What is flavoured vodka?

A vodka is called flavoured as soon as it has acquired a predominant taste that does not come from the vodka's own raw material.

Regulation (EU) 2019/787 puts that drink in a category of its own, category 31, next to ordinary vodka of category 15. The difference lies not in the raw material and not in the strength, but in the flavour that has been deliberately added. With ordinary vodka only aromas that are in the distillate of the fermented raw material may come along. With flavoured vodka the maker may add a flavour, and that flavour may dominate the drink.

Flavoured vodka must contain at least 37.5 percent alcohol, exactly the same lower limit as ordinary vodka.

The regulation leaves no room on this point. If the content falls below 37.5 percent, the word vodka may no longer appear on the bottle as a legal name. A drink with fruit flavour that comes out lower falls into another category, usually liqueur, and that starts at 15 percent alcohol.

Sweetened flavoured vodka must stay below 100 grams of sweetener per litre, calculated as invert sugar.

That limit is precisely where liqueur begins. According to the same regulation, liqueur must contain at least 100 grams of sweetener per litre. A flavoured vodka that is made sweeter therefore moves from one category to the other. Ordinary vodka may only be adjusted by up to 8 grams of sweetener per litre, and then only to round off the finish.

Colouring is permitted in flavoured vodka, not in regular vodka.

For category 31 it states literally that the drink may be sweetened, blended, flavoured, matured and coloured. For category 15 the opposite applies: vodka remains uncoloured. A bottle of vodka with a clear colour is therefore almost always a flavoured vodka or a liqueur. Maturing on wood is likewise permitted for category 31, and that also gives colour.

The legal name of a flavoured vodka may be the name of the predominant flavour, followed by the word vodka.

That is how designations such as lemon vodka or vanilla vodka arise, in which the word vodka may appear in any official language of the Union. If the label says only vodka, without a flavour indication, it is category 15. Everything else that is customary for spirit drinks also continues to apply: the alcohol content is on the bottle and sale is restricted to people aged 18 and over.

Flavored vodka is a regular fixture in cocktail recipes; the International Bartenders Association prescribes it for the Cosmopolitan.

That recipe calls for 40 millilitres of lemon-flavoured vodka, 15 millilitres of orange liqueur, 15 millilitres of fresh lime juice and 30 millilitres of cranberry juice. The flavour of the vodka really does some work there: it replaces part of the fruit you would otherwise add. In recipes where the base needs to stay neutral, such as a Moscow Mule, a flavoured vodka adds a third direction.