🍸 Flavoured vodka

If you are wondering how flavoured vodka differs from ordinary vodka or from a liqueur, the answer sits in category 31 of EU rules. Flavoured vodka is vodka given a predominant flavour that differs from the taste of the raw material it is made from. In the EU this is category 31 of Regulation 2019/787: strength of at least 37.5% vol., as for ordinary vodka, but it may be sweetened, blended, flavoured, aged and coloured. Sugar must be below 100 g per litre.

The difference from ordinary vodka (category 15) is substantial. Ordinary vodka may not be coloured, contains up to 8 g/l of sugar, and may be flavoured only with natural substances from the distillate of the raw material itself and without a predominant aftertaste. Flavoured vodka has no such restriction. Its legal name may consist of the name of the predominant flavour and the word 'vodka'.

Strength and sugar distinguish flavoured vodka from liqueur. A liqueur in the EU has from 15% vol. and usually at least 100 g/l of sugar, while flavoured vodka has from 37.5% vol. and less than 100 g/l.

In the EU register, three protected names cover this category, all from 23 September 2003: Polska Wódka and the Lithuanian Originali lietuviška degtinė (both categories 15 and 31 at once), and the Polish herbal vodka from the North Podlasie Lowland, flavoured with an extract of bison grass. For flavoured Polska Wódka, Polish law limits sugar to 100 g per litre of pure alcohol. The 2022 Ukrainian law also singles out flavoured vodka as a separate category.

Why it matters to you. Colour and sweetness are permitted in flavoured vodka, so they say nothing about quality. The sugar limit is below 100 g/l: a sweeter drink is already a different category. Strength is from 37.5% vol., as for ordinary vodka. WHO: there is no safe dose of alcohol.