Flavored Vodka Laws

[Curtis McMillan]

A few people told me you can't add artificial flavors to vodka. I found a few TTB pages on Flavored Vodka's but nothing on the SET rule. I would like to know what the SET rule is.

[daveflintstone]

The TTB Beverage Alcohol Manual chapter 7 describes the coloring/flavoring/blending rules.

This states that flavored vodka may contain all natural flavor or natural and artificial containing not more than 0.1% artificial topnote.

All the flavor companies have flavors that meet these requirements, if that's what you want. There's a bunch of flavor companies around.

[Absinthe Pete]

Dave, Can you provide some links to 'flavor companies'. Thanks.

[daveflintstone]

There are many flavor companies, just google "flavor company" and you'll see them. If you're asking for a referral, I don't have one.

[Steve F]

Dave, Can you provide some links to 'flavor companies'. Thanks.

I met a guy in March at a conference who works for Flavorman (http://www.flavorman.com/). His name is David Dafoe - Dafoe@Flavorman.com. He knows the distilling business well and seems to have a lot of contacts and experience servicing it. Nice guy. That's all I know about him, though, and I know nothing about the company. If he asks who recommended him, you can tell him Steve from Brooklyn who he met at the Carl conference in Michigan.

[Ralph at Tuthilltown]

It's interesting that if you add flavor to GNS it can be called "Apple Vodka" for instance, but if you make the vodka from apples it can not be called "Apple Vodka". It is, of course, the result of the timing of the introduction of fruit or other flavored vodkas, which came before distillers began to make vodka from fruit substrates rather than grain.