Pinnacle Cotton Candy Vodka

Pinnacle Cotton Candy

Flavored Vodka

35% Alcohol (70 Proof)

My wife doesn't like the taste of alcohol.  

She doesn't like the burn, doesn't like taking shots, doesn't like most wines, and most definitely does not like booze on the rocks.

BUT...

...she does like a sweet drink and getting a chance to relax.

This has always made it tricky for me.  I like dark red wine, in-your-face beers, Islay Scotch, high-proof bourbon, and booze that smacks you in the face and calls you names.  Not exactly my wife's favorites.  

I've been on this unending quest to find something my wife will drink.  There have been a few decent options she will drink from time to time, but for the most part, she will try something I buy her a time or two then never drink it again.  Leaving me with a mostly full bottle of overly sweet, overly girly booze hogging up room in my liquor cabinet.  Not cool.

So, here's another recent purchase, the new Pinnacle Cotton Candy Vodka.  

Pinnacle's Whipped Vodka has been getting a ton of press lately and I always hear people talking about it.  Why?  Who the hell knows. It's certainly not nearly as good as Smirnoff's Whipped Cream Vodka or Hiram Walker's Whipped Cream Liqueur, both of which are comparable in price.  Could be marketing.  Could be it's just gone viral like a bad STD all the skanky hot girls are spreading.

Regardless, Pinnacle makes a copious amount of flavored vodkas and this is another harlot in their bordello.

The Pinnacle Cotton Candy vodka pours crystal clear as any vodka should.  It smells like sugar mixed with disinfectant.  I guess that only makes sense considering alcohol is a prime ingredient in a lot of antibacterial cleaners.  But it's a disconcertingly odd combination.  Tasting brings a considerably amount of bitterness, much more than regular Pinnacle Vodka, along with artificial sweetener notes, and more of that overbearing bitterness lingering throughout the finish.  

I'm honestly surprised with how tame the sweetness is here, but unfortunately it's been replaced with quite a bit of artificial sweetener bitterness like someone poured a bunch of Sweet 'N Low, Splenda, and Stevia packets into a perfectly good bottle of Pinnacle vodka.  Icing down the bottle (in the freezer or ice) certainly seems to tone down the flavors and make it still a ridiculously girly shot of booze.  It certainly smells much more like cotton candy than it tastes.

What about cocktails you say?  Well, my wife and her mother tried mixing Pinnacle Cotton Candy vodka with several different kinds of sodas and multiple types of juice every night over a three-day weekend to no avail.  For them (and they like girly ass cocktails) it was still too bitter tasting even in small amounts.  

So where does that leave me?  With another mostly full bottle of sissy booze sitting around with no one drinking it.  Fantastic.

Drink This: if you ice it down in the freezer and take it as a big, girly shot of booze.

Don't Drink This: if you are looking for a mixer.  I'm sure it may mix well with something (pineapple juice, perhaps?), but the artificial bitterness was a bit too much in cocktails for my wife and her mother.  I would stick with some of Pinnacle's other flavored vodkas over this one.

Cheers!