a peachy vodka

after weeks of whisky, time to go back to something peachy.
and thats exactly what i sipped at a pre-christmas party a week ago. writing it now before the next round of drinks to cheer in the new year.
yes, finally got a taste of absolute apeach.
and it was peachy.
tried it neat and the peachiness just came through.
tried it with ginger ale and the flavour took a life of its own, bursting with little nuances of sweetness and peachiness that only a peach could compare with.
as with all flavoured vodkas sold in duty-free shops in asia, specifically singapore, this absolut apeach came in a standard one-litre bottle with 40 percent alcohol by volume.
nice. 'tis the season indeed to be jolly... and peachy.

wodka wyborowa wednesday

saying that is a mouthful and so is the vodka.
the rye-based premium little water - wodka wyborowa means exquisite vodka in polish - is silky smooth and pretty much what a vodka is - tasteless though it hinted of a coy sweetness.
it comes in a range of flavours from basic lemon to exotic almond and reminiscent of a single malt whisky - there's the single estate wyborowa.
it made its asian debut in kuala lumpur last june but the series of get-to-sip-the-stuff came my way last wednesday when the pernod-ricard chaps in kuala lumpur presented the wodka wyborowa pure in the chic studio lounge at the liquidbar in central market annexe, kuala lumpur.
yeah, liquid is the very same alibis way back in the early 1990s and yes, the dance floor is still in the same spot.
but i am getting ahead of myself. pernod-ricard malaysia brought their inhouse bartender - i remember his earrings but not his name - to knock us out.
the first was the wodka wyborowa pure - the basic unflavoured premium stuff - which packed a punch through the lime cordial. the fun and games was just about to start.
a couple of wanna-be deejays clowned around the music console in the studio as the bartender plonked a couple of ice-buckets filled with chilled screw-top test-tubes at our table.
the screw-top test-tubes - more widely seen as cigar packaging or at home at a CSI lab - contained wodka wyborowa with a variety of juices.
it kept the party going though the bartender was clearly dissatisfied with the quality of juices. i had to agree and he then decided to present his signature mix - a blue delight which is basically wodka wyborowa pure with lychee in syrup with blue curacao.
nice but it reminded me of teh tarik in kota bharu. hellishly sweet.
the night had yet to end.
out came the large cocktail glass with six pegs of different colours. all contained a generous shot of wodka wyborowa pure and the different colour was a way to figure which peg was whose.
you geddit, right!?
and so ended another spiritually spirited night.

a vodka moment

budget day in malaysia came and went.
we didn't get hit much this time. just 9 percent up for alcohol and 13 percent more for the smokers in the circle.
guess we can manage on our crummy stagnant pay by eating and drinking less outside the house. not that we did that last night.
the post-budget party was at 18-20th century restaurant in taman tun dr ismail, now under new management that had opened up the first floor for some funky fusion food and dynamic drinks.
anyway, we had an absolut raspberri bottle and the only bottle of stolichnaya elit in malaysia, or so the word was at our table. anyway, was too busy to take a photo of it, so can only offer my hoard of vodka.
first off, the absolut raspberri smelt and tasted like cough syrup but after liberally splashing in some sprite and a couple of ice cubes, it turned out to be a refreshing thirst-quencher and a great party drink.
several tumblers made its way past my lips, for sure. it was nice but i was looking forward to something better.
and after all that, food was the only thing on my mind. a quick look at the extensive menu - that spans dishes from all parts of the world and a combination of cuisines - pointed me the only thing that i love - beef.
sizzling ribeye in garlic olive oil. that sounded scrumptious and soon, it made its way to me on a hotplate. with the usual garnishing of cilantro, the thin slices of ribeye combined well with deep-fried garlic flakes and olive oil to provide a tantalising and appetising dish.
it whetted my appetite enough for me to order a mee siam. simple and nice. and spicy too.
the spotlight then went on to the star of the show - the stolichnaya elit or fondly known as the stoli elit.
introduced in october 2004, stoli elit comes in a tall torpedo-shaped bottle that contains a premium vodka similar to others that have appeared in a club near you.
the makers say stoli elit is filtered at sub-zero temperatures to help release impurities and just like other other premium vodkas, it is clearly smoother than traditional vodkas.
still, it gave a creamy kick down the gullet despite just having a standard 40 percent alcohol by volume. every drop and drip of the little water was a dewdrop from heaven. well, quite like it anyway.
the night continued and we decided to see what else 18-20 century restaurant could offer us. out came bottles of coopers sparkling ale beers that made the laconic loquacious for once.
18-20 century restaurant is at 52, jalan datuk sulaiman, taman tun dr ismail - that's the main road perpendicular to plaza ibm in taman tun dr ismail.

beautiful to drink

beautiful to see, that's what the belvedere in belvedere vodka means.
and i can tell you its pretty beautiful to drink too and me thinks, i had one too many at the launch at the frangipani wednesday night.
the makers, from the house of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, claim it as a luxury vodka coming from a single-rye source. as one very well knows, vodka or little water, is a colourless spirit distilled from any source.
belvedere is distilled - four times - from dankowskie gold rye, planted in the small town of zyrardów in the west of warsaw, poland.
unlike the other vodkas in the market, the pure belvedere is pretty smooth, slippery even. not the usual fire-water burning the back of the throat as one knocks it back from a shot glass. the first shout came with a couple of ice cubes and a wedge of lime. nice.
the real taste is subtly sweet with a hint of pepper. crisp and clean. and so smooth. so beautiful to drink.
the bottle, clear with some frosted areas filligreed with white tree branches have a window that reveals the belvedere - a handsome building that is home to the polish president. and as you will know by now, belvedere means beautiful to see.
belvedere, first introduced in the united states in 1996 and some five years later in the united kingdom, made its way to southeast asia in 2003 in singapore. why i am even telling you this?
well, belvedere's official appearance in kuala lumpur was by way of a party at frangipani wednesday july 20. the good folks at local distributors riche monde also launched two other belvedere variants - the belvedere cytrus and belvedere pomarancza the same night.
the boys and girls down south only had the pleasure of that hours ago, thursday july 21.
also, most importantly, the belvedere vodka meisters are not calling these variants as flavoured vodkas but macerated vodkas, you know, steeping the peels of dried fruits in alcohol to get the aromatic oils for infusion into the little water.
impressed? let's just say they had the help of a french perfumier from the cognac region for that process. and the results are extremely impressive. and it took them some time to get the recipes right, as can be seen from the formulation numbers. the cytrus is listed as formula Q11 while the pomarancza is listed as P42.
just know that they started the formula numbers from A.
the cytrus is crisp with its lime-lemon combination. the lime comes out for the first wave before the lemon comes true. apparently the citrus infusion turns the vodka cloudy when ice cubes are swirled in - causing a chemical reaction with the aromatic oils.
didn't see it happen though.
the killer luxury vodka must be the belvedere pomarancza. this vodka is macerated with spanish mandarins, spanish limes, moroccan oranges and moroccan orange blossoms. the vodka explodes in your mouth and after a while, different notes rule your tongue as the spirit spreads it way through the system. what a blast!
and all through the night, as the party set made its way past the ice queens and waiters to try the vodkas, all i could say was more and more, and na zdrowie or cheers in polish.
and me thinks the belvedere will be a firm favourite at the uptown party spots for its bottle, the contents and the pricey price tag that comes with it.
having said that, have some other vodkas to taste in coming weeks and to make up for lost time. was away travelling on spiritual paths outside malaysia.

peachy little water - absolut apeach

this seventh sin is a peach.
absolut spirits has just introduced the absolut apeach, its seventh flavoured vodka since 1986. the others - as spelt by absolut - are peppar, mandrin, citron, kurant, vanilia and raspberri.
i have yet to taste raspberri.
the unflavoured absolut vodkas - vodka is russian for little water - are absolut blue and absolut red, which is 50 percent alcohol/volume unlike the rest which are 40 percent alcohol/volume.
as seen in the photo handout, the absolut apeach bottle is clad in shades of pink, yellow and orange hues inspired by the flesh of a succulent peach.
a suggested cocktail is the absolut apeach atrévete which includes 2 parts absolut apeach, 3 parts orange juice and 1 part grenadine. more drinks recipes available at the drinkalizer.
absolut is distributing the peachy one in the united states from may 2005 in 50ml, 750ml, 1-liter and 1.75 liter bottles.