Tuesday, 20 September 2016

Spirit Log: New Amsterdam, Same Old Cheapo Vodka?

Another pay day browse of /Bring a Bottle led me to Asda looking for then cheapest vodka, New Amsterdam. I have to say though, I was a little disappointed to find that my internet research had deceived me into thinking it was bottled at 40%. Perhaps in other countries in the world, but here it’s a standard and pointless 37.5. I got it anyway. It was £12 for 70cl.
It’s an American brand, and is named (presumably) after the 17th century Dutch settlement that later became New York. I saw a tv advert for it a few weeks later, which was disappointingly generic. It was just a bunch of young people who looked like they might be friends with Bruno Mars, out having a good time.
The product itself is bottled in a chunky, rectangular bottle, bearing an image of a skyscraper that the branding describes as iconic. It is distilled five times and filtered three times.
Whether or not all that distilling and filtering does any good I couldn’t say, but the overall result is a thin and salty spirit, though there was one occasion where it sat very nicely indeed. Online reviews, for the most part, suggested it was excellent, and the word “smooth” was bandied about profligately. In all honesty, I’m not really getting on board with that. It’s a perfectly acceptable, predictably uninteresting cheap vodka.
One Friday night I tried this in a direct comparison test with Russian Standard and, no doubt to Pablo’s delight, I had to admit that they both tasted like vodka, and there wasn’t much to choose between them, so I have to accept that these are much of a muchness.
If I had to pick, I’d say the New Amsterdam tastes marginally better, but the Russian Standard is stronger. In terms of price, they tend to work out about the same, so just do what you want. And that's all I have to say about that! I'll be back next week to talk about another booze-related topic that's close to my heart.


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