OFFICIAL RESULTS THIRD ANNUAL Russian Life INTERNATIONAL VODKA TASTE OFF
RANK
BRAND
SCORE
PERFECT 5’s
COUNTRY
RANK 1999
1
Three Olives
3.97
12
England
—
2
Cristall
3.87
10
Russia
3
Stolichnaya
3.62
7
4
Absolut
3.47
6
Sweden
8
5
Vox
3.41
Poland
Charodei
Belarus
Rain
3.38
US
SKYY
3.24
Tanqueray Sterling
3.22
9
Fris
3.15
Denmark
Taaka
3.05
11
Ketel One
2.97
Holland
Boru
2.95
Ireland
13
Finlandia
2.91
Finland
14
Belvedere
2.81
15
Grey Goose
2.79
France
The vodkas selected for this year’s Taste-Off were all premium, unflavored vodkas. In addition to those vodkas placing in the top 10 among last year’s finalists, five new vodkas were chosen for this year. All vodkas were purchased at a licensed retail outlet. None of the vodkas sampled were donated by vodka producers.
The vodkas were sampled “blind.” That is, none of the persons rating the vodkas knew the vodkas’ identities as anything other than the random Russian letter with which they were designated. Vodka brands were only revealed after all the scores were tabulated. Vodka tasters did not get to choose which six vodkas they tasted.
Each participant rated each of six vodkas on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest and 1 the lowest. The scores were then averaged for the number of tasters for each vodka. Each brand of vodka was tasted by an average of 36 individuals.
Scores shown above are the average scores that were used for final rankings, plus the total number of perfect 5 scores each vodka received.
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