Category: vodka
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All About Absolut Elyx and “Sacrificial Copper”
Absolut Elyx is the newish, high-end expression of Absolut vodka. On a trip this past winter to Ahus, Sweden, where Absolut is made, we took a day to learn about Elyx. Elyx is a single-estate vodka made in Absolut's old distillery (the new one is only 5 years old), in amazing copper column stills dating…
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Making Absolut Vodka: A Trip to Ahus, Sweden
Absolut vodka is made in southern Sweden, in the town of Ahus in the Skane region. I took a trip there this winter to learn how the vodka is made. The distillery can produce 650,000 bottles of vodka per day and I had about that many questions for the producers. I think it's best to…
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How Grey Goose is Made
This September I visited Cognac, France to judge a competition for Grey Goose vodka. While there, I learned about the production process. I'm sorry I don't have pictures of all this to share- you like reading, right? Grey Goose is made in two parts: in Picardy, in the north of France, where the wheat is…
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Filtration in Spirits: A Primer
For CLASS Magazine online at DiffordsGuide.com, I wrote an article about filtration in spirits. This was based on the research I did for my talk on the subject at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic earlier this year. Don't Forget the Filtration FactorBy Camper English Nearly every spirit undergoes some sort of filtration, yet we rarely acknowledge…
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Find Me in the Penthouse
Penthouse magazine, that is. I have a story in the April issue about my trip to Warsaw and the ancient forest with ZU vodka, the bison grass vodka known throughout the world as Zubrowka. But I'm also in Penthouse as a model, again! Of course you'll recognize my hand, sexily caressing that…
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Instant Infusions in Tasting Panel Magazine
I have a short piece in Tasting Panel Magazine about the instant infusion method – using a whipped cream charger filled with nitrous oxide to infuse flavors in spirits – and Purity Vodka's promotion of the technique. The story is at this link, which opens a digital magazine reader. By the way, the original Dave…
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A Trip to Sweden with Purity Vodka
This summer I went to Sweden (twice this year!) with Purity vodka. Purity is located not far from Malmo, across the water from Copenhagen, in a building on the estate of Ellinge Castle. Now, Ellinge doesn't look like a typical castle, but there has been one in some form here since the early 14th century…
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Hunting Bison in Poland with ZU Vodka
No bison were harmed in the writing of this blog post. This summer I flew to Warsaw with ZU vodka, known in the rest of the world as Zubrowka. Zubrowka is bison grass vodka; vodka flavored with grass. The stuff tastes like caramel and jasmine and hay, and makes apple juice taste like apple pie.…
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An Amusingly Disgusting Way to Drink Vodka in Sweden
While I was in Sweden with Karlsson's Gold vodka, we learned a traditional way to drink vodka. It is called Kaffegök, and it is gross. You take a cup and put a coin in the bottom. Then you fill it with coffee until you can't see the coin anymore. Then you add vodka until you…
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Karlsson’s Vodka: It’s In The Blend
Months ago I started to talk about my trip to Sweden with Karlsson's vodka. I only covered how to pick potatoes so far. The potatoes for this vodka all come from Cape Bjare in Sweden.To get there, we drove from Copenhagen, over the relatively new bridge that connects Denmark to Sweden with Malmo on the…