Vodka: How a Colorless, Odorless, Flavorless Spirit Conquered America
Victorino Matus
Language: English
Pages: 272
ISBN: 076278699X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
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entertain at home and the less we go out to those trendy watering holes. The problem is that the decision about what to purchase at the store often takes place at the bar first. My decision to drink SKYY at the bar is precisely because of its reasonable price, a happy medium between the plastic-jug value brands and the pretentiously overpriced varieties endorsed by celebrities. My admission comes as cold comfort to her: “We don’t want to be a rational choice, an in-between,” she tells me. “We
almost don’t feel the need to bring up the money equation because it will naturally come up anyway. But we don’t want to become this rational middle ground choice because that goes the opposite way of why people choose vodka. Price is part of it, but it’s not the key driver because it’s such a lifestyle choice.” Of course she’s right.12 McGinn admits that SKYY “is good value, but we don’t want to be Toyota. No bad remark on Toyota, but we want to focus more on what we offer.” What SKYY seems to
the round’s winner.” After selling Grey Goose, Frank worried that his employees would look elsewhere for work. As a preventive measure the company gave out bonuses. Those who had been with < 103 > Vodka_3pp.indd 103 4/30/14 9:09 AM VO D K A Sidney Frank Importing for ten years received a whopping two-year bonus. No one left. But he did buy two Maybachs, luxury cars made by Daimler (since discontinued). “Not the little ones,” he told Inc. “In one of the Maybachs, if you sit in the back seat
and press a button, it extends like a bed.”16 Sadly, Frank enjoyed his billionaire status for less than two years. He died on January 10, 2006. What happened after the success of Grey Goose, we can describe only as a vodka boom. Within a matter of years, the number of brands on the market went from a few hundred to over a thousand. But rather than crowding one another out, the entire market has grown both in volume and profit. Revenue from higher-priced brands has risen dramatically. According to
flavors as Apple Pie, Electricity, Fresh Cut Grass, Salty Caramel Popcorn, and Wasabi. Who knew electricity had flavor?29 Even Diageo has gotten in on the action with Smirnoff flavors Fluffed Marshmallow and Whipped Cream. Diageo ran a commercial for them, in which a female voice says, “I might choose Fluffed. Then again, I might choose Whipped. Either way, vodka never felt this good.” As Stuart Elliott of the New York Times points out, “Yes, those are shorthand ways to say the names of the two