About eight weeks ago, I held a vodka tasting with my friends where I served four vodka spirits from various Canadian distillers. At the tasting Beattie’s Potato Vodka was the first star with its creamy texture, light spiciness and mild potato flavour beguiling us all. After publishing my thoughts on the event, the folks at Beattie’s reached back to me asking if I wanted to taste more of their spirits. Not very many days later a couple packages arrived, and almost all of the Beattie’s line-up was staring at me in my tasting room.

All of these spirits were produced at Beattie’s Farms & Distillers. Although the distillery is a more recent addition, the farm has has been in the family for five generations. It began with great-grandfather Roland Beattie, who immigrated from Scotland in 1876. He instilled the core values the family business lives by to this day:

“Work hard, love what you do and give back to your community.”

Today, Beattie’s Farms & Distillers is led by Ken Beattie and his team of family, farmers and distillery staff. They have one ambition and that is to make what they believe is the world’s best tasting spirits. 

As I had a number of these spirits unopened in my possession, I decided that I should gather up my friends once again and have them help me taste a portion of this bounty. I chose to serve three flavoured vodkas, Beattie’s Sweet Potato, Beattie’s Farm Crafted Strawberry, and Beattie’s Blueberry and Lemongrass Flavoured Vodkas. (All of the flavoured spirits are bottled at 30 % alcohol by volume.)

Beattie’s Vodka is distilled from potatoes rather than grain. And in fact, for generations potatoes have been used in Poland and other Slavic nations as the distillate of choice for vodka. This style of vodka is more complex than a typical grain vodka, and has a unique light potato flavour at its heart. When this style of vodka is done right, the resulting spirit can be outstanding. If you read my previous vodka tasting post where I discussed Beattie’s Potato Vodka (see here) you will understand that I believe that Beattie’s got it right!

So last Sunday, my friends and I gathered on my back deck with a mountain of food (everything from chicken wings to perogies) and three flavoured spirits to sample. I had my ice-maker ready and a variety of fresh fruit and mixes so that I could create a few cocktails as well. I decided to begin the tasting with Beattie’s Sweet Potato Flavoured Vodka.

This flavoured vodka is produced from distilled potatoes which were grown on the family farm and then combined with an essence of Sweet potato to achieve the final flavour. I served the spirit in shot glasses as I would any traditional vodka, and when I poured each sample all of us noticed the lightly sweet aroma of baked yams rising into the air. A very light citrus note was rising as well. Some of my guests were reminded of grapefruit, I was reminded of lemons and limes. I also noticed a light impression of mint beside the yams and citrus.

The yam-like flavour was lightly sweet surprising us as the profile leaned more towards a dessert sipper, than a mixing vodka. Some of my guests said they also tasted what to them resembled grilled zucchini.  All of us felt the spirit was remarkably smooth and easy to sip (which became a common refrain as we sipped each subsequent spirit).  When I mixed cocktails, I found that the spirit paired well with lime juice and grapefruit, and so I recommend a Vodka Darby (see here) as my serving of choice for the sweet potato flavoured spirit. My friends seemed to agree as the empty cocktail glasses attested.

The next spirit spirit on the agenda was Beattie’s Farm Crafted Strawberry Flavoured Vodka. This spirit is a distilled blend of Beattie’s Potato Vodka and Strawberries grown in Ontario. I admit that I sat this one out. Strawberries and I have a long distance relationship where my feeling is that the more distance I put between myself and those vile berries the better. However, my friends feel differently about strawberries, and they were happy to pick up the slack.

And, according to my friends, the Farm Crafted Strawberry Flavoured Vodka was even better than the Sweet Potato Flavoured Vodka. A fresh strawberry aroma jumps out of the glass; and apparently, the taste of real strawberries was very noticeable as they sipped. Again, the spirit was lightly sweet and everyone felt that it was very suitable for sipping.  As for mixing, the consensus was that the spirit suited tall drinks more so that classic cocktails, and I found my guests mixing with lemon-lime soda and garnishing their tall drinks with citrus wedges. Squeezing the lemon or lime wedge into the tall drink was a popular follow through.

The final serving of the afternoon was the Blueberry and Lemongrass Flavoured Vodka from Beattie’s. This was the spirit I was particularly interested in as the combination of Blueberry and Lemongrass seemed to me to be an unusual one, but one which I felt held great potential. Again, the flavoured vodka is produced with potato distillate and natural flavours. Interestingly the back of the bottle also tells me that stevia extract was used to sweeten the spirit rather than sugar (this is also true of the Sweet Potato Flavoured Vodka). Stevia is sugar substitute extracted from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana which is a South American plant native to Paraguay and Brazil.

The Blueberry and Lemongrass Flavoured Vodka set my tasting table into two camps. The first camp which included one of my guests and myself absolutely loved this flavoured spirit. The other camp which included the other four friends I invited to the tasting were not as enthusiastic. In terms of explanation I should point out that everyone agreed that the blueberry flavour was clearly evident and tasted of real blueberries. The lemongrass flavour though was perhaps unfamiliar to the group, and I think they were expecting a bright lemon flavour rather than the light grassy quality of lemongrass which includes a mildly bitter exit. For myself, I felt that lightly bitter exit was a perfect foil for the light sweetness of  spirit giving it a quality almost like an aperitif as I sipped. (As you will see my friends cam around.)

I mixed a cocktail with the Blueberry and Lemongrass flavoured spirit using the Beattie’s website recommendation of mixing with Lemon Ade. I much preferred the spirit neat or with ice; but those who were originally not so enthusiastic about the spirit when sipping it seemed to like it much more now as a tall serving.

After we tasted each spirit, my guests and I (three ladies and three guys you might call gentlemen) spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying our snacks (perogies, chicken wings, pepperoni pizza, scones and cupcakes). I left all three bottles on the side table beside the ice-maker for everyone to enjoy. I looked at the fill level of each bottle after the tasting to see what spirit had shown the most loss in volume, and I was surprised to see that Beattie’s Blueberry and Lemongrass Flavoured Vodka had a slightly lower fill line than the others. It turns out that mixing that particular flavoured spirit with lemonade was a bigger hit that I had originally thought. (I think the ease of making this particular libation was part of the charm.) It is also true that the fill lines were not all that dissimilar indicating that all of the spirits were enjoyed almost equally.

I gave it some thought afterwards and came to the conclusion, that the very attributes which caused my group to enjoy Beattie’s Potato Vodka at my last tasting were what made all three of the flavoured vodkas so good.  These flavoured spirits all have a strong base from which they begin, and that base is a superb potato distillate. It results in a vodka which is lightly complex, and which has a mild potato flavour that compliments rather than interferes with flavoured spirits. The Beattie’s Potato Vodka is also extremely smooth which means that the flavoured spirits built upon it are also smooth and easy to drink. The final quality that makes each of these flavoured spirits approachable is that light sweetness never becomes too sweet or cloying. As a result Beatties Flavoured Vodkas are easy to sip and enjoy on there own, and each has a cocktail paring which allows you to enjoy them in that format as well.

If I was to score the spirits in my usual manner when I post my reviews, each would score in the low 90s indicating that I feel they are all of sipping quality. I cannot wait to taste the Beattie’s Gins!

Chimo!