The major brands of black vodka

Eristoff
Eristoff is a 100% grain spirit, triple distilled and charcoal filtered for best quality. And while it excels at producing regular vodka, the company also distills a black vodka line -- a vodka-based spirit with wild berry flavoring added.

You might want to think of this one as a good club drink. It’s good neat, but improves with energy drinks or soda.



Znaps Vodka
Finally, anyone who’s been to Sweden likely knows about Znaps Vodka, a pure-grain vodka from the Scandinavian nation.

Znaps -- whose name is a Swedish twist on the German word schnapps -- is available only in Europe and South America, so don’t be surprised if you haven’t seen it locally. The company produces nine different flavors of vodka: lemon lime, vanilla, blackcurrant, blackthorn, elder, roses, wild strawberry, apple, and Black Jack -- a shooter that’s a blend of vodka and black licorice.



Fruko-Schulz
You’ve probably never heard of Fruko-Schulz black vodka. This is a Czech-produced bottle that embodies the best Eastern European production standards.

The manufacturers use the finest grains and specially treated water to distill their product, with the addition of humines to color the drink. The result is a premium bottle of black vodka.



BlavodBlavod
If you’ve had black vodka in North America, it’s likely been Blavod. This UK-produced black vodka trades on its distinctive color and clean taste.

Some say that Blavod is a premium bottle that can stand up to the best of the non-colored bottles, while others suggest that its color has affected the taste. Some people swear there’s an herbal or medicinal tang to the vodka’s finish, but this may just be psychosomatic.

Taste or no taste, the word on Blavod is that it’s a very smooth bottle with nice notes of cloves and dark berries, and it’s well worth the trouble to find.