Eskadra

Azerbaijan

fig aroma

[40%, sampled in Azerbaijan]

And another one from my final vodka night in Azerbaijan. It was called Eskadra, and the owner of the shop where I bought it told me it was supposed to be one of the better ones.

cork caps ruin everything

Eskadra was a bit less expensive than Belly Parus. It cost 9 manat for 0,7L, which meant that it was about 4,7€ for 700ml. This meant of course that it was well within the margins of a perfect scoring when it came to the price. As is often the case in this part of the world.

The design was great. I mean, it wasn’t the best I’d ever seen – that honor belonged to the likes of Kalinovaya and Elixir. But it was straight-forward, simple, and tasteful. Also, it said KEEPING INGREDIENT NATURAL on the label. The only downside was the cork cap, but still I’d give it a 7/10 for the overall design.

sweetness here and there

Again, this one had a superb pouring sound (owing to the bottle neck design). There was a faint smell of sugar, which seemed promising, but the taste turned out to be hot, and I mean hot! Eskadra went down like fire, and there was a strange bitterness to it that was very strong at first and then faded away.

The aftertaste was a bit better. It was still hot, but not as hot as the taste had been. There was something heavy to it, and a weird note of fig. In hindsight, this might have been the aroma that the sugary smell had been alluding to.

Overall, Eskadra is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s not bad, but it’s certainly not as good as you would think from the look of the bottle.