I love vodka unapologetically. I'll mix it into sodas as readily as college co-eds do so with rum. I would pretend it was water in my glass during a rough night bartending. If it's a good enough vodka, I will happily swig it straight from the bottle and cut out that pesky middleman of a glass. If I could somehow justify it to myself, I'd probably pour vodka on my breakfast cereal instead of milk. To me, it's its own food group.
After years of "refining my palate" (read: "drinking copiously"), I've gained an appreciation for a quality vodka. For a long time, my go-to vodka was Boru — Irish (like me!), quintuple distilled, delightfully inexpensive ($19.99 for a handle at ABC), and dang tasty. But now I think I have a new vodka, and to make it even more wondrous, it's "green."
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2009.