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E. M. Pashman

E. M. Pashman

Russkii Standart (Russian Standard) and Russkii Standart Platinum are both great. I got hooked on them during my time in Russia and brought back eight liters, which was a smart move since they're almost impossible to find outside Russia. You can buy them in the UK (including in Heathrow, at the caviar place, if you're just passing through), but in the US, as far as I can tell, they're only sold on the East Coast, basically in some stores in Brighton Beach, one store in Philly, and a couple Russian restaurants and specialty stores, such as Russkii Dom in DC.

Russkii Standart is distilled in St. Petersburg, and Russians generally consider it the best domestic vodka -- this despite the fact that they rarely drink it due to the price, which though not high by Western standards, necessitates that a Russian be something of a bolshoi kapitalist to afford it. My own experience of going through pretty much every palatable Russian vodka confirms that it definitely is the best, and people ranging from an arms dealer I met in a grocery store in Petersburg to an Indian bartender (who didn't know what a dark beer was) in Irkutsk seem to agree.

Like all traditional Russian vodkas, Russkii Standart is distilled only from wheat, and it uses water from Lake Ladoga. The Platinum is extremely smooth, so much so that I and some of my friends often prefer the regular, which just seems more like, well, vodka. I suggest chasing with a lemon wedge, as the Russians do.

Eric

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