• Email Article
• Print Article

Imperia ($35) Based on a recipe from the 1890s created for Czar Alexander III as the "standard of vodka." Imperia is made with wheat from the Russian steppes, distilled eight times and blended with glacial water from Lake Lagoda, near St. Petersburg.

Green Mountain Sunshine Vodka ($22) Distilled from 100 percent organic corn and blended with spring water from Vermont, this vodka from the boutique Green Mountain distillery has a ghostly touch of sweetness on the finish.

Sïku ($35) Sïku is blended with melted ice from the Qalerallit Sermia glacier in Greenland—the word siku means ice in Greenlandic. Whether those glacial waters make the difference here, who knows, but this is definitely a smooth, elegant vodka.

42 Below ($29) One of the world's southernmost vodkas, this is produced at 42 latitude (appropriately enough) in New Zealand and filtered through 35 separate layers of charcoal. It's refreshingly clean and pure.
—Ray Isle