The Moses Range Explained: Vodka, Date Vodka and Arak
Moses is the brand with Moses and the Torah on a frosted bottle, and the detail that surprises everybody is where it comes from: Finland. Not Israel. The label says Product of Finland plainly, and that is not a mistake.
There are three bottles — a vodka, a date-infused vodka and an arak. The two vodkas are among the few premium spirits on the shelf that are properly certified for Pesach; the arak is a different case, and we say so plainly below. Here is what each one is and when to pour it.
The three bottles
| Bottle | Style | Alcohol | Size | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moses Vodka | Small-batch vodka | 40% | 700ml | $39.99 |
| Moses Date Vodka | Date-infused vodka | 40% | 700ml | $34.99 |
| Moses Arak | Aniseed spirit | 40% | 700ml | $38.99 |
Note the size: these are 700ml bottles, not 750ml. That is the European standard fill, and it is worth knowing if you are counting pours for a crowd.
Moses Vodka — the ceremonial bottle
Moses Vodka is $39.99, a small-batch Finnish vodka from Global Drinks Finland at 40%. The hashgacha is the part that matters: it runs under Chug Chatam Sofer in Bnei Brak together with Chief Rabbi Livson of Helsinki, and it is Kosher for Passover.
Very clean on the nose with a faint touch of white pepper. Smooth and genuinely neutral across the palate, a whisper of sweetness through the middle, no burn, and a short clean finish.
Keep it in the freezer and pour it straight at a kiddush, or build a Martini on it. It is very good next to herring, pickles and dark bread — the classic pairing, and the one the bottle was clearly designed for. The frosted glass and gold label mean it does a job on the table as well as in the glass, which is half of why people buy it.
Moses Date Vodka — the interesting one
Moses Date Vodka is $34.99 — five dollars less than the plain vodka, which catches people out — and it is the bottle worth going out of your way for.
Two things make it unusual. First, the base spirit is distilled from sugar beet rather than grain, which is precisely how it sidesteps the chametz question and earns its Pesach certification. Second, it is infused with natural date syrup.
Sweet red dates on the nose. The palate blends a subtle date sweetness with the smoothness of the beet spirit, and the finish is neutral, smooth and semi-sweet. The important thing is that it does not drink like a flavoured vodka — there is no candy about it. The dates give it body and a faint richness rather than a flavour you have to work around.
Sip it chilled and neat, or use it as the base for a Pesach Martini, a Bloody Mary or a vodka soda. At 40% — 80 proof — it behaves like a normal vodka in a recipe. It is also an obvious gift for whoever is hosting the seder.
Moses Arak — and how to pour it properly
Arak distilled in Finland is not what anyone expects, but Moses Arak at $38.99 is a straight aniseed spirit at 40%, in the same frosted bottle. Sweet aniseed and liquorice on the nose, clean and dry across the palate with the anise carrying all the way through, and a long cooling liquorice finish.
Now the part most people get wrong. Arak turns cloudy white when you add water — that is the ouzo effect, the anise oils coming out of solution. To get it right:
- One part arak, two parts water. Then ice. In that order.
If you put the ice in first, the oils seize instead of clouding properly and you get a greasy film rather than that clean milky white. It takes one extra second and it is the difference between arak as it is meant to be drunk and arak as a mistake.
Pour it with mezze, hummus, grilled fish and salty cheese. It is the table spirit for a long Middle Eastern lunch, and it is meant to sit there all afternoon rather than be finished.
One honest note on certification. Unlike the two vodkas, our listing for the arak does not record a hashgacha or a Kosher for Passover status. If you need either, buy one of the vodkas for Pesach and ask your rav about the arak. We would rather tell you that than let you assume.
Arak is the single most searched spirit on our site, so we have gone deep on it elsewhere: what is arak covers the history, the anise and the regional variations, and Joseph Gold Elite vs Alouf compares the two Israeli benchmarks if you want to taste Moses against them.
Which one to buy
- A Pesach vodka that is certified and tastes like vodka — Moses Vodka, $39.99.
- Something nobody at the table has tried — Date Vodka, $34.99.
- Aniseed, mezze, a long lunch — Moses Arak, $38.99.
- A gift for a seder host — Date Vodka. The bottle and the story do the work.
For the wider Pesach spirits question, see the Kosher for Passover spirits guide and the Kosher for Passover Spirits shelf. If the beet-versus-grain point interested you, what is vodka made from explains why the base matters more than the marketing. Or browse Kosher Vodka and Ouzo & Arak.
