Dear readers, a few months ago I published a post: Rating of the best brands of vodka, and the other day I happened to get acquainted with one of the compilers of this rating and the co-author of the project: “Independent Vodka Laboratory”.

Dr. Schnapps happily responded to my offer to interview him (if I may call it that), and here is what came of it:

Hello, Dr. Schnapps, I think visitors to the vodka rating are interested in the question: How and who came up with the idea to create this rating?

I will not write a story about how, while sitting behind a bottle, we took and invented the Independent Vodka Laboratory overnight - the project as it is now, is the result of quite a lot of thoughts and discussions. It all started with the fact that from time to time we got together with friends and, as usual, drank “little white”. This tradition, I must say, originated in his student years. Then - not now, then they drank everything that is cheaper, and everything that burns. They drank good vodka and bad vodka, often without disdain and various surrogates.

Today, it has become much more difficult to run into blatant rubbish, unless, of course, you sip in the company of marginal marginals and buy vodka somewhere in the gateway. No, today it’s not like that - he earned money, put on a decent dress, came to the store, and ... his eyes were wide from choice. This vodka is not bad, I didn’t drink this, I don’t remember this ... So we thought: why not record our impressions of each bottle we’ve drunk? Therefore, initially it was not the idea of ​​rating as such, but the idea of ​​simply evaluating vodka by some parameters (although, of course, the availability of ratings already implies ranking, you just need to take and organize the samples).

Later, when a certain amount of tested vodka was accumulated, it was decided to compile their rating (by the way, we still have an empty bottle from under the very first sample - Dymka Lux vodka). At the same time, website development was underway. In general, I must say that our idea is not new: there are sites on the Internet that post test results and beer ratings, for example. We have almost the same thing, only harsher - we value vodka. And let today in this matter “every peasant considers himself a specialist” (as Boris Rodionov, a modern researcher of vodka, said) - this does not bother us at all. We are the same men, if you wish.

And how did the expert assessment actually take place? Are you sure that having examined dozens of brands of vodka, you were able to give an objective assessment of each?

Vodka is evaluated very simply: by smell, taste and softness (they rejected the idea of ​​evaluating color and the presence of foreign matter, sediment, etc.) with scoring on a ten-point scale.

As for objectivity, the situation here is this: we are not professional tasters and evaluate vodka as we can, expressing our private opinion. How we feel and appreciate, there are no strict criteria. It is clear that today some people use the slogan "My personal opinion!" as a cover for their incompetence or irresponsibility, but you can rest assured that this is not about our shop. We value vodka first of all “for ourselves” and we do it quite responsibly, as long as our many years of experience allow (this also applies to the issue of competence).

Have manufacturers of these alcoholic products contacted you, or are you cooperating with them?

Unfortunately, communication with producers of vodka is very scarce today. Nevertheless, we, for example, already have some experience in testing custom-made vodka (I will not name specific brands): vodka was sent to us by mail, we tested it properly and successfully posted it on the site. There were other requests to place information on a particular vodka in the rating. But when it turned out that for this we should definitely try and evaluate it, for some reason the interest in people disappeared. But in vain.

Yes, all the tests posted on the site are real. We always held each sample in our hands, poured, sniffed and drank. That is the idea. If it were otherwise, on our site for more than a year and a half of its existence, it would have been possible to lay out a much larger number of vodkas, which we did not even see in our eyes. In general, all the vodka on the site went through our stomach, blood, brain and liver.

Purely hypothetically, we assume that manufacturers are simply afraid of fraud and fear that we either will not evaluate the samples received from them at all, but we will drink vodka, or they will receive a rating from us, which, let's say, does not quite suit them. But, colleagues, let's be honest: if your vodka is good, then we, like other consumers, will appreciate it, and you have nothing to fear (and we will definitely appreciate it, there should not be a shadow of doubt). And if it’s bad, then nobody will drink it even without our estimates. Everything is simple!

And we are always ready and open for cooperation. And in terms of testing vodka, and in terms of posting articles, news and advertising.

Can visitors somehow influence the rating of vodka?

Visitors to our site do not just influence the rating - they create it. Indeed, for each sample of vodka posted on the site, the visitor can vote by making the simplest choice on the basis of “like - not like” (you can give only one vote). But on the basis of these votes, a vodka rating is compiled different from our own, and this is serious. Indeed, if we, the creators and participants of the project, can be blamed for incompetence, bias or bias, it can hardly be done with respect to the majority of those who voted. Do not believe us - believe the same as you. It seems to me that everything is logical here.

Well, the last question: How do you see the future rating of vodka? What are your plans? Is it time to fight alcohol addiction in the country?

If we talk about alcoholism, then this problem is well-known and very old. And not only for Russia. People around the world drank alcohol, drink and will drink. The main question is how to drink? Immeasurably and daily to get drunk from the throat with surrogates, sniffing at a salted sleeve, or from time to time to eat the same vodka, albeit not expensive, but in the company of decent people and for a good snack? It may sound trite, but we stand for a culture of drinking. We never called and we will not call to drink vodka, because ethyl alcohol is, in fact, poison. But we are not against vodka as such: we drink it and highly respect it, and therefore, probably, it is still favorable to us ...

Well, and in our future plans, of course, expanding the list of tested vodka would be enough health. In addition, we plan to open an alcohol forum, as well as create a special section on the site in which we will collect recipes for snacks for vodka that we have prepared and tasted by us - this issue has long been discussed with our readers and we, as they say, keep it in mind . And finally, I want our rating of vodka to become a kind of brand, which consumers would treat with a certain degree of loyalty and trust.

Friends, the team of the Independent Laboratory of Vodka wishes you all the best, as well as a pleasant and cultural drink without harm to your health!

From me, in turn, many thanks to Dr. Schnapps for such interesting information, as well as to the entire team of the Independent Vodka Laboratory for their invaluable contribution to such an important and exciting work!

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