That’s right folks, Vodka has been around for over six hundred years, originating somewhere between Poland and Russia (that’s an ongoing debate that we won’t get into).  Vodka has been used medicinally to “awaken lust and improve fertility”…I think that was the favorite fact from the education part of our Vodka tasting!

For the Vodka Tasting, we wanted to showcase vodkas produced in the Northwest US.  We started with a side-by-side comparison of three vodkas distilled from different bases – grain, potato, and sugar beets.  Dry Fly vodka (grain, from Spokane WA), Teton Glacier vodka (potato, from Rigby ID) and Flathead vodka (sugar beet, from Tobacco Valley MT) were all chilled and served up, tasted and compared. What a difference between the three types of vodkas!  We found the tasters either loved or hated the Flathead vodka (some drew comparisons to rubbing alcohol and turpentine), loved or hated the Dry Fly (which was actually very smooth with soft vanilla notes), and were indifferent to the Glacier (probably the least pungent of the three).

The second half of the tasting focused on flavored vodkas.  We tasted Indio Wasabi vodka and found that this flavor should definitely be mixed with something else.  Then we tasted the Yazi Ginger and we can say “WOW” about that one – very tasty, slightly sweet, would mix very well but it’s not necessary.  Last we tasted the Van Gogh Double Espresso.  This one is espresso infused and is caffeinated.  We thought it would work as a Black Russian all by itself – very tasty!

Who ever thought of drinking straight shots of vodka slowly?  Well, the room was full of people sipping vodkas and discussing them.  What a cool way to bring drinkers together!  We followed the tasting with a martini party, with several simple syrups and a fabulous martini menu.  One special guest from Chicago, a big bearded teddy bear of a guy, daintily sipped one of EACH martini on the menu (there were 11)!  Bet that felt great on the train ride home the next morning 🙂