The Taste

Skyy, the brand once touted as hangover-free hooch, has introduced a whole family of fruit-infused spirits: citrus, raspberry, grape, cherry and passion fruit. Unlike many flavored vodkas, which basically add chemicals to alter the taste, these bottles contain a true marriage of macerated/mashed fruit and vodka. Packaged in a new slightly-sleeker-than-before blue bottle that plays up the "all natural" fruit flavors, the spirit itself is perfectly clear and somewhat weaker than most other vodkas at 35 percent alcohol by volume (70 proof).

The passion fruit flavor is extraordinarily fragrant -- imagine peach liqueur mixed with strawberry bubble gum with hints of guava and pineapple. It goes down smooth, very sweet, with a long, lingering and pleasant aftertaste. Though absolutely fine to drink on the rocks, it's probably best to add orange juice, lemon juice or the schnapps of your choice, or use it in whatever tropical cocktail you'll be drinking this summer.

-- James Oliver Cury