Kru 82 Vodka 750mL

This week on booze reviews I – BuffaloJern, review a water bottle. Okay so it’s actually vodka inside of a water bottle – but what vodka typically comes with a nalgene and carabineer? Honestly I half expected them to include the words “don’t drink and hike.”

Now we’re not new to the idea of inventive bottles when it comes to spirits, from incorporating a shot glass (that doesn’t work), old style elixir bottling, and even a pour spout designed by satan. This however certainly is a new one. While we honestly are not jiving with the whole “extended recycling” that they show on the back we do enjoy the idea of their bottling.

Now first the bottle itself can obviously be reused once it’s empty (or if you pull the label off, when it’s full), and I can see some idiots thinking “Well I don’t even have to fill my own.” We disagree though, sure I’m very much going to use this bottle afterwards, but this certainly is novelty.

Which I think is the main issue we have with Kru 82 – which honestly could you pick a worse name, even if there is a story behind it, why not tell us? The vodka inside does not parallel well to water, and though I picked this up for $13 at NH, normally it averages around $20.

If it was at $13 everywhere I’d see this as a better contender to Wodka and New Amsterdam’s Vodka since “hey free waterbottle”, but it’s price make it something you’d never buy except maybe once as a joke – which puts it closer to Effen, and that is about as insulting as I can get.

Note: They lack text so I’ve included their “EcoCrap” image.

 

Taste: 5.8 – Better than average, considering the smell and presentation we were pleasantly surprised.

Aftertaste: 5.1 – This practically embodies the idea of an average vodka aftertaste.

Burn/Smooth: 4.0 – This vodka does have itself a burn, and it’s not pleasant.

Aroma: 5.125 – Very paint thinner, but not strong smelling to be offensive enough that it’s less than average.

Honesty: 5.3 – It’s not honesty really either, the eco text on the back seems to coincide with the bottle as a hippie kind of mindset (read nonsense). Which is sad because going with a more hiking kind of deal, I mean it comes with a carbineer I wanted this vodka to be a “when you scale the Himalayans” but sadly it is not.

Mixability: 6.8

Screwdriver: 6.6 – Not bad at all, still noticeable though.

White Russian: 7 – We like the Russian this makes.

Value: 6.0 – You do get a sweet water bottle, which considering cost between $6-14 on its own is not a bad value. (Note I got for $13 in NH only).

Google Shop Average: $20

Website: http://www.kru82.com/

 

Reviewer Scores:

William Henri Neve the IV: 5.0

Justice: 5.5

BuffaloJern: 6.0

DJ_Lvl: 5.5

Bro-Skater Bfey: 6.0

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Metric Score: 38.13/70 |+| Metric Average: 5.45 |+| Reviewer Average: 5.6

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Final Thoughts:

This is weird for me, because in my mind since it cost $13 bucks I compare it of course to Wodka, and New Amsterdam of which I prefer this – it makes a better Russian and it’s not as harsh; however at its actual average price you end up paying for the specialty water bottle it comes in. If this had actually cost $13 I’d say it’s the best cheap mixing you can buy for a 750mL, but it’s not and so we move on returning to our handles of Three-O.