Nose - clean dry grain, mineral water, subtle vanilla, unidentifiable citrus notes, mild to moderate ethanol burn. Taste - sweet grain, lemon zest, vanilla, black pepper, dry herbal notes, mild to moderate alcohol bite, finishing fast with sweet grain, vanilla, and dry spicy, herbal notes. There’s really not much on the nose, but it has more alcohol fumes than the Tito’s. It’s exceptionally neutral and possesses a mineral water quality, along with almost undetectable vanilla and citrus notes. The palate is a step up from the Tito’s, but not by much. There’s no off-putting papery note, but rather a nice, natural grainy vanilla sweetness balanced with some herbal spice and citric qualities. It finishes very quickly and cleanly, with the same notes found on the palate quickly fading away. Overall, I like this slightly more than Tito’s, but not enough to notch it higher on my rating scale. I’d still rather drink Jim Beam Original, which I’ve decided to use as a baseline to determine whether any of the vodkas I taste deserve a score higher than 1.5 from me. For those keeping score at home, Skyy is now in the lead, quickly trouncing Tito’s which has been my default vodka of choice for a very long time.