Product: Skyy Vodka Producer: Skyy Approximate Retail Value: $19.99 Category: Vodka Country of Origin: USA Reviewer: R. Pietsch The F Words: Flavor – Not disgustingly abrasive. Feel – Not overly smooth. Finish – Not quite short enough.

Rating:

There’s nothing special about Skyy Vodka. It’s not terrible but it’s nowhere near great. I’d like to think my task is accomplished with those three sentences but let’s look at what makes Skyy one of the most ubiquitous vodkas in recent years.

Skyy has some really clever marketing going on. You see their ads all over magazines like Maxim and Playboy, and they’re consistently tasteful yet hard to ignore. Their best move was making their Skyy malt beverage, throwing them right onto the heels of all-time rail favorites Smirnoff. But if nothing else, the beautiful blue bottle is appealing and the price is low enough that the hand is forced to carry it to the register.

What do you get when you crack the seal and take a sip before passing the bottle to your sorority sister? Well if it’s fresh out of the bag, the taste will not be pleasant. Warm and straight, Skyy is no treat. A punch of alcohol and the twinge of impurities linger for a few seconds after it washes over your palate. It's not disgusting, but it does taste like the mid-shelf vodka that it is.

Throw Skyy into the freezer, and it’s a different story. If you take this down below 32 degrees, you’ll have a harder time finding those impurities. The slight warmth from the alcohol is going to linger; it takes more than lowering the temperature to remove this.

You can make Skyy easier to drink. Pull it out of the freezer, then shake it vigorously with ice until the shaker has a nice layer of frost coating the outside. Serve Skyy straight up at this point; it’s diluted just enough to be harder to distinguish from its more expensive competitors. The problem, of course, is that no bar keeps vodka in the freezer and it’s difficult to find a bartender willing to shake anything for that long.

But there is still that beautiful blue bottle. And while I doubt most college students prefer drinking it straight as opposed to mixed with Gatorade, there has to be a reason why empty Skyy bottles are the most popular alternative to flower vases in dorm rooms.