There’s a popular refrain in the drinking public that all vodka tastes the same. Or that the neutrality of the spirit makes it flavorless (and therefore uninteresting). Of course, any dedicated vodka drinker would quickly dismiss such notions. But today, despite the fact that “drink what you like” has become a reigning philosophy and tenet of modern hospitality, certain bartenders still find it difficult to mask their disdain for vodka.
This is in some ways a holdover from the early days of the cocktail revival, during which the spirit was viewed as anathema to sophisticated drinking. Milk & Honey, perhaps the most lauded bar of the 2000s, refused to carry vodka at all. The practice was taken up by countless self-serious bars following the M&H model. But vodka has survived more than one vibe shift.
When Smirnoff’s sales were struggling in the late 1930s, one savvy and law-flouting distributor began to market it as White Whiskey, a move that boosted its popularity as an ingredient in mixed drinks. By 1978, Smirnoff was the top-selling spirit brand in the United States. Within decades, thanks in part to the arrival of flavored iterations that were key to the Cosmopolitan and a cast of associated ’tinis, vodka had taken over as the country’s spirit of choice.
The return to pre-Prohibition-style drinking that favored whiskey and gin in the early aughts was only a temporary blow to vodka’s rising star. Now, thanks to a cycle back to ’90s-style drinking, vodka has returned to relevance, becoming an invaluable backbar staple not only for the inevitable Espresso Martini call, but as an ingredient around which original drinks are regularly crafted at top bars across the country, from Katana Kitten to Broken Shaker.
To understand how we got to this moment, it helps to look back at the foundational vodka cocktails of the early cocktail renaissance. Here are six to know.