[arkades]

I looked over those articles, and they really didn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. Speaking authoritatively as a Russian (heh), I think -all- vodka tastes like rubbing alcohol filtered to remove anything that might resemble redeeming qualities. This is proper: vodka is supposed to be repeatedly distilled with no head added back in afterward: it's supposed to basically be distilled alcohol and water (with some aficionados claiming you can taste the underlying whatever, but I think they're full of shit).

But - but! - the cheapest stuff I've found to date, which I used as an ethanol extraction solvent - was absolutely and identifiably different. Not due to flavor, merely, but clearly due to inferior distillation processes. How can I tell?

Because no other vodka burned my esaphogus and stomach so long, or with so much intensity. It was like eating coal, and chasing it with lava.

I bought this stuff at 11$ for a handle, and if you put a gun to my head, I wouldn't drink it again.

Yes, if someone passed me that stuff at a bar, I would know.

[Zimahl]

From my chemistry background I know you could extract anything with solvents but I didn't realize that you would use that method to get a potable alcohol! I don't doubt you would be able to taste the difference.

[arkades]

Sorry, I didn't mean that I was using ethanol extraction to make alcohol. I mean that I bought the cheapest vodka I could find to use it as the ethanol for an ethanol extraction. I was actually using it to make vanilla extract, which is absurdly overpriced when you buy it normally (buy 25$ worth of vanilla bean, stick it in the cheapest vodka you can find, and put it in your freezer for 3 mos. Strain.)