Sipsmith do a nice vodka made in an all-copper distillery in a residential area of West London that's particularly nice. My favourite is generally local vodka made in the West of Belarus, but for vodka that's commercially available in the West I like Nemiroff (there's a De Luxe version made more for Western tastes) and Wyborova (Single Estate is lovely).

And yes, Ruski Standard is not bad at all.

Smirnoff
 

Smirnoff beat everybody in a blind taste test:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/dining/26wine.html

IIRC, Smirnoff is the #1 selling vodka in the world.

Just out of curiosity, how heavily have Polish, Russian and Ukrainian immigrants to the US been behind the origins of American vodka brands? Is there a specific geographical area where vodka has been distilled in the US?

I don't believe there's such an area. Vodka didn't become popular in the US until the 1970s, and then only because of Absolut's marketing efforts saying that vodka leaves you "breathless" - no alcohol on your breath.

The premium vodka brands are essentially marketing inventions. Ukrainian/Polish/Russian brands are homegrown brands from those countries, as far as I know.

I'd expect the same. US vodkas (Sky) and vodkas developed for the US market (Vox, etc) are very much creations of the US drinks market, rather than a reference back to the Eastern European roots of vodka.

You can see it in the marketing - it's almost universally around how their vodka doesn't taste of anything, described in various different ways (quadruple-filtered, coal-filtered, smooth, best served on ice, etc).

If you look at good Polish, Ukrainian and to some degree Russian vodkas, much of their value is around the flavour.

My personal favourites are Russian (Stolichnaya) and Polish (Belvedere), but they are as much "marketing inventions" as any other brand. In fact, I don't see how you can differentiate between a brand of anything by classifying them as either "marketing inventions" or "homegrown brands" -- it's not as if these brands emerged spontaneously from the soil or were the result of divine revelation or something.

Point taken. By "marketing inventions", I meant that an enterprising businessman said "let me get a supply of vodka and make up a story and pretty bottle shape around it".

Contrast that to, say, Stolichnaya, which I presume was a popular kind of Russian vodka that did well in the export market.

hey guys, this is probably not the best place to ask, but I've heard taking bottom shelf vodka and running it through a Brita filter a few times would make it much more tolerable, any truth to that? And if so why don't they do before they sell it?

Nothing beats a Stoly, for me...

Just use a search engine and read the reviews from those who have tried it. Some lower priced brands so claim that they are charcoal filtered multiple times.

Kirkland Signature Vodka is right up there in my book.

I usually drink my vodka on the rocks. I used to keep it in the freezer and drink it straight, but I found that I was drinking WAY too much that way. Now that is only for rare occasions.

My usual everyday vodka is either Finlandia, Skyy, or Stoli. I am a big fan of Ketel One, and Belvedere, just not a fan of the price. :)

I find Żubrówka and Christiania to be terrible. I threw away a bottle of Żubrówka that I bought in Taiwan a few years ago. Who thought it was a good idea to put a blade of grass in there?

The Christiania is still sitting on a shelf in the basement after many years.

Before throwing this out it was better to ask how to drink it ;) Żubrówka tastes best with apple juice. Personally I serve it with pear juice. In Poland we never drink pure Żubrówka.

My fav vodkas are: Belvedere, Beluga and Wyborowa Exquisite.

Belvedere treats me right. Everyday vodka I use Ston or Sky.

Disclaimer: I actually don't drink it everyday though.