Usually when I think of cocktails made with vodka, I think of the screwdriver, which I’ve sworn off of after a bad experience when I was…..well, younger. I do, however, enjoy an occasional vodka tonic or vodka martini. And that was the sum total of my knowledge of vodka.
However, “How to be a Vodka Snob”
by Brittany Jacques has made me appreciate how versatile and delicious vodka
and vodka cocktails can be, even when they contain orange juice.
Jacques is the pen name for a
husband and wife team of foodies and drinkies. (Is that what you call cocktail
connoisseurs?) The book combines the basics, such as types of vodka and
distilling methods; history, how cocktails originated; and recipes for drinks
and even appetizers and punches.
The photography in the book is
stunning, and the voice is conversational and entertaining. The title
notwithstanding, there’s nothing at all snobby in this book. My only
disappointment is that the authors did not include an index to the recipes,
which are scattered throughout the book, so I have to constantly flip pages
looking for particular drinks.
“Vodka Snob” includes recipes for
the standards, like the gimlet, Russians (both black and white), and the Moscow
mule. A section on Hollywood includes Bond’s vesper martini, Dwight Shrute’s
beets over the rocks, and the orange whip, a favorite of Jake and Elwood Blues.
I invited my book club over for
some tastings. We started with a flight of different types of vodka. We all
liked the wheat vodka, which was light and smooth. The second was a vodka made
from corn. It was not as smooth and had a stronger, quicker bite. The last was
a potato vodka. Jacques describes potato vodka as tasting like “a big,
delicious bite of creamy mashed potatoes” (p 7). I might not go that far, but
it was creamy and smooth, and everyone’s favorite.
We were split on whether we
preferred our martinis shaken or stirred. The shaken martini better dissolves
the vermouth and tastes less oily, according to Jacques. However, shaking can
bruise the vodka and make it bitter.
Of the cocktails, the club’s
overall favorite was the gimlet (vodka and sweetened lime juice). It will be
especially appealing to those who like margaritas. The club also loved the
Russians, both black and white (vodka and coffee liquor, plus a splash of cream
for the white version), declaring them “yummy.”
I think my overall favorite was
the classic bay breeze cocktail (vodka, cranberry juice, and pineapple juice).
It’s just a bit sweet without being desserty, with the pineapple flavor really
coming through.
Not that there’s anything wrong
with desserty cocktails. The blueberry muffin chata (blueberry vodka and
RumChata) really does taste like a blueberry muffin. And the book club
absolutely loved the mudslide (vodka, Irish cream, Kahlua, crème de cacao, and
ice cream). Who wouldn’t?
“How to be a Vodka Snob” arrives just in time for summer and long-delayed get-togethers. I and my book club give it five stars. Next, we’re going to try out “How to be a Bourbon Badass” by Linda Ruffenach.
