Whipped
Over the past few couple of weeks, I’ve been hearing nothing but talk of whipped cream flavored vodka. After trying it on two different occasions, my vote is that the shit is glamorized and disgusting.
Pinnacle‘s Whipped Cream flavored vodka is handcrafted in small batches using spring water from the Champagne region of France and their website eloquently details their distillation process. The bottle is fairly attractive, a smooth penguin shape, blue tint in color. We picked it up because we thought it sounded cool. Which is does. In theory.
These are some of the flavors that are available: banana, berry, chocolate whipped, cotton candy, root beer, green apple, cherry lemonade and of course, the whipped cream flavor. Upon opening up the bottle, the observation is undeniable — the distinctively strong smell is reflective of the flavor itself and kinda like a strip club or like the county fair scene featured in Joe Dirt.
We tried mixing it with a variety of things to no real winning combination. Orange juice made it taste kind of like a creamsicle for awhile, but then halfway through our drinks, our palates got turned off by the overwhelmingly syrupy/chemical taste. I mixed it with strawberry daiquiri mix and it was a thick syrupy overload. When we added blended ice, it got slightly better but still took me awhile to finish the drink. Last night I found the best-of-the-worst concoction yet (thanks to my friend’s suggestion): Blue Moon and the whipped cream flavored vodka. It was still semi-gross though. The flavor lingered for me, made worse by the smell, and even though it didn’t have the typical bite other vodka’s have, it still just didn’t do it for me.
For me, the only way that I enjoyed the whipped cream flavored vodka was to drink it weak and heavily mixed. Last night, the overall consensus in my apartment was more of a “now what?” than a “hell yeah!” We finished the bottle rather quickly and then chose to move onto beverages we know we like.
I give Pinnacle thumbs up for creativity and price ($15.99 for the 1.75 liter bottle we bought last night) but think it falls short overall. Translating sugary food products into liquor flavors is what gives it its appeal, but I think the branding or idea of it is more successful than it is solely as a beverage. The only thing that I can think of right now is that it could be good as jell-o shots but then again, pretty much any vodka makes for alright jell-o shots. Or maybe mixed with hot chocolate.
The website declares the beverage, “ultra-smooth, crisp and clean.” I’m gonna go with “fairly cheap, sugar high and trendy.” Try it to see for yourself, why not. But I’m personally already over it.