Tommyrotter Vodka Review

Travel Distilled reviews Tommyrotter Vodka, a tasty vodka from Buffalo, New York.

I loved the name of this distillery as soon as I saw it. Tommyrotter is one of those great words, even though I wasn’t quite sure what it meant. So, what is a tommyrotter? Well, according to the Tommyrotter Distillery website:

The Tommyrotters’ Club was a band of rebellious artisans in the early 20th century who broke rank from the Arts and Crafts Movement to create for creation’s sake. They sought adventure, mischief and inspiration in nature. Honoring their industrious spirit of back, hand and heart, Tommyrotter Distillery crafts small batch spirits.

Tommyrotter was founded by Bobby Finan and Sean Insalaco and opened for business in July 2015 in a 116-year-old factory in Buffalo, New York. The distillery holds Double Gold, Best in Show, and Silver medals from the New York World Wine and Spirits Competition and the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Tommyrotter Vodka

According to the website, Tommyrotter Vodka is made from American grains, is charcoal filtered, and then hand bottled at 40% ABV. American grains sounds like it’s a mix of grains, and hand bottled could mean anything, though the vodka obviously isn’t mass-produced on an industrial scale.

Tommyrotter Vodka Review

I liked the simple but stylish yellow label, with three ears of corn (or other grain), so top marks to the designer. Pouring a shot and sniffing it, the vodka was very impressive on the nose. It was as smooth as you could wish for, with a slightly floral/citrus smell to it. It smells clean, if it’s possible to smell what clean is.

Tasting it, it’s not quite as smooth but it has an unusual flavor to it – a taste of grain, of earth, with those floral and citrus notes too. The second sip tasted smoother than the first and had me thinking of liquorice and spices. It’s certainly an interesting vodka, and the flavors stay with you when you swallow. There’s a slight burning feeling, but not in the bad way of a rough vodka, just a general warming of the throat as it goes down.

Tommyrotter Vodka Cocktails

I only had a small tasting sample, so it wasn’t enough to try making a cocktail with, but my yardstick is always whether you would sip it or use it in a cocktail, and this is definitely a sipper. On the website they do have a recipe for a Vesper vodka cocktail, and here it is:

The Vesper is a terrific cocktail, if you’ve never tried one, combining vodka and gin, with a dash of the French aperitif Lillet. It certainly has a kick to it. The cocktail was created by author Ian Fleming as the favorite cocktail of his hero, James Bond. I first tried one at the Cosmopolitan Hotel’s Vesper Bar (where else?) in Las Vegas (where else?) and it was fantastic. Although if your hotel is named after a classic cocktail and you have a bar named after James Bond’s favorite cocktail, it had better be good.

Tommyrotter’s spirits are currently distributed in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Certainly the vodka deserves to have a wider audience.