I’ve never understood the argument for super-premium vodka–vodka is supposed to be, by definition neutral (don’t get me started on flavored vodkas), so what, outside the stylishness of the bottle, can a super-premium vodka offer that Popov or Luksosowa or Smirnoff can’t? Not much, and in tough economic times, lots of people are rediscovering that.
It might seem logical that people would drink more in a recession. In fact, liquor sales in the United States are up slightly, about 1 percent in the year ended Jan. 25, compared with the year earlier, according to Information Resources, a market research firm.
The more pronounced trend is that some consumers are switching to the cheap stuff. Over the same period, consumers bought $36 million worth of Popov, up 8 percent.
Sales over all in the “popular” vodka category, costing $6 to $9 a bottle, increased 14 percent.
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Not surprised so many people in the west carry this same opinion, considering most popular vodka here is designed to be as tasteless and inoffensive as possible, to mix in cocktails. In the former Soviet Union, people know better, and treat it with all the respect you’d expect of a single malt or fine wine. They’d be blown away by some of the “flavored” varieties, ie Zubrowka. To be fair, I once thought all beer tasted horrid, but that was before tasting Newcastle Brown, which was eye-opening for me, and nothing like the mass produced American lagers. There’s a world of difference between Chopin potato vodka and Smirnoff. The differences are subtle, but there.
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