Curio Cardamom Vodka
Curio Cardamom Vodka: a triple-distilled Cornish vodka from Mullion infused with organic cardamom, fragrant floral spice, citrus peel, a hint of cola cube and a warm, gently spiced, clean finish.
Type
Country
Producer
Featured Flavours
Alcohol %
40%
Serving Size
- 25ml
Suggested with
In Cocktails
Curio Cardamon Vodka
Curio Cardamom Vodka pours crystal clear, and the aroma reaches you before the glass is anywhere near your lips. Green cardamom leads, fragrant and unmistakable, with that distinctive mix of floral perfume, eucalyptus-cool freshness and soft warming spice that makes the pod so prized in kitchens from Kerala to Scandinavia. Behind it sit lighter notes of citrus peel, lemon and a little orange, lifting the spice and keeping the nose bright rather than heavy. It’s an aromatic, inviting opening that tells you straight away this is a vodka with something to say.
On the palate, Curio Cardamom Vodka is smooth and clean, the triple-distilled base giving it a soft, rounded texture with no harsh edges. The cardamom carries through exactly as the nose promised, floral and spicy at once, with the citrus peel adding a zesty brightness alongside it. There’s a playful sweetness here too, something close to an old-fashioned cola cube, that rounds out the spice and makes the vodka surprisingly easy to sip. Crucially, it never tastes artificial or syrupy: this is natural infusion rather than added flavouring, and the cardamom tastes like the real pod rather than a sweet imitation of it.
The quality of the base spirit is what lets that flavour shine. Because the vodka itself is so clean and neutral, there’s nothing muddying the cardamom, and each layer of the flavour, the perfume, the citrus, the gentle warmth, sits clearly alongside the others. The Cornish spring water used to bring the spirit down to bottling strength adds to that soft, pure mouthfeel, and the result is a flavoured vodka that feels balanced and considered rather than one-note.
The finish is warm and gently spiced, with the cardamom lingering on the tongue alongside a last trace of citrus as the clean vodka fades. Curio Cardamom Vodka is a versatile spirit: lovely sipped neat and ice-cold, where the aromatics really open up, or over ice with a twist of orange peel. It’s equally good with tonic or ginger ale for a fragrant long drink, and it makes an excellent base for a spiced martini, a vodka sour or a Moscow Mule with an aromatic twist.
Curio Cardamom Vodka comes from the Curio Spirits Company, an independent Cornish distillery based in Mullion, on the Lizard Peninsula in the far west of Cornwall, just a short drive from Penventon. The company was started by husband and wife William and Rubina Tyler-Street, who became curious about creating their own bespoke spirits brand in 2012. They spent the following two years training and working with master distillers, investing in two small stills and a rotary evaporator, and experimenting with botanicals that reflected Cornwall’s coastline and their own sense of curiosity, the idea behind the Curio name itself.
The first Curio spirits were released in December 2014. The Rock Samphire Gin, now known as Wild Coast Gin, came first, built around the salty, aromatic rock samphire that grows on Cornwall’s cliffs. It was followed by Peruvian Cocoa Nib Vodka, and then by Curio Cardamom Vodka, the second of the company’s infused vodkas. From the start, William and Rubina divided the work between them, with Rubina taking charge of the gin and William overseeing the vodka, and the brand set out to move away from the artificially sweet flavoured vodkas common at the time in favour of natural ingredients and genuine infusion.
Cardamom itself carries a long and remarkable history. Native to the Western Ghats of southern India, it has been traded for thousands of years and was prized by the ancient Greeks and Romans as a perfume and medicine. Norse traders are often credited with carrying it to Scandinavia, where it remains a staple of baking to this day, while in the Middle East it has long flavoured coffee. Flavouring vodka with spices and herbs is a tradition just as old, rooted in the infused vodkas of Poland and Russia, and Curio Cardamom Vodka brings these two histories together on the Cornish coast, presented in Curio’s distinctive bottles with their hand-drawn botanical labels.
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Curio: Curious by nature and Curio by name, the genre-redefining range from Cornwall includes age-old ingredients such as rock samphire and cardamom to create tipples that are curiously attractive and flavoursome with every sip.
Curio is inspired by fragrant botanicals and natural ingredients that reflect our culture, heritage and locality.
We, William and Rubina Tyler-Street, became curious about setting up a bespoke spirits brand in 2012. With production based in Lizard Peninsula, deep in west Cornwall. Through years of hard work and dedication, the journey to creating our delicious craft spirits led to us celebrating our first products take to the optics in December 2014.
We strive to create spirituous beverages to keep on satisfying the Curios consumer.
Our signature Wild Coast Gin, (formerly Rock Samphire Gin), came first, then the Peruvian Cocoa Nib Vodka and then Cardamom vodka.
