How to Make an Absolutely Perfect Vodka Soda

I've been drinking vodka sodas since I was 21,

maybe a year or two earlier.

A vodka soda is basically kind of a highball.

It could be a whiskey soda, it could be a gin and tonic,

it could be a vodka tonic,

I guess you could have a gin and soda, I guess,

but you've got your liquor, and you've got your fizzy stuff.

What I love about a vodka soda is that it's clean,

it's crisp if you make it correctly,

and it's not like that,

you go to so many of like these mixology joints now,

and so many of the drinks have so much simple syrup,

and other sort of like sweet alcohols in them,

that like you've got like a sugar headache,

and a hangover like 20 minutes into being there,

and you're like $23 dollars poorer also.

Like I said, you need the right glass, the right ice,

the right booze.

You've got to get the mix right,

there's a lot of things that can go wrong

when you have so few components to work with.

A lot of people screw up with the right glass.

They're like Uh dude, I want a big drink.

And like no, you don't want a big drink,

cause then you just have a big watery mess,

with like too much club soda, maybe too much vodka,

too much ice,

and it's like you're at 7/11 getting a slurpee.

So, you don't want that.

What you want is a glass about this size.

You want to fill up the glass with ice all the way.

That's really important.

Like there's nothing worse than when you go to the bar,

and there's like a few chips of ice

floating at the top of the glass.

No, no, no.

That's like the worst thing you can do.

It's gotta be ice all the way up.

I like to keep it frozen, in the freezer.

Not frozen, but in the freezer.

But for a vodka soda I'm convinced,

and I have no idea what I'm talking about

scientifically here,

but the frozen vodka with the cold club soda

keeps the bubbles tighter, and more carbonated.

I think I know what I'm talking about,

but to me it makes sense.

You have to get the little bottles.

The little 10 ounce bottles are the most important thing

you can ever get.

They're super carbonated, they're super crisp,

but when you open them, you hear that...

(fizzing)

Oh, watch out for that.

Amateur move.

Amateur move.

I always pride myself on never doing that,

and now I'm on camera, and I do that.

(fizzing)

You know this thing is carbonated, it's like volcanic.

So that's awesome.

Like you want the club soda to be so carbonated

it's almost going to hurt your mouth when you drink it.

It's going to like scrape against your mouth

with the carbonation.

A wheel, full wheel, and then cutting that in half.

I think that's kind of like the perfect amount.

I treat myself to a whole semi-circle of lemon

when I'm at home.

I like to think of a little vodka soda

as a simple roast chicken, or a little black dress,

it's very simple, but simple is never simple.

Simple is the hardest thing to achieve.

So if you know how to do it, if you do it well,

it's this sort of platonic ideal of what a cocktail can be.