Crystal Head Premium Vodka

Crystal Head Vodka, created by screen legend Dan Aykroyd, is a super-premium vodka made with water from a deep aquifer in Newfoundland, Canada, blended with selected grains create a creamy and slightly sweet finish. Crystal Head Vodka is a “pure spirit” with no added glycerin, citrus oil, or sugar.

Crystal Head Vodka is quadruple distilled, then triple crystal-filtered through Herkimer diamonds, the final and most important step in production. Herkimer diamonds are quartz formations, or crystals that are mined in Herkimer, New York. New age belief systems claim that Herkimer diamonds emit positive energy, an assertion that is validated by consumer tastings.

Crystal Head Vodka was first introduced in California in September 2008. Later that year, the brand entered Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Nevada. Today the company is available in some 20 market and expects to sell 23,000 cases in its first year.

REVIEWS

Review #001

I am a sucker for a really good martini.  In fact, I believe that a martini – yes, straight vodka or gin—is one of the easiest drinks to make poorly.  Equally, it is one of those drinks that is truly memorable when made well.  Now, I am not talking about my exceptional bartending skills, here, as it is the base liquor and method used that is responsible for an expertly crafted martini.  So, for this, I went for Crystal Head Vodka, the brain child of screen legend, Dan Aykroyd.

I got my hands on a bottle of Crystal Head after I learned that it is triple crystal-filtered through Herkimer diamonds.  I didn’t know what this meant, I just knew that it sounded amazingly indulgent—as every martini that I call for usually is.  Four times distilled and blended from select grains, Crystal Head excited my palate with its clean and subtly sweet flavor, and a slightly creamy body that drank like a buttery new world Chardonnay.

Now, I read up on Herkimer diamonds, and learned that they are mined in New York and there are claims within the new age community that they produce positive energy.  And who am I to argue with the metaphysical world?  After all, I felt a wave of positive energy pulsate right through me after the first, second, and last sip of my Crystal Head Martini.

So, channeling my former profession (bartending) and current obsession (making the world’s best martinis), I got to it.  Here’s how:

The Crystal Head Martini, Straight Up

• 3 oz. Crystal Head Vodka
• 1 oz of ice
• 1 drop dry Vermouth
• Martini Shaker
• Martini Spoon
• 1 olive (garnish)
• 1 twist of lemon (garnish)

Most amateur bartenders will look at you as if you have three heads when ordering this garnish… But a whisper of salt, a touch of brightness— awesome.

• Garnish 2: Skull Toothpicks by Grasslands Road Ghoulish Glamour

Instructions:

• Place glass in freezer for five minutes or fill with ice and water to chill.
• Pour vodka over ice in the martini shaker and cover.
• Shake five times slowly, once up, once down.
• Remove lid from shaker and stir slowly—five times one direction, five times the other.
• After setting glass out to pour, add one drop of vermouth and dump immediately.
• Pour vodka in your slightly chilled martini glass.
• Brush the lip of the glass with the twist and drop it in.
• Place large green olive on a skull toothpick.  Pull out the twist and wrap it around the pick, drop it in.
• Toast, always looking at the eyes of the person you are toasting.  Sip.
• Turn on Ghostbusters, have another sip, kick your feet up, watch the ghostbusting, enjoy! 

Tip: Bruising a martini occurs when it is shaken too hard and the vodka becomes diluted. This is not the end of the world, however, not bruising the martini means that you are able to taste the subtle flavors that are so well thought out during production.  In this case, taste the diamonds.

Review by Stefanie Payne, Executive Editor of CityRoom