Vodka With a Twist

Isadora Duncan once said, "I would rather live in Russia on black bread and vodka than in the United States at the best hotels."

However, times have changed.

A few enterprising individuals in the United States are beginning to take vodka to a level that would lure even Ms. Duncan away from her beloved Russian classics.

Vodka -- which many of us associate with burly chested men and college drinking games -- is now being served in the U.S. alongside gourmet cuisine or sipped next to fine wines at holiday parties.

This change in status can be attributed to a growing number of enlightened vodka connoisseurs, all of whom are helping to take the drink beyond its stark roots.

Swedish Roots

Although vodkas have been flavored for centuries -- starting with monks in central Europe allegedly flavoring it for medicinal purposes -- Sweden has been making its own niche product since the 1400s.

Hailing from the "vodka belt" (a crescent of northern European countries from Russia to Norway), Sweden native Hakan Swahn opened the revered Aquavit restaurant in 1987 in response to a dearth of world-class Scandinavian restaurants in Manhattan. Swahn soon found his patrons enjoying Sweden's unique, aromatic vodkas or aquavits.

Aquavit is Latin for "water of life," but to Swedes, an aquavit is any vodka naturally flavored with dill or cumin.

To Swahn, however, any flavored vodka is an aquavit. "My background with aquavit is the same as every other Swede," said Swahn. "You saw it when you were a kid [and drank] it with family at holidays."

Swahn fondly remembers the Christmas buffets of his youth, where three or four flavors of aquavit -- which nicely cut through the rich Swedish cuisine -- were as essential to holiday cheer as a roaring fire.

And don't take out the cocktail shakers when drinking aquavit. According to Swahn, "You drink it neat, in a pointed glass, and cold."

When first starting out as a restaurateur here, Swahn noticed a lack of exceptional vodkas on the domestic market.

The flavored vodkas being produced in the 1980s were unexceptional on their own because they often used artificial products to add flavor, explains Swahn.

So Swahn set to work with the help of master Swedish blender Henrik Facile, who embraced the challenge and began concocting exciting new flavors au naturale.

A completely natural product makes all the difference, insists Swahn.

	Aquavit Restaurant

And the ultimate test? "The key ... is that we have to be really happy with the taste of the product," Swahn says. "If it doesn't stand on its own, we're not going to do it."

At Aquavit -- which serves up 15 to 20 different aquavit flavors daily -- customers order scintillating varieties such as lemon-pepper, dill, raspberry-lime, orange blossom, coriander and even horseradish (surprisingly, one of the top sellers).

After some coaxing, I sampled the famous horseradish flavor. It was delightfully spicy, but smooth.

Raise a Glass

Vodka is the fastest-growing spirit in popularity in the U.S., and flavored vodkas have piggybacked off this growth.

According to Swahn, Absolut's Peppar vodka was one of the first flavored vodkas to appear in the U.S. in the mid-1980s, followed by Smirnoff in the late 1990s.

To view Annika Mengisen's video take of today's Good Life segment, click here.