Chipotle Pepper Flavored Vodka Review

Chipotle Pepper Flavored Vodka from Cascade Street Distillers in Oregon Reviewed by Travel Distilled.

I love the Pacific Northwest, as you will if you’ve been there. I live somewhere very different, in Arizona, and I love the spicy taste of chipotle. I also clearly love vodka, that’s a given, so when I heard about this chipotle pepper flavored vodka from the Pacific Northwest, I just had to get me some.

The vodka is produced in Sisters, in Oregon, a little city that’s surrounded by mountains, lakes, and forests. It’s the kind of place that just oozes good, natural ingredients. Cascade Street Distillers uses water from the nearby Cascade Mountains that has been filtered through volcanic rock for thousands of years, and is as pure as you could wish for.

Cascade Street Distillers

Cascade Street Distillers is very much a craft distillery, being co-owned by brother and sister Nick and Katie Beasley, who have a strong commitment to sustainability. (They also, by the way, have a cool website so check it out.)

Chipotle Pepper Flavored Vodka Review

The big question is, though, can a distillery way up there in Oregon make a spicy vodka that appeals to the palate of someone who lives in Arizona? It ought to, as each batch is infused with 38 pounds of slow-smoked jalapeño peppers.

It certainly didn’t look like it from the color, though. It looks very innocent. It’s straw in color, the kind of color of a white wine like pinot grigio. The comparison ends there.

On the nose the peppery smokiness hits you right away, though with the balancing sweetness that peppers also have. There is also a note of the smell of straw in there, alongside the smoked hot pepper aroma. If you like hot peppers, and I do, you’ll love it for the hint of things to come. If you’re not a fan of hot and spicy, the nose will certainly tell you whether it’ll be too hot for you to handle.

On the Palate

Taking a sip, the same intensity is there on the palate. It really douses the mouth in the taste of chipotle, which lingers long after you’ve swallowed, but again there’s a fresh vanilla sweetness to balance the fieriness. The finish takes the chipotle right down the throat, and the slight burning feel is from the hot pepper, not from any roughness in the alcohol.

I took a sip of water for every 2-3 sips of the vodka, just to stop my mouth from going into over-burn. Even so, I could feel a tingle in the top of my lower lip from the vodka. I loved it. I like spicy tingles! If you do too, you’ll absolutely love this vodka.

I shared some with my wife, and with a friend of ours, both of them liking spicy Mexican food. It definitely got the thumbs up and requests for more.

Chiles do have an addictive quality (as does vodka in my case!) so beware, though I think the combination of chipotle pepper flavor and the alcohol of the vodka, at 40% ABV, will prevent you from drinking too much in one go.

The Verdict

In short, I loved this vodka. It worked well as a set-me-up for a wonderful chile enchilada sauce my wife makes, from a recipe she found in an old cookery book.