Once upon a time , right smart back in the1990s , vodka was reasonably much the coolest thing you could rate . Itwas the It drink at clubs and bars , and its magical ( paucity of)flavor sweep the nation . But , in the last decade , the craft movementhas exploded . “ Small flock , ” “ hand - made , ” and “ craft ” arethe new cant for everything from beer to whiskey and knock rummy tococktails .
Meanwhile , vodka has been leave out ofthe conversation . No longer sit at the coolheaded Thomas Kid ’ table , it ’s beenforced to hang out with a group of aunts in trashy sweaters . So whenarguably the big vodka company in the world makes a looseness to getin on the craft view , does it have a chance of fit in ? Or is itlike the time your dad showed up at your prom , put on Hammer pantsand a D.A.R.E. T - shirt ?
It ’s Friday good afternoon , you ’ve madeit through the tenacious week , and it ’s fourth dimension forHappy Hour , Gizmodo’sweekly strong drink editorial . A cocktail shaker full of innovation , skill , and alcohol . Can I get a vodka that ’s just vodka - flavored any longer ?
What Is Elyx?
Elyx is a novel , premium vodka fromAbsolut , and everything about it is a play at trade culture . By wayof background knowledge : Vodka is the number one deal spirit in the U.S.,and , globally , it ’s bit two , just behind South Korea ’s insanelypopular Soju . Roughly 520 million casesof vodka are produced every year , which breach down to roughly 200bottles per second . It ’s big , and among premium vodkas , Absolut isthe bountiful ( and its second - gravid among 2d - tier vodka , withSmirnoff being first ) . In other Christian Bible , Absolut is the auto that craft polish rage against .
Despitethat , when it comes to Elyx , Absolut basically does everything rightto appeal to craft sensibilities . A playfulness - fact most masses don’tknow about their favorite vodka : Most vodka company do n’t actuallydistill their own liveliness , at least not at the head start of the appendage . surprisal ! Most buy neutral grain spirits from third - political party company , and then run away them through their own rectifyingstills . Actually , when you read about smell that are “ distilled six times ! ” thattypically means it goes through one still with six rectifyingcolumns . by and large speaking , each rectifier is designed to remove a different impurity ( the mostimportant being methanol ) , then they water it down to the proof theywant , bottle it , and slap their label on it .
Incontrast , Absolut buys wheat from 450 unlike farm in the south ofSweden and they do all of the distilling themselves at their maindistillery in Nöbbelöv . The distillery was recently dub the existence ’s most free energy efficientdistillery per liter . Not only that , it posture directly on top of anunderground lake that ’s more than 400 feet below the surface and hasnever been touched by industriousness , so the water that goes into the vodkais theoretically extremely everlasting . Got a lot of crafty buzzwords in therealready , right ? Just you expect .
ForElyx , Absolut uses exclusive - estate wheat which comesfrom just one single farm at RåbelöfCastlein Åhus , Sweden , where they ’ve been growing wheat berry since the 1400s . According to Absolut , that farm has consistently yield the bestwheat with the perfect water system / starch Libra the Balance . The wheat undergo theusual process at the principal still tobecome a in the altogether smell , but thenit ’s put on a hand truck and haul over to a second still to be finished .
Thisrectification still , known as Column 51 , was make in 1921 and isentirely atomic number 29 . pig is extremely of import to the process becauseit catalyzes suggestion compounds within the spirit and imparts adistinctive ( if insidious ) flavor . This still is entirely hand - operatedbya small squad of highly - skilled distillers . Temperature , flow - pace , and “ every thickening , handle , and lever tumbler ” is adjusted by hand . “ Fromseed to bottle , everything is done within a 15 - mile wheel spoke of thedistillery , ” according to the literature .
I imply , come on ! What could be craftierthan that ? “ Strained through the mustaches of proud miner thenfiltered through the charred Stone of the Berlin Wall . ” Okay , maybe that . But otherwise , it ticks basically every other box craftfetishists could need . Oh , except , it ’s made by the monolith that isAbsolut ( not some little mom and soda water mental process ) , and it ’s a vodka . Sohow do you betray it ?
The Push
To help legitimize Elyx in the cocktailscene , Absolut has been hiring people with very legit cocktail credto be Elyx ’s brand embassador . In Los Angeles , they get thehighly - respectedLindsayNader , whose curriculum vitae includes place like the fabled P.D.T. inNew York amongst others . Gizmodo caught up with her in L.A. and receive the fullrundown on what precisely Absolut is try here .
“ It’sa hand crafted ware , so we ’re definitely going after the bestcocktail bar and the best farm - to - table restaurants , ” Nader told us . “ We’relooking for a specific character of customer and a specific case ofbartender . We ’re being careful with it and we ’re testing the waters . Wedon’t want to see it get have into a Long Island Iced Tea , butyou’ll jump seeing it soonspecialtyliquor stores . ”
Part of the pushback , of line , isagainst Absolut itself , which is see as a colossus in the liquorworld . However , as Nader is quick to designate out , “ Somebrands are adult because they make a really good product . ” Absolut aside , a lot of what Nader does is focused on vodka as acategory , test to contribute it back into the conversation . She talksabout it in the context of history , of global sale , and ofproduction , where she stresses the three most important factors for a vodka : H2O , stark naked material ( i.e. wheat ) , and output method acting . This , ofcourse , is a nice segue into talking about Elyx , where she fix tohighlight everything that makes it so craftastic .
So , it ’s a very direct play for the cockle of the craft cocktail sum . But what does the modern cocktail residential area think of Elyx ? We asked .
The Opposition
For starting motor , we give out to ourgood friendSother Teagueof Amor y Amargo in NYC , who was recentlyfeaturedin the New York Timesand hashelped uswith manyHappy Hoursin thepast . We call for him what he thought of Elyx , and if it ( or any other)vodka had a hazard in the landscape of slyness cocktails . He didn’tpull any punches :
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I’vetried it . Nothing too exceptional . Vodka , by its very nature , is supposedto be sporty and virtuous . “ Colorless , odorless , impersonal distilledspirit . ” It land very little to the cocktail . Even the simplestvodka cocktail , the screwdriver ( 50/50 vodka and orange juice ) justbecomes water - down , boozy orange juice . It does no favor for eitherthe vodka or the OJ .
Vodkaholds no position in the cocktail pantheon .
However , vodka certainly hold a place in the pantheon of spirits . It ’s justmeant to be drunk alone and preferably well - chilled . Usually pairedwith piquant or rich nutrient ( Caviar , foie gras , etc ) .
essentially , if I were to make you soup and give you the option of starting withwater or with lineage , you ’d likely choose stemma . Let ’s commence from aplace of look . When induce cocktail , I never reach for the “ body of water ” that is vodka . Rather , I reach for “ broth ” to progress savour on .
So there you have it . We also spokeon the telephone set to one of the most prominent bartenders in the country , who demand to remain anonymous due to his close kinship withAbsolut ( and its parent companionship Pernod - Ricard ) . He was among thefirst to be sent a bottle when Absolut begin test thewaters . “ It’sreally good , ” he said , “ but I do n’t really understand it . I reckon they ’re taking kind of a strange tack on it , becauseit ’s high - end . ” Heexplains further :
We’vekind of come full circle on vodka . Fora while itwas like $ 70 feeding bottle , and it was everywhere . Then it was like , “ FUCKvodka ! ” It was n’t cool any more , somebars stopped serving it entirely . And now it ’s kind of come back around and it ’s like , “ Yeah , vodka ’s hunky-dory for what it is . ” But , nobodywants a super premium vodka anymore .
Itold him Elyx was sell in the $ 50 range . His response ?
Fifty dollar for a bottle of vodka is completely mad ! Like I say , it’sgood , but in this Clarence Day and age , who afford a shit ? Sure , it’sdelicious ; Ikept it my deep-freeze , I tope it when I got home from work . But once itwas gone , I never buy another bottle . I purchase a $ 17 bottle .
Surprisingly , vodka in reality appear in two of the cocktails on his bill of fare right now , out of roughly a half dozen . But he ’s careful to point out that vodkaisn’tthe prominent ingredient . “ It ’s just used to make the drinks alittle solid without changing the flavors . And I ’m sure as hellnot using a $ 50 vodka for that , ” hesaid . “When vodka is really , really bad it ’s just kind of bad , and when it ’s really , really honest , it ’s just kind of good . ”
Irelayed this last quote to Lindsay Nader for her reaction .
“ I’dlove to sit down with him and have him do a blind savoring , ” Shesaid . “Also , regularAbsolutand Elyxmix very differently . Regular is great in shaken , citrusy , brightdrinks . Elyx is great for simple , unadorned drinks . Like the vesper or a vodka martini . It stand up on its own so well . ” Challenge accept .
The Taste Test
Absolutsent me a bottle of Elyx for this article so I could check it out . I also wentto my turning point liquor store and grabbeda bottleful of plainold Absolut , so I could compare and contrast . A pour a large glass of each andwent to work . While they ’re in spades more similar than they aredifferent , they certainly are n’t identical .
Goingback and off , smelling each of them , I find that Elyxhas a much milder olfactory property . You’dthink it was grim cogent evidence , but nope , Elyxis really slightly higher ( 84.6 test copy vs 80 ) . They both just smelllike a neutral grain emotional state , which is to say it does n’t smell likemuch .
Sippingeach ( and drink water and eating crackers in between ) I found thatregularAbsolut is a bit sweeter and is definitely simple . It ’s just avery direct up , “ Yup , that ’s what vodka tastes like . ” Niceand clean , smooth , and definitely inoffensive .
Elyxdefinitely tastes a bit siccative , and there ’s a little something moregoing on on the palate . If I did n’t know how it was made , I’dprobably have problem articulating exactly what the difference is ; but , because I do know , I sense like it ’s a very pernicious cop gustatory modality , which I take on is imparted by the continuous copperstillat the close . It ’s get a little minute of a tannic border to it you canfeel on your tooth . Just more or less sour and bitter .
So , yes , it does indeed have more “ character , ” but it ’s verysubtle .
Ithentried a Vesper ( oneof the cocktail Lindsay and Absolut both recommend ) madewith Elyx , and it was good . It did n’t change my life , but it waslight and refreshing , and it certainly packed a punch . I then triedthe same deglutition but with veritable Absolut . It did taste a littlerounder , and a short sweet . It did n’t seem quite as teetotal , andperhaps there was n’t quite as much complexity . But , to be honest , the difference was passing subtle . While the two rendering of Absoluttaste dissimilar , these differences are almost wholly obscured bythe snare ( Beefeater 24 ) and Lillet Blanc .
Sowhat ’s the finding of fact ? Like the dissenters order , it ’s really unspoiled . If Iwas to keep a vodka in my deep-freeze that I ’d use for sipping , would Iprefer Elyx over steady Absolut ? Yeah . But would I prefer it by amargin of $ 20 a bottle ? No . frankly , I ’d belike just foot up a magnanimous bottle of something decent and keep it in my Deepfreeze for a showery day . But , thenagain , I ’m not a vodka connoisseur . If you are , it ’s definitely at least worthtrying to find it at your local , high - death ginmill and giving it a preference . Ideally a blind - taste . Once you ’ve taken a draught or two , let us know what you think , and check back next hebdomad for the nextHappy Hour .
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