IT’S hard not to judge a bottle by its label, especially with Reyka vodka. To celebrate the two-year anniversary of the Icelandic vodka, each bottle has been outfitted with “story caps” that tell a different tale about the day the spirit was created, lending the spirit more, well, spirit.
If there’s a four-legged creature around your bottle’s rim, that means the day the vodka was bottled, an arctic fox visited the distillery grounds. If you’ve got a bird with a big beak, that means the bottle was filled during the puffin-mating season, and since puffins are known to be monogamous, Reyka suggests that if you share this bottle with a loved one, you may have the same luck.
OK, so it’s a little hokey and done half in jest. But then again, it comes from the country that brought us Bjork.
“Sometimes when we are distilling, exciting things happen,” says master distiller Kristmar Olafsson, “and we like to celebrate by creating a special picture and story, which we put on the caps. That way, we can remember the batch.”
So how memorable is the actual vodka?
Reyka is produced in Iceland’s only distillery, which operates on geothermal energy – steam drawn from nearby hot springs. It also contains such pure water that no filtration or demineralization is needed before its bottled. Lastly, the spirit is filtered through lava rock, resulting in a uniquely Icelandic crispness, fresh in flavor and hard to forget.
At $24.99 per bottle, you can afford to collect all eight of the different batches, each with its own clever cap and story. (The descriptions are at reykavodka.com.) But if you prefer your stories with a hint of mystery, hit up Stanton Social (99 Stanton St., [212] 995-0099) and The Mermaid Inn (96 Second Ave., [212] 674-5870) to see which batch they’re pouring.
It’s also available at Union Square Wine & Spirits, (140 Fourth Ave. [212] 675-8100), and Gotham Wines & Liquors, (2517 Broadway, [212] 932-0990).