed by now, vodka must be tasted at just the right temperature to experience the best taste. Too cold and it will chill your taste buds to the point that you won't taste it properly; too warm and the flavour profile will be thrown out of sync. When tasting vodka, you should be using three of your senses, not one.

• Taste - This is obviously the main one and has the biggest bearing on whether a vodka makes the cut or not. It shouldn't hit your taste buds like a ton of bricks; the taste should be relatively soft. It shouldn't burn the inside of your mouth either (something that we've all experienced before). Other characteristics to look for is a vodka that is creamy and smooth.
• Smell - Just as with fine wines, it's important to smell the vodka too. Gently swirl it around your glass before letting your nostrils "taste" it. Again, watch out for a vodka that smells kid of creamy and sweet. Anything that smells too much like medicine or like something that you would likely smell in an industrial setting, as you can imagine, indicates a poorer quality vodka.
• Sight - Your eyes can also help you when assessing whether a vodka is worthy of inclusion in your beverage. Raise your glass close to the light and focus on the drink's texture; it should be thick and may have either a yellowy or blue tint to it.

Some of the Best Vodkas Around

Now we've armed you with the knowledge required to properly taste vodka, you're probably wondering where you should start. If you're anything like most people, Smirnoff and Absolut are probably about the only brands that you're familiar with, but that doesn't mean to say that they are the best. We recommend you check out the following vodkas:

• Stolichnaya - It's highly probable that you've never, ever heard of this vodka, but Stolichnaya, or Stoli for short, is an extremely high quality vodka and represents very good value for money. The fact that this is the choice of most professional bartenders says it all and it's equally good whether you want to drink it neat or you want to drink it blended.
• Chopin - Sick of those vodkas that burn and don't allow you to enjoy the taste? Then Chopin is a vodka that you absolutely must try. It's one of the few remaining vodkas that is still made from potatoes and has a very smooth taste.
• Belvedere - You might also see this referred to as "Belvy" and just like Chopin it's a Polish vodka. It's very high quality and wins a lot of competitions around the world, but comes in at a lower price point than Chopin does. It's produced using an ultra slow distillation process (4 times) and the water that is added to it goes through an equally thorough 11 step purification process.

Don't just plonk any old vodka into your next homemade concoction. Do a bit of research (vodka tasting isn't exactly stressful) and choose something with a bit of class to enhance the experience. Here are some other tips to help you get your Moscow Mule cocktails just right.

For everyone that is really loyal to your favorite vodka, why not let everyone know by getting their logo engraved on your favorite Moscow Mule mug