I don't consider Grey Goose to be overpriced plonk. I consider it to be overpriced water! My big problem with Grey Goose (and Belvedere, those two are indistinguishable to my taste buds) is that they are so "smooth" as to be nearly flavorless. Somewhere I believe I read that the definition of vodka is that it should be flavorless but drink a glass of water and then a glass of good vodka and tell me how flavorless the vodka is...

Anyway, my go-to vodka is Ketel One.

Yes. Smirnoff is usually our "house" brand at my home, meaning we buy the biggest bottle we can find . We also like Tito's. I'd never buy one of the top shelf vodkas, they may be a little different, but not necessarily better than the mid-range brands. 90% of the time, it's used for martinis here, 10% Bloody Marys. My wife drinks them dirty, so IMO just about any vodka would be fine. If I'm drinking a vodka martini (usually it's gin for me), I find Smirnoff to be a nice clean vodka when mixed with just a splash of vermouth.

For those people who mix their vodka with juices or soft drinks, or even in Bloody Marys, paying for a top shelf vodka seems silly to me.

If that is the criteria, then I'm happy with a local craft distillery called Breckenridge Vodka* (can't provide a link due to corporate firewall), which a few dollars cheaper than Grey Goose or Belvedere. I've been also told that the Costco/Kirkland Signature French Vodka would also fit that criteria.

Upon further review, it looks like Kirkland Signature and Breckenridge are around $20 per bottle, Grey Goose is $22, and Belvedere is $25. I would be happy with any of those.

* - also very impressed with their gin, but that's for another thread.

We don't have a Costco membership but my in-laws do. My wife got a bottle of Kirkland vodka last summer and it was perfectly fine. The only read advantage to it (vs. not having a Costco membership) was that she was able to acquire a gigantic bottle of it.

I've tried a couple other Kirkland liquors before and haven't been impressed. But whiskeys, as an example, are a lot more nuanced than vodka. I suppose it depends on who the maker is behind the Kirkland label.

Any other opinions? $3.99 at Trader Joe�s as EDLP or close out.

Do you find Finlandia , a premium vodkamade with glacial spring water , where you are ?
Introduced to me in 1978 when staying in Finland ..

I am not a fan of flavored vodkas and Cynamon does not sound like something I would like. Regular Sobieski is meh IMHO.

I'm usually willing to take a gamble on flavors that the market has rejected once...and you usually only get one chance to pick up products that stores are dumping

If it were literally any other flavor, I would probably buy one at that price even if I didn't use it for a year. But cinnamon? I'm feeling a little sick just thinking of it. Do you already know what you would use it in?

I make my own Swedish mulled wine (gl�gg) every year to give to our neighbors. It's very heavy on cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves. Typically I use mandarin vodka to strengthen it, but this year I decided to try Deep Eddy orange vodka. It made it a bit too bright, so adding some cinnamon vodka probably would've fixed it instantly. Instead, I threw in a few more sticks of cinnamon and let it steep for a few days, and that did the trick.

the $3.99 for 750ml, and Trader Joe�s only having cashiers, were my reasons for the purchase. Maybe I would have passed on jalape�o or anise or tomato vodkas. Or if Trader Joe�s had self-checkout, then I wouldn�t have bothered. $3.99 is a lot of money for me but I couldn�t not go for it.

Tomato or jalapeno would work in a Bloody Mary. Like cinnamon, I can't imagine a use for anise vodka. As someone above mentioned, I suppose you can use cinnamon in a holiday or possibly a dessert type drink. I guess I just don't buy flavored vodka, I wouldn't have guessed some of these existed. At $3.99 you got a great price though.

What difference does the form of check-out make?

At least in California, alcohol purchases cannot occur in a self-checkout lane.

This flavored foods/beverage idea has gotten me thinking that a thread dedicated to this topic in the general sense might be interesting chat fodder. Potato/corn chips, in particular, lend themselves to some truly insane flavor combinations (e.g. late night ramen, Hawaiian pizza, kungpao chicken) in regional markets.

Back on the vodka topic, here's a sampling of the current retail market here in Shanghai (all numbers represent CNY and the USD/CNY fx rate is around 6.5; assume 700ml or 750ml for each):
-random Russian vodkas 75
-Skyy 80 (but, I've seen it for as low as 59)
-Smirnov 80
-Stoli 80...a little more for desirable flavors
-Absolut 80-150, but 140 is most common
-Grey Goose 300
-Belvedere 325
-Tito's 350

We do have a piracy problem here, and vodka has to be insanely easy to fake, but I have a reasonable amount of trust in the larger channels (i.e. FamilyMart has minimal incentive to play games). I usually end up buying Skyy when I can find it, but readily admit that my decision process is driven by a combination of the fact that it is cheap and I'm a sucker for the cobalt bottles. At bars, I splurge for the higher end stuff...typically only a 25% premium v the house brand.

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