You may have noticed lately that your scofflaws are doing a bit more product reviews.

The thing is that we’re getting more attention from people who want us to try stuff – and, we feel like it’s our duty to try to help out our readers by trying new things, whether or not we like them, and give you the honest truth on it.

After my Sobieski post, I got a lot of other vodka companies pinging me, which I thought was funny, given our general attitudes towards vodka. We also ended up with a sample of Veev, an acai-based drink that is advertising itself as a “vodka-killer”.

I’ll be doing follow-up posts on the other vodkas, including a vodka battle (which I’m sure people in the Mixoloseum chat room will refer to as “poser fluid battle”) between the Sobieski, my usual Charodei, the Zyr that just showed up, the Ikon that’s on the way, plus a number of others I picked up in mini format at the ABC store, such as Skyy, Absolut, Grey Goose, Smirnoff, and Stolichnaya. (If you have a vodka you want included, you can contact me…my e-mail is on here.)

(Still, I’d prefer whiskeys or gins…or, really, ANYTHING other than a liquor that’s intended to be flavorless. Que sera sera, after all, and I know a lot of people out there LIKE vodka. I do, just not in cocktails – I like it for infusions, and I like it straight sometimes when I’m in that “mood”.)

As I said, however, some people out there are big vodka drinkers. My mom is one – well, maybe not big, but her drink of choice is often her version of a Cosmo. Hers goes:
Mom’s Cosmo
1.5 ounces vodka (currently: Smirnoff, formerly: Grey Goose)
3/4 ounce triple sec (currently: Bols)
1.5 ounces cranberry (currently: Ocean Spray light cranberry juice cocktail)
Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass.

On an ironic note, my parents’ oldest dog is named Cosmo – though he was named after Kramer in Seinfeld about thirteen years ago, well before mom started drinking Cosmos.

Last Saturday I took with me two bottles of liquor to their house – my bottle of Sobieski and my bottle of Veev. As far as I know, neither is available in Virginia yet, but depending on my mom’s reaction to the Sobieski I was thinking I might procure her some to replace her Smirnoff when it was gone. (A side note: she switched from Grey Goose to Smirnoff when a bartender convinced her that in a mixed drink they were the same. Since then, however, she has begun to recant.)

First up was the Veev. I’ve had the Veev straight and on the rocks. It’s got a floral quality that vodkas don’t have, since they strive for “flavorless”, and at 60 proof it’s a bit easier on the system than your typical 80 proof vodka. Dad made the cocktail the way she likes it and, noting the proof, appeared to add an extra dash of the Veev.

Mom liked it. In fact, she said she liked it a bit too much. The Veev made the cocktail almost too sweet for her and also made it much smoother, to the point that she was afraid if she’d made them exclusively with Veev she’d drink too many of them. Duly noted.

So the next one was made with the Sobieski. This, she felt, was perfectly “normal”. She couldn’t taste a difference in it versus her normal Cosmos.

When I do my vodka battle royale I planned originally on doing three things with them: the nose, straight without ice, and straight with ice. I’d like to do one cocktail with them but need advice on what to do with the cocktail. After all, with vodka based cocktails, it’s all about the quality of your additional ingredients, and doing something like a Vesper would be more about the gin than the vodka.

Right now I’m thinking I might do a round of “mom’s cosmos” and have people taste-test them, see if they can pick out any differences. But man, that’s going to be a lot of drink making!

Any readers have suggestions?