The Walter Collective Vodka. Vodka is kinda known as that “ugly duckling” in the spirits/craft cocktail world, given that its legal designation requires distillation up to 95% alcohol by volume. Distillation is the process of separating alcohol molecules from the rest of the fermented substance, and distilling to such a high % strips almost all flavor compounds from the product.

Vodka can be made from ANYTHING that has sugar or complex carbs so long as it meets the distillation % requirement, and the mainstream way of judging vodka “quality” is by how “smooth” it is, aka how little you can taste any alcohol burn. This is often advertised by how many times it’s been distilled, as each distillation will ‘purify’ the spirit more by stripping out more and more flavor/congeners.

Well, The Walter Collective bottles a vodka that actively rejects the practice of optimizing for flavorlessness. Their vodka is made from a blend of spelt (a more nutty grain) and triticale (hybrid between wheat and rye) to maximize the flavor of the distillate. These alternative ingredients are more expensive than more common choices for vodka distillation, but produces an end product that has a really unique nutty quality.

In flavor, it’s much more rich than your 3-6x times distilled vodka, though given the requirement for high % distillation, the specific nutty flavor won’t shine thru in a mixed drink. You won’t have any trouble trying to hide any vodka ‘harshness’ with this, and it’s definitely a great choice for a vodka-forward drink like a Vesper or vodka martini.

Do you have a favorite vodka drink?