the kosher difference?
This is a review of Exclusive Kosher vodka from Israel. I sampled it in Germany in 2015. It’s clear, 40% alcohol, and I found it a bit cold.
A while ago when I went to Poland to visit the Auschwitz concentration/extermination camp, I stayed there for a few days and made a short video about it. That was my way of dealing with it, I guess.
Before I left, I did another thing: I bought a bunch of Polish vodka. It was a simple procedure: I went to a grocery store and put bottle after bottle into my shopping cart. But that wasn’t all of it. There was one vodka brand that seemed special to me: Exclusive Kosher vodka, imported from Israel.
from Israel or from Poland?
This vodka looked like it had to have an official website. But there was nothing. At least nothing that I could find. I stumbled upon a Facebook page that looked as if it had never lived. Then there was an article on Booze News saying that Exclusive Kosher vodka was produced by a Polish company called Exclusive Brands Distribution, and that they were branching out into the Americas.
I also found a more detailed article on Moodie Davitt Report talking about the same thing. The article provided some links to Exclusive Brands Distribution and Haleybrooke, their American distributor, but both sites were down.
[online search from April 6th 2022]
All of this left me a bit confused. Was Exclusive Kosher vodka really from Poland after all?
Exclusive Kosher is a bit cold
I chose to go with what it said on the bottle: A PRODUCT OF ISRAEL. Now I wondered: would the kosher certification make any difference at all?
Well, I’m still not sure actually. All I can say is that Exclusive Kosher vodka tasted very mild and a bit sweet. I liked it a lot. The aftertaste had a surprisingly rich aroma, something earthy and warm, the only downside being that it seemed to stay a bit too “cold” in the stomach.
I had paid 8,5€ for this half-liter bottle, making it around 12€/700ml. The bottle design was nice. I enjoyed the simplicity of it as well as the fact that it had a dispenser, though I didn’t really like the red ring around the cap.
I’m still not sure if the kosher certificate makes any difference to me. You could look at it as a quality guarantee, I guess, but that’s about it. Either way Exclusive Kosher vodka was a very good vodka.