Humbly, I must renege.

A couple of weeks ago during all the hype and chaos surrounding Halloween, I got caught up in all things pumpkin and got all hot and heavy over Modern Spirits Pumpkin Pie Vodka. This isn't a pumpkin pie-flavored cocktail like I just posted; this is a vodka infused with pumpkin and spices meant for sipping alone. A vodka that tastes like pumpkin pie! Could there be anything better for the Fall?!?!

I went to a local high-end liquor store and shelled out a cool $25 for a bottle. Sure, paying $25 for a bottle of vodka is a lot, but it isn't unheard of for premium vodkas, but this was a 375 mL bottle. For an equivalent amount, that's actually $50! I had high taste hopes for something so expensive.

I took the bottle to a friend's house for a bit of pre-Halloween marination before we went off to a proper Halloween party. Because Modern Spirits calls itself a "sipping vodka," we leapfrogged the usual routine of mixing with a little bit of club soda and went straight for the rocks. Before taking a sip, I sniffed the vodka straight from the open bottle, then over the rocks. Modern Spirits wasn't kidding. The stuff certainly had the familiar, warm spicy aroma of pumpkin pie.

My Slashfood friends, this is where I must go back on all the giddy ooh-ing and aah-ing and gushing I did. The vodka tastes horrible. The fragrance had deceived me. The vodka didn't taste anything at all like pumpkin pie. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be sweet (I don't like drinking anything sweet, vodka, cocktails, or otherwise), but the warm spiciness that my sense of smell had picked up was not there on the tongue. The vodka actually made me crinkle my nose, not from the usual bite and sting of straight vodka, but from how strange it tasted. I can't explain exactly what it tasted like but it was something like what I would imagine a can of pumpkin puree mixed with chicken broth that had gone sour and moldy would taste like.

It was disappointing to be let down by the flavor, but more than anything, I was a little more than angry that I had paid $25 for what is essentially a half-bottle of vodka. I guess I can look at that positively though, since I don't feel like we wasted as much when we decided not to drink anymore of it.