Kevin Vang typed:
In article . com,
says...
If I'm drinking it straight, I want and am willing to pay for
the good stuff (within reason); otherwise I can just buy a jug o'
Popov, 1.75L for $9.99.

Try some experiments:
Go to an expensive yuppy bar that does a brisk trade in brand name
vodkas, and forage a bunch of empty bottles out of their dumpster
(or just give the bartender a nice tip and ask for some empties.)
Take them home and re-fill them with your jug o' Popov. Now gather
a group of purported vodka snobs and ask them to do a comparative
tasting from your bottles (be sure to let them see the labels.)

I betcha one of Wolfgang's shiny new nickels that they will all
taste subtle differences among the samples.

Or you could buy an assortment of vodkas and randomly rearrange
the contents of the bottles, and do the comparison test.

Since cold anesthetizes the taste buds, and vodka is typically
drunk ice-cold, I'd wager that subtle differences among vodkas are
more imaginary than real.

I don't think so. When my mother visited a while back, she made us both a
bloody mary. Sight unseen, one sip told me she had bought the cheap crap -
and that was through a spicy mixer. I tossed the Popov bottle after she
left.
--
TL,
Tim
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http://css.sbcma.com/timj/