Sostav

Azerbaijan

drink at four twenty?

[40%, sampled in Azerbaijan]

Number three of the Sheki vodka experiment was called Sostav.

Initially, there were two things that seemed to be particular about this one. Firstly, it cost a tad more than NapolĂ©on or Samovar, as it wasn’t 5 but 6 (!) Manat for 500ml. That put it in the 4,5€/700ml range, which was still a perfect ten, though.

hits from the bong

Secondly, the bottle looked a bit weird. I mean, it looked like a bong. Or maybe not exactly like a bong, but sort of like one. I figured that this was probably not intended (though many young people in Baku liked to smoke weed), but that the whole thing had simply been an attempt to create a bottle that looked original. Which it kinda did.

Oh, also there was a safety seal on the cap, and it had a little inbuilt pourer that was slightly too large. In this case, I don’t see this influencing the score, though.

bad butter aroma

As always, I had Sostav neat and at room temperature. It didn’t have much of a smell, which was a good sign. But when I drank it, there was a cold sensation that turned into heat as it burned on its way down my throat. That was all. There didn’t seem to be anything special to it.

The aftertaste wasn’t that good, either. There was a taste that took me a while to identify. It was that of rancid butter. Very faint, but still there.

Overall, Sostav vodka has an interesting bottle design, and that’s it.