Svedka vodka is relatively new to America's liquor stores--having been introduced in 1998--but it is catching on fast, and for good reason. In my opinion, its quality/price ratio is the highest I've ever seen of any vodka. It is eclipsed in flavor only by such luxuries as Grey Goose, Belvedere, Ketel One and the like, but is priced like Smirnoff. Often selling (in MA, anyway) as low as $19 for 1.75 liters, Svedka is slowly but surely replacing such staples as Absolut and Skyy from yuppies' refrigerators.

Luxury Vodkas can often be identified by one's ability to simply sip a glass of it as if it was water. Svedka is the only vodka below that status (as defined by price range) which is undeniably sippable. If chilled, one can simply pour over ice and enjoy.

Svedka attributes the quality of its vodka to the quality of the wheat used in the distillation process. 3 pounds of it--purified over a 40 hour period--are used to produce each bottle. Svedka also attributes its smootheness to the fact that it does not use the charcoal filtration process used by most other vodkas.