Nemiroff De Luxe Honey Peppar Flavoured Vodka

Nemiroff is a long-established Ukrainian distillery, and this Honey Peppar bottling takes its multi-filtered De Luxe vodka as the base, a soft, clean grain spirit. It is then flavoured with real honey, which brings a rounded sweetness and a slightly oily texture, and pepper, which adds a gentle, building warmth. The honey-and-pepper pairing is a traditional one in the region, and at the full 40% the spirit has enough weight to hold both without either flattening out, giving a balanced sweet-and-spicy flavoured vodka.

The nose is warm honey with a peppery edge and a hint of herbs. The palate balances sweet honey against spicy pepper over a soft, faintly oily body, finishing long, warming and sweet-spicy. That savoury warmth makes it a strong Bloody Mary base: build it over ice with tomato juice, lemon and a touch less hot sauce than usual, since the pepper in the vodka does some of that work, and the honey rounds the tomato's acidity.