How pure can vodka get? This is the searing question that has been haunting clear-spirit fanatics since the beginning of the last century.
Before we take our drink this weekend insisting on something pure, let's pack our bag and head to a country with among the cleanest air and water in the world - Iceland, that magical land of massive glaciers, steaming geysers, and subterranean volcanoes.
The psychedelic display of light on the nocturnal horizon (auroras), snowcapped mountains, blood-curdling tales of elves, trolls, and monstrous whales that haunt the seas won't stand a chance putting you off against a single breath of pure and refreshing air you draw in after the long journey.
Care to take a sip of Icelandic water?
In most other parts of the world, tap water is abhorred as unhygienic. Icelandic water is but pure gold. Tasting it, you may wonder aloud what if someone makes vodka out of this! What kind of a drink that would be! Modest Iceland has an answer - a vodka named Reyka.
Reyka (meaning "steam") has already won accolades all over the world for being one of the purest vodkas. All it does is collect Icelandic tap water for the distillation process.
Located in the rural town of Borganes near Reykjavik, the capital, the distillery begins its work from the grain spirit sourced from Scotland's William Grant & Sons. Hey, don't take issue with Reyka's first distillation happening outside Iceland! Many vodka/gin producers do exactly that; they source grain spirit distilled by someone else.
Once the grain spirit reaches Iceland, the company puts it through an elaborate procedure to make the legendary Reyka vodka.
True to the spirit of the country that obtains 100% of its electricity and heat from renewable sources - geothermal and hydropower - Reyka also works on the principle of hurting nature minimally. The entire operation of the distillery (situated near the majestic Mt Hafnarfjall) is run by the geothermal heat of the land. Yes. No fossil power. No burning of wood. No serious emissions. It is the seething groundwater that cooks the cake.
The Carter-Head still Reyka uses for distillation is one of the six on the entire planet.
The copper inside rectifies the neutral grain spirit, producing a lighter and crisper spirit. The vapour passes through a botanical basket of lava rocks, picking an assortment of flavours - junipery, flowery, citrusy... and also what your imagination cooks up. Lava basket! Yes, the locally sourced lava rocks filter out impurities before vapour condenses down to become one of the purest liquids ever to have flowed out of a distillery. Every drop is once again sent through yet a lava chamber to underline the purity point.
Now, time to add water to cut the strength.
Distillers around the world know well that this is where one falters. Water can take away from the liquid its soul. Reyka has only to look around to do the magic with the widely available glacial water. You must know that there are companies in the world that send their gins straight to Iceland to get it blended and diluted with subterranean Icelandic water before they are bottled.
Reyka, given the attention it pays to purity, is made in small batches.
How to drink Reyka?
One prayer. Don't spoil what the distillers and Icelandic nature have painfully built together. If possible, no water. Sip the nature of Iceland. If you can't, go for some supreme mineral water. Ice might numb your mouth, but if you want it that way...well...
One last note.
Reyka helps a threatened species - the Atlantic puffin, a tiny bird iconic (like Reyka) to the country. They have developed a programme for the National Audubon Society through which common people can adopt a bird for themselves or as a gift to someone they love. A sip for Mother Nature.
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