Smirnoff Vodka Spicy Tamarind Spirit Drink

Smirnoff is a vodka brand with roots in the Smirnov family distillery, a business that moved across borders through the twentieth century before the name settled into its modern spelling in the 1920s. This Spicy Tamarind bottling is a flavoured spirit drink rather than a plain vodka: the clean Smirnoff base is infused with tamarind, the sweet and sour pod fruit used widely in Mexican and South Asian cooking, and pitched at a lower 30% strength to keep it soft and sippable. The base spirit does the neutral background work while the tamarind and a touch of chilli carry the flavour.

The nose is fruity and tangy with tamarind and a light spice. The palate brings citrus and a sweet-sour tamarind core, and the finish is long with a gentle warmth. This one is made to play its flavour, so build a Spicy Tamarind Paloma: top it with grapefruit soda over ice, add a squeeze of lime and run a chilli-salt rim around the glass, which echoes the tamarind's sweet-sour tang and turns the faint chilli note into the point of the drink.