Gin and Vodka
It’s time to restart LGM’s War on Vodka. One of the main generals in this war on inferior spirits is the heroic and delicious gin. A new front has opened:
Ah, gin. Brisk, peppery gin. Once, it epitomized summer elegance. It was the cool-breeze component of martinis and gimlets, rickeys and slings, fizzes and Collinses. It was the soothing tonic that helped the quinine go down. It was yardarms and pastel sunsets.
Then the ground trembled and the sky darkened. Along came the devil, I mean vodka, and gin was forsaken in favor of — What? No flavor? No aroma? No character? Well, that’s vodka for you: a bland, neutral cipher. Gin’s cocktails became vodka’s cocktails, championed by those who ought to have known better, consumed by the masses who had no idea what a martini was, much less a yardarm.
….
These efforts have been modestly successful, though they have done nothing to slow vodka’s ascendancy. According to the Distilled Spirits Council, a trade group, sales of vodka in the United States have risen steadily to around 62 million cases in 2011, from about 39 million in 2002. Sales of gin, however, have been static, hovering around 11 million cases a year. The one area of encouraging growth has been at the highest end, in the super-premium category, which was up 24 percent in 2011 compared with in 2002.
The output of the new, small distilleries amounts to no more than a trickle. Like so many in the cocktail renaissance, many of them have rejected vodka as hopelessly square and dull while embracing gin as complex and distinctive. Perhaps, too, they have a historical appreciation for gin, just as the cocktail connoisseurs embraced the nearly forgotten rye whiskey and, in an earlier generation, craft brewers resurrected moribund styles of beer.
There probably are other theories for the decline of the United States. But the increase in vodka consumption from 39 million cases to 62 million cases a year in less than a decade is as good as any I’ve read.
I look forward to the vodka drinkers among you complaining about this. But note that you are inferior human beings.
I don’t even like gin, and I have to agree with the last paragraph. Notice that the rise of vodka has coincided with an era of stagnant incomes, a stagnant stock market, and an ill-conceived global war on terror.
The so-called “vodka martini” (in fact, a contradiction in terms) was invented by Smirnoff in the mid-1950s as a way to boost vodka sales. Anyone who drinks so-called “vodka martinis” is, in doing so, striking a blow for corporate cultural hegemony.
As soon as I get home from work, I’ll be lifting a (Bombay Sapphire) Martini in a toast to LGM’s speedy victory in the War on Vodka.
I was at a restaurant the other day where the waiter confessed that he just serves vodka martinis, no matter what people order. Is that possible? It seems to me that I could immediately taste the difference, but it’s not like I’ve ever undergone a taste test.
I got nothing against the vodka martini, but despite my relative youth I use standard drink taxonomy, god dammit, which means if I order a “martini” with no modifiers I expect something with gin and vermouth in it. If I wanted a glass of vodka I’d order a glass of vodka.
Well, with gin it it (vermouth optional).
… how can vermouth be optional in a standard martini? Without the vermouth its just a glass of gin with some garnish.
Which, fair enough, is a perfectly decent thing to drink, but, again; if I order a martini and don’t modify it, I expect gin and vermouth, because that’s what a baseline martini is.
It’s a joke, Murc. Like the Noel Coward recipe where you wave the bottle of vermouth over the martini.
Or put a half ounce in the living room humidifier.
Well, substituting against a customer’s order is pretty egregious (and on the scale between “pointless” — is the vodka significantly cheaper? — and “risking losing out on tips”) but when I bartended I was taught to assume vodka for martinis unless gin was specified.
Actually, practically every common cocktail was vodka-based, except for Long Island Iced Teas and Grateful Deads, which were all the well liquors plus various mixers.
People just don’t know how to drink.
It’s like those newspaper inserts one used to see in the 60′s, re-formulating every cocktail known to Man to include Bacardi or (shudder) Southern Comfort.
The so-called “vodka martini” (in fact, a contradiction in terms) was invented by Smirnoff in the mid-1950s
See also De Beers and the diamond engagement ring, around the same time. Everything else was invented by the Prince Consort.
And how much did Smirnoff pay Ian Fleming? I never read the books, but the cinematic Bond often requested a vodka martini (shaken, not stirred).
But can you make bacon gin?
No. Nor could you make a “fluffed marshmallow” gin.
I’m calling this one in favor of the gin side.
First time I saw an ad for “marshmallow vodka” I burst out laughing right there on the street. What the fuck do marshmallows even taste like, aside from sugar?
Holy shit, marshmallow vodka is a real thing?
Yep. I am looking forward to graham cracker vodka and chocolate vodka to go with it so I can have a S’mores Martini.
The best use for marshmallow vodka is probably toasting it over a campfire so you can enjoy the fireball.
I have the horrid feeling that the intended usage for marshmallow vodka is to get 14-year-old females drunk.
Marshmallow Vodka is crazy sweet. It’s sort of like drinking molten marshmallows. It burns your throat but somehow tastes good…
I’ve only encountered it in the wild around college age girls who don’t like real alcohol.
NO, but you can make gin rummy
I’m blaming Hogan for this atrocity.
Yeah, well, it’s still all your fault that Obama is going to lose.
well now that Richard Dawson has died, Newkirk is probably also to blame, having the closest relation to Beefeater
I hate gin.
And there I was, for years, thinking you were a man of taste.
Some of it has to do with the fact that I am allergic to junipers and get a massive headache when I drink it. I am not fond of the taste, either. Much more of a whiskey drinker, though I also like good rum.
OK, OK. I have a reaction everytime I drink Tempranillo for some reason. And a whisky man is a man of refinement. Sorry I doubted you doc.e
I’m much more of a whiskey drinker myself, especially bourbon.
Gin has grown on me. The thing is, bad gin is truly bad. It’s drinking a glass of liquefied pine bark. I can handle bad vodka (no, that’s not a redundancy) much better than bad gin.
Always reminds me of turpentine.
Agreed – gin is fucking revolting. So is vodka, of course, but gin is worse.
Gin is my favorite non-whiskey spirit, I believe, but that is a low bar.
I disfavor any liquor that hasn’t sat in a wooden barrel for a few years. I guess I like to drink wood.
To be clear, the LGM War on Vodka is otherwise ecumenical. I love gin myself, but I can’t deny that good bourbon is superior.
For sure–there are many divisions in the War on Vodka–Bourbon, Gin, Tequila, Mezcal, Rum, Rye, etc.
I imagine the real reason vodka sells more now is that it is pretty much the cheapest hard liquor available. You can get a handle of Smirnoff for 17 bucks.
Not true. The huge spike in vodka sales was in the higher priced varieties, caused by the brilliant Absolut marketing campaign and the yuppie embrace of Absolut and Stoli
But gin is always going to be more expensive since it is essentially vodka with an additional fusion process. The extra step adds to the production cost
Gin is fantastic and there are so many wonderful gin cocktails…many of which are especially well-suited for summer. Martini, Martinez, Aviation, Last Word, Gin and Tonic, Negroni…etc. etc. Lately I’ve been drinking a lot of Brambles.
Vodka sells because it is flavorless.
Actually, this is not true. If you were to go to a liquor store down the vodka aisle these days, there are far more flavored vodkas than the traditional odorless (which it’s not), flavorless (which it’s not) vodka. There is, I shit you not, a wedding cake-flavored vodka. I’m surprised there’s not a bacon-flavored version yet. I suspect this actually has a lot to do with increased sales as well.
There is.
Color me … not shocked.
It’s cheaper to make it at home though (I have some in the fridge, leftover from my last brunch).
I vaguely know the twisted freaks who invented this. They’re getting quite rich.
Yes, there is flavored vodka, but “vodka-flavored vodka” doesn’t have any intrinsic flavor. Gin certainly does.
Zubrowka is pretty good.
There is always a place for (good) vodka. Just not in my martini glass. Luksusowa, from Poland, and Monopolowa, from (!) Austria, are both very tasty and affordable fine vodkas.
But, just in the interests of redundancy, I must also draw the line of using vodka in something you’re going to call a “martini.” It isn’t right, dammit.
I just bought a bottle of Luksusowa after learning that my wife can tell the difference between potato vodka and grain vodka. The price is right, anyway.
Luksusowa is excellent. That’s the vodka I usually keep on hand.
Very true. Subtle, delicious taste
It is the only vodka I normally drink.
Harrumph!
Keep your gin; we slavs will have our vodka.
I don’t understand this argument. Gin and vodka aren’t even in the same category.
You add vodka to a drink to kick up the alcohol in a recipe in which something else provides the taste. Like a delicious Pearl Harbor, or a Cape Codder.
In a gin drink, the gin is the flavor, or at least part of it.
I’m with you on this. There’s no contradiction in linking gin for some things and vodka for others.
This is certainly reasonable as far as it goes, and I do occasionally use vodka for certain cocktails.
The problem–and the reason there has to be a War on Vodka–is that vodka has been waging an exterminationist war against gin (as witness the sales figures quoted above). When you can order a Martini and get served some vodka drink instead, as if that were the default*, it’s time to fight back and fight back hard.
*Yes, this actually happened to me.
Al Vodkaeda!
I used to think that insisting that a martini can only be called a martini if it is made with gin was just silly posturing. I’ve changed my mind on that.
Agreed.
I, for one, would never put gin in Kool Aid, whereas this seems to be the reason vodka was invented.
See, I disagree. I only put vodka in Kool-Ade if I’m out of gin.
Other good “dump gin or vodka in it” products are Pom and Polar Orange Dry.
Woot woot Polar woot!
Hey, look at that, an orange flavored soda that isn’t sickeningly sweet. Or fluorescent.
It is a truly great product.
The Cranberry and the Pomegranate are also fine beverages.
We go through several bottles of the flavored seltzer every week.
Polar seltzer and sodas are widely available in worldly metropolitan Albany as well — who knew Worcester’s reach was so extensive? — and they’re awesome.
Not a big vodka drinker here, so I’m mainly just aghast that you, or any red-blooded American, really, would decide to talk up the spirit of choice of Imperial drunkards (a redundant characterization, perhaps, but I digress), in lieu of George Washington’s own whisky, that most patriotic of liquors. And to do so on National Bourbon Day, what’s more. For Shame, sir, shame
Further evidence for your argument – Spain is the largest consumer of gin in Europe and their economy has just gone down the shitter, while their consumption of gin has declined from 6 M cases in 1990 to 3.4 M cases recently.
Can we go back to the part where Spain is the largest consumer of gin in Europe? WTF?
Lots and lots of thirsty English tourists on holiday, presumably. Just carrying on the traditions of the Raj, consuming quinine the civilized way while enjoying a warm and sunny climate.
A lot of people would like to get drunk quickly and efficiently without having to fuck around with that annoying alcohol taste, and vodka helps them do that. Mix it with something sugary and you’re essentially getting bombed really fast on kool-aid.
I support them in this endeavor. Not every drink you put in your mouth has to be master-crafted.
I’m as much of a gin snob as anyone (Hendrick’s. with Noilly Prat vermouth and a tiny dash of orange bitters, for my martinis) but I’m with you on this, Murc.
Like Nick says to George Bailey and Clarence the guardian angel from behind the bar in It’s a Wonderful Life, “We serve hard drinks to men in here who want to get drunk fast, and we don’t need any characters around to give the joint atmosphere”.
Sometimes that’s just what’s needed, and as you say vodka fits the bill nicely without any fancy fucking around.
I like a Hendrick’s White Lady made with Grand Marnier.
See, if you make him one with Triple Sec, he’ll tell you, “This is my house! Don’t bring that weak shit up in my house!”
Because, you see, he’s kg.
I’m a tequila drinker myself. Straight, with a twist.
Tequila with a twist of . . . what?
Lol – you may be confusing tequila with it’s debauched cousin mezcal – an acquired taste tho not one of mine!
I am a big mezcal fan. It does not need to be debauched and can be quite wonderful.
I just like the notion of increasing the protein content of my booze with insect larvae.
Well, most mezcal doesn’t actually have the worm in it. Just the stuff sold to tourists and a lot of the stuff sent to the US. I’m not really sure where the worm originated, if it is something that once was truly traditional to the drink or what.
Its not traditional, it was introduced as a marketing gimmick. Remember, mezcal and tequila are basically the same drink except that tequila can only be made from the blue agave cactus and only certain Mexican states (primarily Jalisco). Mescal can be made from any agave plant and in any part of Mexico
Mezcal also uses agave hearts that are baked in an underground pit heated with wood; tequila hearts are steamed. The flavor difference is akin to that of bourbon vs. Scotch.
Here’s a question that may strike you as very ignorant–coming from someone who drinks only Bloody Marys (and wine). Does anyone ever substitute gin for vodka in a Bloody Mary? If anyone has done so, have they an opinion on whether that substitution tastes better?
I genuinely want to know.
I’ve had it–some brunch place years ago had the option. I thought it worked pretty well.
I can’t see how the complex herbal taste of the gin wouldn’t get obliterated by like every other ingredient in the drink
Except the celery.
But it might give it a little depth beyond the tomato, pepper and tabasco. The Bloody Mary might be the one drink vodka works best in, though.
I’ve been substituting sriracha for the tabasco lately and couldn’t be happier
That sounds awesome.
It does sound awesome.
I once used some leftover kimchi juice in a bloody mary. That was kind of interesting.
My condolences to your tastebuds on the kimchi juice. That stuff barely qualifies as a pickling agent.
I found wasabi was a decent substitute for white horseradish but you have to dissolve it well.
I love me some kimchi.
I was experimenting with various infusions a while back and made some green-peppercorn-infused vodka that was damn near undrinkable…with one noteworthy exception: it made the best Bloody Marys I have ever had.
You can’t taste the juniper what with the tomato juice and the tabasco so there in no point in making the substitution.
And there are numerous drinks where vodka works better – cosmopolitan (if you like that sort of thing), moscow mule (the juniper doesn’t work well with the ginger beer)
Hey! I just now finished a Moscow Mule made with gin instead of vodka. In honor of the War on Vodka, I’ve not replaced my now-exhausted supply of Monopolowa. Solidarity!
But, um, you’re right … the gin and the ginger beer did not get along particularly well.
I will think of this as an experiment conducted in the interests of Science.
Vodka? Bah, the world has been in a constant tailspin since people switched from genever to London dry gin… and if William of Orange was alive he’d be absolutely pissed at the farce the Dutch are making of my Euro bracket.
William of Orange is still alive . . .
And looking mighty fit for 362!
Merely 362? Oh hell, yours is no more the original William of Orange than mine.
And how ironic is it that the present Willem of Orange lost his claim to the British throne by marrying a Catholic?
Serves him right.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the filioque is an abomination.
Do the Holy Spirits proceed from just the Vodka, or from the Vodka and the Rum?
I thought the Diet of Bourbon settled that in the eighteenth century. Or was it the Council of Manhattan?
Well, I don’t disagree with you about the awesomeness of genever gins. Damrak is the best one that I know.
I really, really want to see how those vodka sales are parsed. How much is the increase due to stupid yuppies consuming all the crazy flavored vodka, and how much is due to the cheap, nearly flavorless variety that has become preferred since “pa’s still fer party likker done burnt up in the wildfire”?
Absolut sales in 2002 were 7.5 million cases. In 2011, it was 11.5 million cases which is almost 20% of all vodka sold here. (It sold a million cases in 1980). I’m pretty sure that the great bulk of the vodka increase is due to premium sales (Absolut, Stoli, Skyy, Ketel One, Belvedere), sometimes flavored, sometimes not.
Well not all vodka is neutral and tasteless. Some expresses terroir.
Vestal are really good. http://www.vestalvodka.com/vodka.html I highly recommend their Polasie (pronounced pod-lash-ee). Smells like pear, guava and green apple. Best drunk chilled, without ice, because it tastes nice.
However, I would agree that 99% of vodka is distinguishable more by packaging than style.
More a whisky man personally. Or rum. And I’m off to a cognac tasting on Monday. But my point is, find an artisan, very low production vodka producer from East Poland or the like and try it. You might be surprised.
This. There are differences among vodkas, but you have to find the right producers, and that’s not easy.
I read that as “Some expresses terror,” and thought that was a brilliant bit of analysis. Then I re-read it.
Mr Loomis, congratulations, you have reached depths of stupidity I thought never to see outside the wingnut pollutants/ I shall endeavour in future never to bother with your opinions
You can tell it’s poetry by the “/” indicating the line break.
Funny that this post would push him over the edge. Of all Loomis posts.
Am I the only one trying to figure out if this is a particular form of prose? I’m not really a literary mastermind, so I just assume I don’t recognize the specific type…
Whats this anti-vodka stuff all about? Boris Yeltsin? Do Swedish meatballs not remind you of Bjorn Borg’s face?
You lefties better watch it. I going to hit the LGM archives to see where you guys stood in 1917.
I prefer gin to vodka in a martini and in a tonic drink but there are plenty of mixed drinks where vodka is clearly preferable (the Bloody Mary is the most obvious one but there are many more). And there are subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences between various vodkas. Try Zubrowka flavored with bison grass. And some of the flavored Stoli and Absolut vodkas make great mixed drinks (the smell of the Absolut Pear alone can add measurably to a good mixed drink)
Sadly, the best flavored Stoli–Pertsovka–hasn’t been made in over a decade. I still haven’t found a pepper vodka that’s nearly as good.
Two points.
One, as to the penultimate paragraph, look what vodka did to the U.S.S.R. Outside of a bloody mary, I’m not seeing it.
Two, gin and tonic (with lime, of course) is God’s gift to those of us who live in subtropical climes (which, as it happens, is more of us every day).
Gotta get your daily quinine!
I love a gin and tonic and find it vastly superior to a vodka and tonic. But I find a gin martini to be only marginally superior to a vodka martini.
And I like a number of mixed drinks that work better with vodka. If you only like mixed drinks that are alcohol and a fairly tasteless mixer like tonic water, I can see your point but I like the vast world of mixed drinks. Have lately become enamored of the Jakewalk – equal parts lime juice, repos ado tequila, white rum and St Germain
What the hell is a yardarm. In a glass, I mean. I’ve got no shortage of gin, and I’m game for another cocktail.
“When the sun is past the yardarm…”
A much more civilized way of saying “it’s five o’clock somewhere,” when you have decided it’s cocktail hour on your yacht/runabout/kayak/back stoop.
Yardarm
2 oz Gin
3/4 oz Passion Fruit Juice
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Honey Syrup (1:1 Honey:Water)
2 dash Angostura Bitters
1/4 oz Absinthe (or Pastis)
Shake all but absinthe with ice and strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Float absinthe and garnish with a lime wheel.
I have diabetes and a lot of indigestion so I don’t drink much of anything any more, but I do miss my gin and tonic and the occasional single-malt (for special occasions). My son and his wife drink (shudder) appletinis. How I could have gone so wrong as a parent, I don’t know.
My drinks of choice are whiskey sours and shandies. The last time I ordered the former the bar maid laughed and said, “Honey, I haven’t served one of those in years.” At Gardunos in ABQ, the seved me it made with tequila mix, presumably not having any sour mix. As for the latter, I’m too embarrassed to order it in public and make it at home on hot summer days.
Try ordering a Ward 8. It’s a slight variation of the whisky sour (it adds grenadine). If the bartender can make it, you won’t get laughed at
You had a shitty barmaid in a shitty bar. The whiskey sour is amazing and its decline is emblematic of that of our society.
Saddest.self-trolling.post.ever.
Sooner or later most of you younguns will wake up and realize that the various tastes you pretend to discern never existed, and that what is really important is what the drunk on the next stool knows about Scientology.
Damn do I miss gin. After an enthusiastic night shortly after graduating college it became The Spirit I Cannot Have, but it was lovely while it lasted.
The only way to drink vodka, good vodka, is ice-cold and straight, accompanied with закуски.
The only ways to be a convincing alcohol snob are to sip The Macallan or Laphroaig diluted with water, or to chug Armagnac.
Meh, gin is too “clovey” for my tastes. As to vodka, it’s just a quick, easy way to make other things alcoholic in my book. It certainly does have a taste, but “medicinal fire” isn’t a flavor I think the human tongue is designed to appreciate. Still far better than that devil-water tequila, though; that shit’s not only terrible, it’s dangerous.
I think that I’ve posted variations of the following before on this blog, but some people are slow learners:
1) Gin is nothing more than vodka that’s been adulterated with juniper berries, originally done to mask shitty distillation methods.
2) The rise in vodka sales is reflective of the fact that most people drink to get drunk, no matter how much they dress up their drinks.
No no its Lettuce and Vodka.
Show me where gin has any rock cred.
My two cents: I have been drinking Beefeater martinis for forty years and have no intention to stop. I have tried other gins, but always come back. I do like Hendrick’s though, but it’s not worth the extra dollars for an everyday martini guy like me. I do have to specify for nearly all bartenders: straight up with olives, otherwise I often get it on the rocks with a twist. Ugh.
One more thing: I am really sick of the James Bond thing about vodka martini, shaken not stirred.
Thread too long to read, busy drinking. Seems to be another round of ethanol vs tarted-up ethanol. Someone has a need to justify consumption. Cheers.
Cheese is more interesting.