Quri Quinoa Peruvian Vodka is produced by QURI – a Lima, Peru based spirits brand launched in 2021 by husband and wife duo Jonathan Tourgee and Shirley Alencastre Melgarejo. Their Quinoa is sourced from a family farm in Peru, milled, and then cooked and mashed in a large mash tun. It is then fermented using 5 different yeast strains, distilled twice in copper pot stills, and then distilled a third time in a column still. The water added to adjust the proof is sourced from Andean glacier water. The vodka is then drip filtered using activated carbon as well as volcanic stone. Bottle Specs ❖ ABV: 40% ❖ Distillery: Undisclosed (Lima, Peru) […]
The Community Spirit Vodka is produced by The Community Spirit Co. – a company and brand spearheaded by Mexico City-based Casa Lumbre. The Community Spirit was founded in 2021, and achieved B Corp status in 2023. If you’re not familiar with B Corp, it’s a holistic certification that includes factors such as social issues, environmental issues, transparency, and more. As a brand, The Community Spirit‘s goal is to uplift people and organizations who are doing good in their communities. They are committed to giving 5% of their revenue to relevant charitable causes, and typically exceed this goal, having given as much as 23% in some years. […]
Grey Goose Vodka is produced by Grey Goose – a France based spirits brand. Founded in 1997 by Sidney Frank and François Thibault, they began with a focus on creating vodka with less neutrality and more distinct flavor. Grey Goose was bought out by Bacardi in 2004. It is made using high quality Picardie wheat that is single origin and non-GMO. The wheat is milled on site, before going through a saccharification process, and then fermented using a custom system they call a “cascade”. Grey Goose is only distilled once, with the goal of preserving the character of the wheat. The pure, natural spring water used is sourced from a well in […]
Monopolowa Vodka is produced by J.A Baczewski, a family-owned company that produces several spirits such as vodka, whisky, and gin. Founded in 1782 near Lviv, the brand has undergone a long and complex history, and takes pride in once being the drink of choice among elites of the royal court. Although the Polish operations were destroyed for political reasons in 1939, family heirs recovered the recipes and continued the brand’s legacy in the 1950s. It is now based in Vienna, Austria. This particular bottle of Monopolowa Vodka is made using potatoes, which are cooked in steamers before being fermented with yeast for about 72-96 hours. It […]
With the overwhelming number of other spirits available on the market, I’m not usually interested in any produced by grocery stores. But while browsing for some new cocktail mixers, I found Trader Joe’s Small Batch Vodka hard to pass up because of the surprising low price. I’m also always a sucker for a simple bottle design. So, let’s see if I would come to regret my first experience with a grocery store branded spirit. Trader Joe’s Small Batch is a corn-based neutral spirit that, as the name suggests, is distilled in small batches. In fact, it’s distilled 10 times before being charcoal filtered and bottled at 44% ABV. I couldn’t find […]