Value Voddy - Cheerful or Shoddy? (Tesco Value Vodka)

Member Name: cheersdarlin

Product:	Tesco Value Vodka
Date:	28/06/09 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and does the job. Creates a lot of fun among friends

Disadvantages: Plain packaging, slight unfavourable 'value' kick to the flavour.

As a student, and having many party-animal student friends, alcohol is generally a concern, as nice stuff can clear out our already sparse wallets.

However, I generally enjoy a good quality tipple, 'cause I can really taste the difference, whereas some others can't...

Therefore I was mildly horrified when my very good and naughty friend had a Tesco direct delivery to her house consisting of hair conditioner, supernoodles and, you guessed it, a very sad looking, single bottle of value vodka.

The rest of our party crew had a huge amount of fun pointing and laughing at the cheap looking bottle of clear liquid, and joked about how it probably was more likely to be water than vodka, and that it might just be water with a splash of industrial cleaner to add to he alcohol content...

But when the lovely, nice, tasty alcohol for the night ran out... that previously bullied bottle of voddy came in handy pretty quickly...


The Packaging
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

As mentioned earlier, the packaging is laughable, undoubtedly.

It is very basic, with an average shaped bottle, with a screwtop white lid.
It is easy to open, which is always handy after you have already consumed the entire alcohol cupboard between 5 of you, and are already a tad worse for wear...

The white, red and blue label is undoubtedly Tesco Value. It's not hard to recognise that even when you have consumed your body weight in alcohol already. This is a shame, as I feel it provokes a biased judgement of 'crap' before you even taste it. I think if the packaging was more fancy, and shouting 'WE CAN'T AFFORD NICE STUFF' , then the brand would be more successfull.

Having said this, the value colour scheme is essential for the Tesco company, and this makes them distinguishable from every other vodka bottle on the shelf.

It is also, as we drunkenly pointed out, quite patriotic with the red, white and blue combination.... which came to great amusement as we sang 'God save the queen' and Beatles hits at the top of our voices...


The Actual Alcohol
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

For £7.49 for a 70cl bottle, was suprised by the quality of the alcohol. It is made classically with water and molasses spirit. I was expecting it to taste awful.. but it wasn't too bad! I think it tastes as one would expect vodka to taste, however, I think there is an added kick of impurities maybe? It doesn't taste quite as 'smooth' as Smirnoff (which is triple filtered) or other popular brands.

Although, really, it did what it set out to do. It maintained our drunken-ness to enable a fun filled and crazy house party, which is all you really want from the high alcohol content of spirits.

I think that due to the added kick from the vodka, created by the value brand, you dont drink quite so much, so quickly. This also comes in handy, as it decreases the likelihood of having to deal with overly drunken consequences... if you know what I mean...

On the other hand to this, when drank with an already firmly secured alcohol block, the taste doesn't really bother you, so you could quite easily drink too much and feel, consequently, quite ill... but whether that is due to the value brand, or drunken stupidity... who knows?


Overall:
_ _ _ _


I would have this product again, as it a nice cheap alternative to more expensive brands when you are feeling the pinch of the credit crunch, but if you can afford to get the real deal such as Smirnoff, then I would go for that, as the Value Voddy can be a little questionable...

If you are still looking for a cheap alternative, regular Tesco vodka tastes better, and is better quality, at only a fraction more, but still considerably less than the bigger brands.

There are some great memories which have evolved around the value vodka, though, so I would reccomend it for some great laughs among loved friends :)

Summary: I would buy again if strapped for cash, but not out of choice.