Finlandia Botanical Wildberry & Rose

I've had this on my tasting shelf for so long, I can't even remember if it was bought this year or last. My wife falls for the flavor market way too easily, so when she wanders a little too close to the vodka section, she'll instantly gravitate to something, despite the fact that neither of us drink vodka. So naturally she picked out this very low proof, likely overly sweet flavor, having been won over by the marketing, and yet has still not drank any of it. So I figured, hey, today is already going like shit, let's steer into that skid by tasting this after getting home from work and starting into the weekend. (Side note: it's truly an amazing anthropological observation on how purely stupid and narcissistic drivers are, just at all, but fascinating how much stronger that stupid-on-the-road becomes those last few months of each year.) Here's hoping that the base barley delivers that distinctive European dry, soft, slight sweetness, and the added flavors aren't too overpowering. The color is pretty, but I wish it were deeper and had a darker hue, as this looks pretty watery with how light the pink-ish tint is. The nose surprisingly does have a nice focus on the base spirit, giving a note of a breadiness or even a slight pretzel intonation. The berry flavor is present, being both sour and sweet, with the former winning out by a small margin. The rose petal is also present and represents a floral element well, but is overpowered by the sourness of the berry flavor. The body, as predicted, drinks like water, but finishes with plain vodka notes, very neutral all around. It's in the middle, the center of tasting that the added flavors come through, with a soft floral rose petal being the first tasted, followed by a general red berry blend that's slightly sweet, but thankfully toned down on the sourness. As previously mentioned, the finish is neutral and dry, with very little to go off of to guess the base spirit grain, if you didn't know beforehand. The overall flavor of this is actually enjoyable, and if you wanted to mix this (which I imagine are most buyer's intentions), I would choose less aggressive mixer options, as the proof and body of this vodka are both far too weak to cut through anything with attention-seeking flavor bases or profiles. As the bottle suggests, tonic or club soda are both good options, with a bit of fresh citrus being a welcome additive. Although the claim here is that there are no added sweeteners, I would never believe that this is void of sugar or other strong dehydrators, given the low proof and introduced flavors, so although the low ABV makes this more approachable, I'd continue being wary.

Great value for money, mix 5cl with 15cl of Tonic and add 1/8 of lime to have perfect G&T alternative