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Blavod
can be purchased at Uptown Liquors
(1 NW 23rd Place, 227-0338),
and Tenth Avenue Liquors
(Southwest 10th Avenue and Taylor Street, 227-0338).
Ringler's
Annex
1223
SW Stark St., 525-0520
Paddy's
65
SW Yamhill St., 224-5626
At a recent party stood a tall fellow dressed completely
in black. Something he was passing around in the kitchen
was creating quite a stir among the dotdrinkers in attendance.
I leaned in and learned that he was a programmer named Matt.
He told me the story of the mysterious liquid in his possession.
It's called Blavod, and it's the world's first black
vodka. In the half-light of the darkening kitchen it was
hard to tell if this was a Russian vodka (the letters on
the bottle being red and bearing a faux-Cyrillic look),
but in fact the vodka, he explained, is distilled in England.
When the stuff was poured into a clear martini glass I was
amazed by the color and expected it to be anise-flavored
on the tongue. But no flavor was present other than that
of vodka. The color itself, I learned later, comes from
an infusion of a Burmese herb called black catechu.
To the delight of some and horror of others at the party,
when Blavod is stirred with orange juice, you get a bright
green-colored drink.
According to Blavod's Oregon sales representative Charlie
Thorpe, Blavod has become the third-best-selling vodka
in Britain since its appearance in 1988, taking the London
club scene by storm, in part due to the endless visual possibilities
of a vodka that's black as night. "There are so many ways
to sell this stuff, from the quality angle to the color
gimmick," Thorpe said, handing over a drink menu full of
names like the Midnight Martini (Blavod shaken, with
olives) and the Black Cloud (Blavod over tonic or
soda water) and the Full Moon Martini (a black martini
with a white onion). But selling to the coveted younger
drinker, of course, is the name of the game. Triple-distilled
and double-filtered, Blavod is backed by the strong arm
of Domaines Baron de Rothschild, its first spirit investment
ever, and distilled by master English distiller Christopher
Hayman, formerly of Beefeater Gin. Clearly, they're banking
on its catching on in the States.
Until recently, people had to special-order Blavod, but
it's available over the bar counter now at both Ringler's
Annex and Paddy's and at two liquor stores. Though
some may accuse the black-as-night liquid of possessing
style over substance, Gina, a bartender at Ringler's,
says not only does Blavod make a very cool-looking layered
drink when floated atop the azure sky of, say, blue curaçao,
but it also has the clean taste of a quality vodka. A 750
mL bottle sells for $19.95 at liquor stores.
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Willamette Week | originally
published May 10,
2000
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