Let’s be honest: there are a lot of nasty flavored vodkas on the market right now. However, there’s a new one coming to a store near you that is poised to be grosser than them all. Want a hint?
Okay, you know how when you’re standing near someone smoking a cigarette and they’re blowing the smoke in your face and you think “Wow, I wish someone would make a liquid version of a cigarette so that I could drink this refreshing tobacco scent”? (Note sarcasm.)
Your dreams have come true.
But seriously – Ivanabitch Flavored Vodka (no joke… that is their name. Why are we not surprised?) is launching a tobacco flavored vodka and a tobacco menthol vodka. The Holland-based company’s CEO Tony Elward is a smoker and says the idea sprouted from his frustration that smokers now seem to be treated like second-class citizens. He notes that it is annoying when you’re having drinks with friends and you have to get up and go outside if you want to have a cigarette. With tobacco vodka, he says, you can beat that craving without getting off your barstool.
“You get the nice smell and no harmful effects. There’s no nicotine, no tobacco extracts. Just the taste.” said Elward, to ABC News.
How do they get the tobacco flavor if there’s not actually any tobacco involved? The vodka is distilled five times, and triple filtered over active charcoal.
We will admit that tobacco flavored vodka is an interesting concept and we’ll try anything once in the name of alcohol. However, we’re not sold on the idea that tobacco vodka will be a smoker’s savior when they aren’t able to smoke. If you talk to smokers, very few of them say they smoke for the flavor. In fact, they’ll tell you it’s the worst part of smoking. Also, if there’s no nicotine involved, the tobacco flavor is going to do nothing to quell the actual physical craving the person is having.
Either way, we’re looking forward to seeing what consumers think about the new vodka flavor. We don’t know if we’d like to drink the tobacco vodka straight, but we are interested to see if and how mixologists incorporate it into their cocktail creations.