Review: Absolut Vodka
Absolut vodka was launched in New York in 1979. It is crafted with Swedish winter wheat sourced from 450 local farmers and pure deep well water from naturally filtered aquifers in Ahus Sweden. A dry yeast culture is added and the mix is fermented for over 50 hours in 600,000 liter tanks. A continuous distillation process is used followed by rectification, a method of removing unwanted by-products. The spirit passes through a number of column stills, each designed to remove a different set of impurities. One column extracts unpleasant tasting solvent compounds, another fusel oils, a third methanol, and a fourth concentrates the spirit. No filtration is needed. Pure well water further filtered through reverse osmosis is added before bottling at 80 proof. Read more 
Review: Effen Vodka
Effen Vodka was launched in 2003 when three former partners at KBA Marketing sold the company to build a vodka brand from scratch. They found a contract distillery in the Netherlands and named their vodka Effen, the Dutch word for smooth. The brand has since been sold three times and is now part of Beam Suntory. It is crafted with premium wheat from Northern Holland and pure spring water that has been further filtered through reverse osmosis. A low temperature continuous rectification process is used to avoid caramelization of the sugars. This eliminate the bitter after taste found in some vodka’s. It is then filtered five times through active carbon in a bottom-up filtration process. Read more
Review: Karlssons Gold Vodka
Karlssons Gold vodka was introduced in the US in 2007. The idea for the brand started in 2001 when a group of local potato farmers in Cape Bjare Sweden met with their neighbor Peter Ekelund to discuss forming a co-op and possibly creating a vodka with their virgin new potatoes. A virgin new potato is a young potato that hasn’t fully developed a skin yet. Peter who 25 years earlier helped lead the launch of Absolut Vodka, enlisted the help of Borje Karlsson the former head of Product Development of the V&S Group during the development of Absolut. After a few years of trial and testing Karlsson’s Gold Vodka was launched. It is crafted with seven varietals of virgin new potatoes including Solist, Gammel Svensk Rod, Princess, Sankta Thora, Hamlet, Marine, and Celine. Each varietal is distilled once through a continuous column still lined with copper. They are then blended and unfiltered. 17 pounds of Virgin new potatoes are needed to craft one bottle of their vodka. The result is a full bodied vodka with a distinct viscosity. Read more
Review: Dripping Springs Vodka
Dripping Springs vodka was created by brothers Gary and Kevin Kelleher. It was introduced in 2007. It is micro distilled over 20 times in small 50 gallon batches in proprietary handmade copper pot stills with sweet Mid-Western non GMO corn and pure mineral rich artesian spring water. It is then slow filtered through Swedish activated carbon before bottling at 80 proof. Read more