Frosted cake, apple pie, cookie dough and salted caramel. Eating all of these would put us in a sugar coma so why not drink them? Vodka brands are channeling their sweet tooth and serving dessert in a bottle.
The super sweet vodka trend started a few years ago and hasn’t stopped growing since. We see them in liquor stores, at parties, essentially everywhere. Flavors from creamsicle to bubblegum or even red velvet cake, nothing shocks us anymore. Restaurants and bars have even jumped on the bandwagon putting these drinks on their dessert menus. Bonus: there’s a lot less calories in vodka than a slice of cake.
This trend isn’t for everyone. Spirits purists are (understandably) opposed to the flavors in a big way and we aren’t fans either. However… it’s hard for a person who wants a cocktail, more delicious than a vodka soda, to make something with tons of ingredients at home on the average Thursday night. This is where a cool vodka flavor comes in. A flavor like Absolut Orient Apple mixed with ginger ale or seltzer could be exactly what you’re looking for, something different, yummy, and easy. That’s about as artificially sweet as we’ll get – sweet custom cocktails are a whole different story. Bring on the chocolate.
Though the sweet vodka flavors aren’t really for us, clearly big brands aren’t taking our advice. Sweet flavored vodkas made huge profits in the past few years boosting sales for several major brands. Stoli released their confection-inspired Salted Karamel late last year followed by Smirnoff Iced Cake this January. Even Svedka launched an Orange Cream flavor and the most recent is UV Candy Bar, a combination of milk chocolate, caramel and peanut butter.
We just can’t stomach the idea of drinking a candy bar or sipping on frosted cake but the trend doesn’t seem to be going away. Have you tried any of these super sweet vodkas?