Review: Van Gogh Vodka

An affordable Van Gogh
Whenever I read about an art auction at Sotheby’s, I look at my own Vincent Van Gogh collection and smile. Can you imagine that someone invests several million bucks to own a Van Gogh? I pay much lesser for mine. I’m not talking about cheap prints of Van Gogh originals. I talk about Van Gogh Vodka. The most difficult question is, which one to choose for the occasion.

The art of Vincent Van Gogh
Dear old Vincent was an exceptional artist. His art is as delicate as the man behind it. Vincent lived in poverty all his life, always dependent on the support of his brother. Still, nothing got in his way when he was painting. It is a great experience to ponder over a Vincent Van Gogh painting and sip on a Van Gogh Vodka while doing it. You think you do not understand art at all? Possibly you just stare at it. But art must be felt. It is about emotion and a very personal view. You can get into it and enjoy the difference to your own views on things. Reality is much more than what we think is true. The way we see and feel changes when we use art as a vehicle for new insights. Vodka does a likewise good job on us. The product palette of the distillery behind Van Gogh Vodka is as colorful as Vincents paintings. Flavored Vodka brings Vodka purists to mount the barricades. But others choose flavored Van Gogh Vodka over Stoli or any other Vodka they’ve ever known. Van Gogh Vodka is a colorful Vodka brand with a wide choice of aromas. The creator behind the brand is Tim Vos from the Netherlands. He managed to make fine Vodkas because he was born into a family who owned a distillery. Being a native Netherlands guy, he managed to achieve the rights to put some Vincent Van Gogh paintings on his labels. If Vincent himself would have liked that, is unknown. What I like about this brand is that almost every bottle has the same basic design – a white semi-transparent glass bottle – that carries a unique artistic design. Some bottles differ in color. For example, Van Gogh Pomegranate Vodka is red, Van Gogh Rich dark chocolate is dark brown. The bottle is still white and semi-transparent – but the contents are colored. As a notorious collector of good art, I feel inclined to buy them all. But naturally you can only digest so-and-so-many Vodkas in a lifetime. And: There are so many other fantastic Vodka brands to delve deeper into. Pity!

For females only? Absolutely not!
If I were stranded on a lonely coconut island with just a collection of flavored Van Gogh Vodka bottles, I would not mind. The one worry I’d have would be about the day when all bottles were empty. Believe me, prejudice is a luxury we allow ourselves. It prevents us from tasting the good things, from meeting wonderful people and being happy. My sister recently threw a Vodka tasting party with ten different flavored Van Gogh Vodkas. I was as jealous as hell because my male friends are too macho to admit that Vanilla Vodka, Dutch Caramel or Double Espresso Vodka taste great when you choose the right time. The ladies had a hell of a time. They were chatting away on the different Van Gogh flavors. They exchanged cocktail recipes and remembered days when they were young. For once they ended up as happily drunk as their husbands when they celebrated something with too much alcohol. “I guess these Van Gogh infusions made us forget how old we are now.” said my sister afterwards. No regrets anywhere. Just here. I did not feel man enough to join them. The Van Gogh distillery founders never planned to create a Vodka for females only. Thinking about it now, I wish they had done exactly that. Because, if you label something “for women only”, men automatically feel inclined to trespass and see what is all about. We do not accept any “for women only” because we need to be the bosses. Even if women with taste often do not like comparably tasteless and colorless drinks, Van Gogh Vodka is decidedly not emancipatory. It is more likely American or German. Many Americans and Germans love cocktails and flavored drinks. And why not? A drink is not male or female. It is excellent or it fails to be anything more than a plain cheap supermarket Vodka. Van Gogh is colorful, tasty and rich. It is an adventure for the taste-buds.

Any “real” Van Gogh Vodka available?!
The Vodka-brand “Van Gogh” is now distilled by the experienced “Royal Dirkzwager Distilleries”. They have a long history of Vodka-making. After 133 years in the Vodka business you know what premium quality and exceptional Vodka is. The owner of the brand is Luctor International, L.L.C. Before you panic because the Van Gogh brand does not seem to have any “real” Vodka for you, let me finally reveal: It certainly has. Curtains open for “Van Gogh Blue Triple Wheat”, “Classic 80-proof Vodka” and “Van Gogh Gin”. Yeah! At last. The “Royal Dirkzwager Distilleries” produces two premium Van Gogh Vodkas plus 23 flavored Vodkas – and excellent Gin besides that. That makes for good Van Gogh Martinis. Don’t cut off your ear when you drank some.