A quick look of what’s available shows artisan American and European distillationns: Badcock from Oregon, Blackwood’s from Scotland, Crop from New York (organic) Effen from Holland, Pearl from Canada, Prairie from Minnesota (organic), Rain Organics (cucumber lime), Skinnygirl from Illinois and perhaps the original, Square One from California (organic), a NIBBLE favorite.

You can also infuse your own cucumber vodka with the easy recipe below.

Whether you’re buying cucumber vodka or plain vodka to infuse your own, don’t go for the cheapest vodka on the shelf—unless it’s Russian Standard or Wódka, both quality vodkas at bargain prices.

Photo courtesy Windsor Restaurants | New York City.

THE 411 ON VODKA

Some people in the spirits business are amused by the lengths to which consumers fall for the marketing of “premium” vodka. Premium, super-premium and ultra-premium are marketing terms, not industry standards.

There isn’t much quality difference between high-priced and lesser-priced vodkas. While both use distillation and carbon filtering to remove impurities, it is largely a question of quality control.

Some producers brag that their vodka is distilled to remove impurities 20, 50, even 100 times. Don’t buy that story. According to an industry professional, vodka is typically distilled with a reflux column still, which produces the equivalent of 3-5 distillations in one pass. The number of distillations isn’t as critical as how carefully the distillation is controlled.

The better vodkas use only the “heart” of the distillation, removing the “head” and “tail,” which contain more impurities. Then, it’s carbon filtered; the carbon removes impurities that cause off flavors and hangovers.

If you can find them, seedless Persian cucumbers or other seedless cucumbers are the best choice here. You’ll save the time and mess of seeding conventional cucumbers.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PEEL, seed, and roughly chop the cucumber. Place into jar.

2. POUR vodka over the cucumber. Seal tightly. Reserve the empty vodka bottle and cap.

3. PLACE in a dark spot for three days up to no longer than two weeks. Strain mixture into reserved vodka bottle and label the bottle to avoid a mix-up.

4. TASTE the cucumber. If you like it, keep it for salads or snacking. Otherwise, discard.

EASY CUCUMBER COCKTAIL RECIPE

You can make this cocktail with cucumber vodka or regular vodka plus pressed cucumber juice, which is how they do it at The Windsor in New York City. They call the cocktail the Half Windsor.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE ingredients in a cocktail shaker.

2. SHAKE and strain into a rocks glass. Garnish and serve.
 
Find more of our favorite cocktail recipes.