Sobieski Espresso Vodka takes vodka into a direction I can appreciate, the direction of coffee. I love coffee, so now that you know that, let’s see how Sobieski Espresso Vodka can match up to a coffee lover.

While being a huge fan of a big cup of coffee, drinking straight espresso vodka doesn’t really satisfy a big coffee advocate. While the nose has a bit of beanie richness it fades as your senses grow used to it, but it also doesn’t bring intense ethanol which is good, as ethanol doesn’t really pair with coffee well.

By itself, Sobieski Espresso brings the essence of an espresso bean with that coffee influence but it misses on acidity and some of the more bite you can get from a dark roast. You just can’t bring that through in a flavored vodka but Sobieski Espresso does bring a tad bit of sweetness in the flavor along with a pretty weighty consistency and a slight burn in the finish. The burn in the finish is rounded out by that underlying sweetness to help balance out any intense bite.

I believe Sobieski Espresso is going to pair well with a cocktail that can use some coffee influence. The vodka brings more of an espresso roast flavor that you can imagine when walking into a coffee house (a bit darker in bean action than light). Combined with milk, eggnog or something that’s non-coffee but could use coffee accents. Adding flavored coffee vodka to your coffee is sorta going to hide most of the espresso flavor that has been built into this spirit, but would work well in a drink that could use a bit of that coffee heritage without being overdone.

With an MSRP of $10.99 the risk is low for those looking to bring some espresso / coffee flavor to their cocktails without having to go full on coffee liqueur like Kahlua or Kapali.