So, Tanqueray makes Vodka...

[Dylboz]

Why? Seriously, why? Why dilute a perfectly good and well established brand of Gin, a very fine Gin (I like Rangpur, so I give them a pass on it) at that? I was in a Facebook thread where some dude was saying he couldn't tell the difference between Grey Goose and Tanqueray, but Tanqueray and Banker's Club was obvious. I replied that since one was Vodka, and the other Gin, it really should be obvious, but he replied that Tanqueray makes this thing called Sterling Vodka. And that's cool, I guess, but considering that Tanqueray is owned by Diageo, which owns Captain Morgan and a thousand other brands, why not market Sterling under a Vodka name, like Smirnoff, which it owns? By the way, did you know that Tanqueray is now made in Scotland, and isn't even a major player in the British market? Greenall's (made in the same distillery as Sapphire, so buy that instead of paying extra for Bombay) and Bootle's, let alone Beefeater or this stuff: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink ... tonic.html do a lot better.


I'll never understand why people go out of their way to burn money on top-shelf, brand name booze when they're just getting ripped off. I mean, OBJECTIVELY ripped off! It could be worse, you could even be getting rubbing alcohol and food coloring, as in the case of the other link I'm about to post...

[TheBigCasino]

I'll never touch it, but i will say this. the labelling/bottling games that go on are freaking ridiculous, the one positive to come out of this tomfoolery - is buying the cheap stuff just to see if you can find out what it actually is.

[Mr. Viking]

Greenall's produce gin for most of the supermarkets here. I am not certain that it is the same recipe, but it is the same distillery for the own brand ones. They taste similar, though Greenall's is usually competitively priced. Vodka is vodka. It is often overpriced

[Dylboz]

Vodka is vodka. It is often overpriced

This is a fact.

[Lush City]

Vodka is cheaper to make than gin. So if there is a good market for it why not diversify and make another vodka.

[peetie44]

Don't care for straight vodka...too medicinal for my taste. And since it's rather difficult to differentiate between "grades" of vodka in anything other than, possibly, a vodka martini (which I also don't drink, preferring a gin base), I stick with the cheap stuff for mixed drinks.

[Mr. Viking]

Vodka is cheaper to make than gin. So if there is a good market for it why not diversify and make another vodka.

I'm not so sure. Because the botanicals in gin affect the spirit taste so much, I don't find cheap gins so rough as I would cheap vodkas, and I often find shops selling their cheapest gin cheaper than their cheapest vodka.

You are correct on a level though, because gin has more added ingredients, so tit for tat must be more expensive. I think the cost of ingredients pales in comparison to marketing, energy use during distillation, alcohol duty and shipping and packaging costs. I believe that expensive vodkas often come in expensive brand packages. As increasingly, do gins, now they are becoming more popular again

[steved2112]

I say let the vendors be as clever as they will, and develop an armada of robustly marketed brands, so that the marketplace teems with options. Let the educated buyer prevail first, selecting by value and content. Let the window shopper exhaust a satisfying sum on a suitably adorned trinket, selecting by appearance and leaving the store happy. Perhaps to impress a lass with a beautiful bottle and a warm buzz flowing thence. And let the vendor profit handsomely as a result of both. With which profits to encourage by example more to enter the market, and produce for us more of that which we come here to celebrate.

Let there be booze. Let there be happiness. Lots of both.

[Palinka (RIP)]

...By the way, did you know that Tanqueray is now made in Scotland, and isn't even a major player in the British market?...

Yes, I knew that Tanqueray has a distillery in Scotland. The reason that it isn't a "major player" in our market is because it is quite hard to find and, because they refuse to lower the %ABV (45%) of their gin (unlike Gordons and Beefeater who both dropped to a more tax-friendly, for them, 37.5%) our bizarre tax regulations make it a pricey but welcome find. However, Tanqueray is still the brand leader, for gin, in the British "Duty-Free" market.

One of these days I really must get my shit together and travel the 35 miles down the road to visit the Plymouth Gin Distillery where, again thanks to our arcane laws concerning booze purchase, I can get a bottle of 55% ABV Plymouth Gin (which is quite different from the London or Bombay varieties) at a knockdown price (i.e. under £20) and get a tour and some tastings thrown in for free.

...Let there be booze. Let there be happiness. Lots of both.

Everything steved2112 says here is perfect and perfectly true.