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Double-Blind Vodka Taste Test

I've wanted to do this properly for some time now: get a bunch of friends together, get several vodkas, and try them all blind to identify the true winners and losers w/o any associations due to labels. MicroBob said he might do a miniature version of this with his gf, who allegedly hates Smirnoff and loves Grey Goose, but he never delivered. Time to settle this once and for all.

I had seven friends over last night of various levels of drinking experience and love of vodka. Admittedly, we didn't have anyone who was a vodka connoisseur/snob/lover. It was mostly people who wouldn't ever drink vodka straight except in the name of science, even if they loved it in mixed drinks, and people like me, who aren't opposed to drinking vodka straight, but wonder why you'd ever bother when there are things like whiskey in the world. To ensure maximum objectivity, I did take some awkward measures, but this is serious science. Before everyone arrived, I had all the vodka poured into identical glasses with a letter in front of them to keep them straight in the kitchen. When we'd taste one, one person would go from the living room and pour the vodka from the glass into my decanter, writing down the letter chosen w/o telling me, and then we'd pass the decanter and try a small portion. Thus, no one knew which vodka we were drinking, and no one but me knew even the set of seven vodkas that were being served. All vodkas were served at room temperature, since chilling could mask the differences between them.

The vodkas:

Contestant #1:

http://realestatemiami.files.wordpre...grey-goose.jpg

Grey Goose
Country of origin: France
Plant of origin: wheat
Price for a liter: $36

Gotta have this in the mix. Most people think Grey Goose is either God's gift to vodka or overrated plonk that succeeds due to marketing. Time to cut through both undeserved hate and love that are based solely on its name.

Contestant #2:

http://www.landor.com/images/auto/smirnoff_red.jpg

Smirnoff
Country of origin: originally Russia, but now owned by a British megacorp
Plant of origin: unknown, presumably grain?
Price for a liter: $15

Another obligatory include. Smirnoff is so big that leaving this out would be criminal, plus it was involved in the MB/gf debate. It also famously won the New York Times blind taste test, so it seems especially fitting to include it in our own.

Contestant the third:

http://www.traversetheater.org/images/rain-vodka.gif

Rain
Country of origin: USA
Plant of origin: organic corn
Price for a liter: $24

I was turned onto this when MrMon posted a link to an article detailing great value picks in spirits a while back. That article turned me onto W. L. Weller bourbon, The Dalmore Cigar Malt Scotch, and the Bowmore Darkest Sherry Cask Scotch, all three of which are excellent and indeed good values. I figured this would be a good one to put up against Grey Goose and see if it can take the top spot.

Contestant #4:

http://www.beveragewarehouse.com/ima...ducts/5359.jpg

Fris
Country of origin: Denmark
Plant of origin: wheat
Price for a liter: $13

I've pimped Fris for a while now as a good value pick in vodka. I did go into this hoping I wouldn't own myself should everyone hate it.

Contestant #5

http://sparadvertising.com/img/packaging/nikolai.png

Nikolai
Country of origin: USA
Plant of origin: unspecified grain
Price for a liter: $7.50

This was selected as the least shady-looking vodka on the bottom shelf for less than $8. Will people be able to spot the swill?

Contestant #6

http://www.klwines.com/images/skus/998083x.jpg

Hangar One
Country of origin: USA
Plant of origin: grapes
Price for a 750 mL bottle: $34 ($45.33/L, it's not sold in any size other than 750 mL).

This is the most expensive vodka of the test, and one of the most expensive on the market. I selected it because I was curious if using grapes could make a difference and because their raspberry vodka is objectively awesome: they actually infuse it with real raspberries rather than artificial flavoring. We'll see how their base spirit stacks up.

Contestant #7:

http://www.beveragewarehouse.com/ima...ducts/2289.jpg

Country of origin: Austria
Plant of origin: potatoes
Price for a liter: $14

Should have a potato vodka in there, and while Chopin might have been nice to try, we needed some more mid grade vodkas rather than breaking the bank with all top shelf stuff.

So, how did they all actually fare without labels and marketing to guide our taste buds?

The big winner, chosen as the favorite by 4 of us, second favorite by two, and third by one was...

Spoiler:

In second place, selected as the favorite by one person, second or third favorite by five, and ranked dead last by one, was:

Spoiler:

In third place, selected as the favorite by two people, second by one, but that the rest didn't really enjoy was:

Spoiler:

Fourth place was a tie. People ranked both these vodkas anywhere from 2nd to 6th:

Spoiler:

In 6th place, ranked dead last by four people, but middle of the road by the remaining 3, was:

Spoiler:

And finally, the consensus was that the most disgusting vodka was:

Spoiler:

Pretty much everyone had reason to be shocked by the results, mostly by us repeating the results of the NYT test. However, seeing Rain down at the bottom shocked me the most. At first, we thought we might have ranked it so low because it was the first vodka we tried before we were used to vodka. We decided to pass it around again and see if it tasted smoother, but no. It was indeed just as bad as we thought it was. It was fun to see Grey Goose down towards the bottom, but I didn't think it'd be that low. I figured that in this pool, it'd finish 4th or 5th, but no, without the label, most people hated it.

I did do a quick test of the vodkas mixed, but it wasn't the most objective. I made cosmos with Smirnoff, Nikolai, and Rain and asked people to pick their favorite. People didn't really have a favorite based on vodka quality. It was more slight variations in the proportions that dominated the difference (I was pretty well toasted at this point, so was everyone else). It's likely that differences in quality between vodkas is negligible when mixed, but our results are inconclusive.

The rankings aren't as distinct they seem to be here: it was more like 3 tiers than a quality continuum. Most people agreed that the top 3 were pretty close in quality, then the two 4th place vodkas were a noticeable step down but again comparable, and then the bottom two were again comparable. Ultimately, the only vodkas that the seven of us would consider buying again were Smirnoff, Monopolowa, and Nikolai, which is cheap enough to merit consideration even if it's not the favorite.