Smirnoff Green Apple: What It Tastes Like and What to Mix It With

Smirnoff Green Apple is $14.99 for the 750ml and $19.99 for the litre, and it is the flavoured vodka that most people can name. It tastes like Granny Smith - genuinely like Granny Smith, not like apple candy - and that is the whole reason it has outlived most of the flavoured vodka boom it came out of.

What it is

Smirnoff's base vodka, triple distilled, infused with green apple flavour and bottled at 35% rather than the standard 40%. That five-point drop is normal for flavoured vodka and it is why this drinks softer than the No. 21 in the next bottle over.

There are two on our shelf and they are not quite the same thing. Smirnoff Green Apple in the 1L at $19.99 is the standard build. Smirnoff Green Apple Gluten Free in the 750ml at $14.99 is the same flavour on a corn base rather than a grain one.

If gluten matters to you, take the 750ml. If it does not, the litre is more vodka for five dollars more and the flavour is the same argument either way. On gluten and vodka generally, distillation is the part that does the work, and the Tito's gluten-free question covers why that is and where the label still matters.

How it tastes

Green apple skin on the nose, with a light candied edge behind it. The palate opens tart - properly tart, the sour bite of a Granny Smith rather than the sugar of a red apple - and then softens through the middle into a mild sweetness. The finish is clean, and the base vodka comes back through at the end instead of leaving syrup behind.

That tart-first, sweet-second order is the thing worth knowing. Most flavoured vodka does it the other way round, which is why most flavoured vodka gets cloying by the second drink and this does not.

What to make with it

The apple martini is the obvious one and it is obvious for a reason. Two parts Green Apple, one part sour apple liqueur or fresh lemon, shaken hard with ice, served up. If you use lemon rather than a liqueur you get a much drier, sharper drink and it is the better version.

The easier weeknight pour is over ice with ginger ale and a squeeze of lime. The ginger picks up the tartness and the lime keeps the apple from rounding off.

A vodka sour built with this instead of plain vodka is the underrated one - the apple gives the lemon something to argue with, and you need less sugar than the recipe says.

Soda water and a wheel of lime, if you want it long and light. And it works in a punch bowl better than almost anything else at this price, which is really what a litre bottle is for.

What it is not is a sipping vodka. Nobody is drinking this neat and it is not trying to be drunk neat.

Where it sits on the vodka shelf

At $14.99 it is at the bottom of the vodka shelf on price, and that is the correct place for it. Flavoured vodka is going into a mixed drink, and paying $30 for a flavour you are about to mix with ginger ale is a hard case to make.

Smirnoff No. 21 at $16.99 is the unflavoured original and the fair comparison. If you want to make your own apple drink from scratch with fresh juice, buy the No. 21 and do that - it will be better. If you want to open a bottle and pour, buy the Green Apple.

Against Tito's, which is the other bottle everybody asks about, the honest answer is that they are not competing for the same job - one is a neutral vodka you build on and the other arrives with the flavour already in it. Smirnoff vs Tito's is the full comparison, and if you want to know what any of these are actually made of before you choose, what vodka is made from is the place to start.

Who should buy it

Buy it if you are stocking a bar for a crowd and want one bottle that makes an easy drink everybody recognises. Buy it if you like sour more than sweet - this is the flavoured vodka for you specifically. Buy the litre if it is for a party and the 750ml if it is for a shelf.

Buy something else if you drink vodka neat or in Martinis, or if you would rather muddle real apple into a plain vodka. Both are reasonable positions.

On kashrus, flavoured spirits are a different question from plain ones because the flavourings themselves need looking at - check what is on the label and ask your rav if you want to be sure. It is not kosher for Passover. And for where the whole vodka shelf sits on price, how much a bottle of vodka costs lays it out.

Questions, call the store at (347) 533-8586. We ship anywhere in the country.