Review: Skyy Infusions Vodka – Citrus, Raspberry, Grape, and Cherry
Skyy is a big player in the flavored vodka market and is unique for its dedication to only using natural flavors in its concoctions. After raving about its passion fruit version, I tasted four of its classic, more versatile flavors to get a better feel for the line. All are 70 proof. Some thoughts follow.
Skyy Infusions Citrus Vodka – This is a very light flavored vodka, much like the effect of dropping a wheel of orange into a tall glass of water. The flavor is brisk and predominantly orange. Great with a cosmo or any other time you want a hint of orange flavor without overpowering the drink. A-
Skyy Infusions Raspberry Vodka – Sounds like a winner, but in cocktails it invariably forces the flavor toward something strikingly like cough syrup. No better on its own, this one just doesn’t taste like raspberry. Perhaps a different fruit source is in order. C-
Skyy Infusions Grape Vodka – The perfect essence of grape… Kool-Aid. Tastes like melted Jello shots. That’s not a bad thing — though it brings back all kinds of memories of wasted youth — but it’s not like eating Concord grapes by the bunch. B
Skyy Infusions Cherry Vodka – There are so many good ways to get cherry flavor into a drink (Heering, Maraschino liqueur, Kirsch), that a cherry vodka seems a little superfluous… though I guess the same can be said of orange flavor. Cherry suffers from the same cough syrup character as the raspberry, but not so severely. There’s a good cherry character here, but then it fades back into medicine. Hit-and-miss. Better in cocktails. C+
all $15