Discover why Top Shelf Distillers' craft vodka is the perfect cocktail base. Using our craft technology and 100% local ingredients, we've created an award-winning vodka. That's right - Top Shelf Vodka is a national vodka, owned and produced entirely in Canada.
Absolut Elyx Vodka
If you're going to go for Absolut, you should make it Elyx — the brand's most premium bottle in the range. The Swedish spirit is made with wheat and opens with a bright citrus nose.
Top shelf quality vodka isn't always the higher priced one, as you'll find out, but it goes down to the distillation process, ingredients, and flavors. Some premium vodka brands out there keep their vodkas reasonably affordable.
Top Shelf: Bottles on the highest shelves behind a bar. Though there's no hard rule as to cost, these tend to be bottles that would retail for $50 or more in a store. Mid Shelf: Bottles on the lower half of the shelf behind a bartender. With liquor, this would usually be bottles that fall in the $25–50 range.
Smirnoff No.
One of the most well-known names in vodka and common in most bar wells. Smirnoff No. 21 is a multi-award winning, 80-proof corn vodka with a smooth feel.
"Good vodka should have some kind of interesting and pleasurable flavor," says Tahlin. "It should not be water with a hint of alcohol. It should really have a nice flavor to it. It's easy to create a vodka that doesn't taste like anything.
Premium vodkas are different from the outset. They use a higher quality mix of ingredients as well as bespoke botanical infusions. More emphasis is put on producing a pleasing taste, removing the sharpness that can be found in cheaper brands.
Svedka and Smirnoff are middle of the road vodkas. Inexpensive, but not bottom shelf.
Expensive vodka gives less of a hangover. The more times distilled, the better the taste. The high-quality products are distilled more times. Expensive or 'Premium' vodka doesn't burn your throat.
Grey Goose or Belvedere: Which Vodka Is Better? Grey Goose is better than Belvedere when it comes to smoothness. Although both top-shelf vodkas have lower-calorie alcohol and are among the healthiest vodka brands globally, Grey Goose has a more meticulous way of processing.
Why is Grey Goose so expensive? Grey Goose is distinguished by its premium ingredients and the fact that all bottles are distilled to order in a highly detailed manner. This wine is entirely French and is made from 100% French grown winter wheat and natural spring water from Gensac-la-Pallue.
Cheaper vodka brands also tend to make their vodka with lower quality substitutes, such as sugar beets. More expensive vodka is produced to have the perfect balance of starch and protein, resulting in a smoother, balanced flavor.
Absolut vodka is one of the more popular brands of vodka and is considered to be top shelf. But what does that mean? Top shelf vodka is the highest quality vodka available. It is made with the finest ingredients and is distilled multiple times to produce a smooth, clean flavor.
With that said, low-quality spirits certainly do not help matters and can definitely lead to more severe hangovers than their top-shelf counterparts. With more impurities (mainly congeners and trace alcohols), low-quality spirits will act as more of a toxic/poison that most people are unable to metabolise quickly.
And two beloved international brands, Absolut and Grey Goose, each played a part in the spirit's rise to fame. While Absolut brings in higher sales on a global scale, Grey Goose consistently makes VinePair's list of the best vodkas and is viewed as a symbol of luxury.
A good vodka should be full of flavor, aroma, and have a soft mouth feel. All of that is a result of the quality of the ingredients you distill from. The spirit should retain some of the personality of the raw material."
For getting a little drunk, three shots of vodka are enough. If you continue to drink up to 8 to 9 shots, that's when they start getting more drunk. The upper cap for men is ten shots of vodka.