Nemiroff Honey Pepper Vodka

Spicy honey. Slava Ukraini!

GLORY TO UKRAINE! GLORY TO UKRAINE! GLORY TO UKRAINE!

Enjoyable but not incredible. Leaves more to be desired.

Rating: 10/23 The nose has a lot of oil and also a decent amount of pepper. The palate showcases the oily bitterness with a bit of richness and definite pepper. There's a little bit of sweetness so I kind kind of taste the honey coming through. The oily bitterness is fairly off-putting though. I wouldn't want a whole bottle of this.

Rating: 12/23 I don't know quite what to make of this. It's weirdly oily with some bitterness and sweetness that do remind me of honey. It also has some clean pepper - both black and white. And it's backed by a pretty neutral spirit. It definitely isn't objectionable, but I'm really not clear on what the point is here. I am getting more sweetness now than I did on my last tasting, but it's far from overwhelming. This is probably just the right touch of light sweetness. There's a light floral flavor too and a waft of almond. I think I seriously underrated this before. It's far from amazing and I still don't understand it, but it has a few components that are well-executed and the whole thing fits together fairly well. I'll save a tad for one final taste to sort this out.

The nose has something a bit savory and a bit sweet, but overall not a huge amount going on. I can sort of imagine I'm getting a bit of honey and pepper on the nose, but it's not terribly apparent. The palate is surprisingly thin and the flavor is surprisingly dry. I do get quite a bit of pepper in here, but not in an overly harsh way. It is certainly warming though. The herbal character of the pepper is a bit rich and goes well here. There is something sweet and oily as well rounding it out that I assume is the honey. It narrowly avoids tasting like rubber. I can't say I'm a fan of this, but it's interesting in a way that isn't just code for "bad" and it isn't a terribly challenging profile, so it's easy to imagine that it could actually be mixed into something. It's not terribly complex but the profile does generally work and it is vodka after all. It could do with a bit less harshness and a bit fuller mouth feel for sure though. Frankly, I don't think that I need a honey pepper vodka in my life. The herbal character is the most interesting and best part of this, but it also invites in a couple of unpleasant flavors.