Tonight is a new contender for the Buffalo Lounge’s official vodka that we discovered at PAX East. Normally you don’t think vodka when someone mentions Great Britain, you think of gin; however to make a great gin you must first make good vodka, and then of course do some things with juniper and citrus, but this is about Vodka.
Now chances are you’ve probably seen Three Olives, it’s there at your local package store with an absurd amount of flavors (They have about 20). Normally when you think of vodkas with that many flavors you’re reminded of Smirnoff and Absolut. Normally vodkas that require masking their vodka with as many flavors as there are drinks (orange flavored Smirnoff would taste better in a screwdriver than regular) are viewed as inferior. Now we haven’t tested the flavored version of Three Olives but on its own the regular vodka is pretty solid.
Now we here at the Buffalo Lounge had decided early one about our vodka of choice. We’ve been buying Ketel One for a while now, while we know there are better vodka’s in terms of quality for price we settled on Ketel One for being really tasty and most importantly being perfect in White Russians the official drink of the lounge. Three Olives threatens to take over this position for doing this just as well and being much cheaper. Before we move onto the specifics though let’s see what they say about themselves.
What they say: “Made from the finest wheat harvested in England. Three Olives Vodka achieves its elegant and superior taste through perfected methods of quadruple distillation and filtration. The result is an exceptionally smooth and crisp vodka, perfect for the ultimate martini or cocktail.”
Taste: 6.7 – A lot lighter than most other vodka’s. It’s not terrible, but it feels like they took cheap vodka and mixed it with really good vodka. It’s above average though.
Aftertaste: 4.9 – Feels a bit creamy, if it sits it has a weird taste. Better than “meh” but still kind of “eh” in our minds.
Burn/Smooth: 5.5 – Fairly smooth, but also a fair bit of harshness. The harshness can really hit you, but it doesn’t stay thankfully.
Aroma: 4.875 – Smells like acetone, like a cheap vodka. A little bit below standard, but that’s not a great selling point in vodkas.
Honesty: 7.8 – This is not a vodka from Ruskev with it’s bear-fighting ways, but it is a refined gentlemanly British vodka meant for the signature shaken Bond martini.
Mixability: 7.625
White Russian: 7.8 – Damn good Russian.
Vodka Tonic: 7.7 – Really good.
Screwdriver: 7.5 – It tastes like orange juice, there’s a bit of a tang of vodka it mixes pretty well.
Vodka Martini: 7.5 – For a vodka martini that’s actually not that bad.
Value: 7.8 – Pretty good price for its quality.
Google Shop Average: $17
Website: http://www.threeolives.com/
Reviewer Scores:
William Henri Neve the IV: 7.5
Justice: 8
BuffaloJern: 7.5
DJ_Lvl: 7.5
Swetta Vest: 8
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Metric Score: 45.2/70 |+| Metric Average: 6.45 |+| Reviewer Average: 7.7
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Final Thoughts:
We wouldn’t drink this straight or smell it, but for a mixed drink we would use this. This really works and for the price it’s really good. This is vodka we’ll go back too.
Not to happy with the strawberry flavored version. Feel heavey vs Smirnoff which if mixing , to me is very good.
I like K. One. Gray Goose was my fav but recently had Belvedere which now to ranks the best.
I drink Vid and Tequila.. that’s it.
I’ll usually go for a dirty martini but also like Vod On ice with a twist of “lime”.