the teeny tiny luxury vodka

[37,5%, sampled in Germany]

I received this bottle of Our/Berlin vodka wrapped in some nice gift wrap. I said thank you and put it in my book shelf. It wasn’t until some time later that I opened it, and when I did, I drank it together with the person who had given it to me.

small bottles

The first thing I noticed about this vodka was that the bottle was small. It was 350ml, making it about half the size of a usual vodka bottle. It reminded me of those glass bottles that mineral water used to come in.

Did I like the design, though? Well, yes and no.

the problem with caps

I think the size of a bottle doesn’t matter as long as it has a screw cap: you can drink as much as you want, then screw the cap back on and come back for the rest at a later time. The problem with Our/Berlin is that it has a crown cap. And since liquor generally doesn’t like to be stored in an open container, you theoretically have to finish it once it’s open.

I’m saying “theoretically” because the crown cap in this case is actually resealable. But I didn’t know that until I had opened it for the first time. This meant that as much as I wanted to give it a try, I found myself waiting for an occasion where a friend and I would finish it in one evening.

Maybe I just didn’t read the instructions.

All and all, the bottle and the label were pretty standard. They basically looked like someone was going for a low-key nostalgic look. I thought it was okay, but the (resealable) crown cap was a bit of a turn off.

top shelf right here

Now for the price: I looked this up and you would have to pay about 16€ for one bottle of Our/Berlin vodka. That puts it in the 32€/700ml range, which is among the most expensive vodkas you can find in an average supermarket.

Our/Berlin is fruity

Now that we’ve talked at length about bottles and caps and prices, let’s talk about taste and aftertaste. I wasn’t surprised to find out that Our/Berlin had only a very faint smell – you would expect nothing else for this amount of money.

And the taste was great, too. It was super mild (this is literally how I wrote it down in my notes: “super mild”), there was something sweet and slightly spicy in there, and it went down easily. A great taste even for a top shelf vodka.

The aftertaste was awesome as well: it was consistently aromatic, smooth, and fruity. I’d say there was even a notion of vanilla in there. Good stuff.

I liked Our/Berlin, just not the price and the bottle design.