Here’s a fun piece of trivia: you can make vodka from anything. Okay, not anything. Not dirty socks. But most grains, just about any fruit, potatoes, corn, sugar packets…if you can ferment it, you can make vodka. Obviously, potato vodka is the most common version because, you know, Russia and its potatoes, but I’ve had some great vodkas made from wheat, a couple that used mostly corn, some barley vodkas, even grape-based vodkas. Now I can add sugar beets to that list. BET Vodka is made from sugar beets, harvested in the Midwest and sourced from a farming cooperative in Minnesota. How quaint is that? And here’s another fun piece of trivia: while haters will say that all vodka tastes similar, the source material for the booze changes the flavor profile dramatically. This new sugar beet vodka proves that fact better than most.
There’s not much on the nose of BET, which is essentially what you expect from a vodka—the spirit doesn’t have much of a nose in general. But take your first sip and you’ll notice what the sugar beets contribute to this spirit. There’s a surprisingly lush mouthfeel—it’s thick and robust, delivering a sweetness that dominates the front of the sip. You get some faint notes of vanilla before the taste moves into a peppery spice that takes center stage during the backend of the sip. And that lush mouthfeel lingers, coating the your palate during the entire process, finally giving way to a bit of alcohol burn after the sip is long gone.