Bombora & CooranBong Gluten Free Vodkas

I was privileged to receive a bottle of Bombora & CooranBong Vodka to try.  I am impressed, and so are many others.

First, I have to say, while it is still an open debate on whether or not certain liquors are gluten free, it is a huge relief to absolutely know that Bombora and Cooranbong are gluten free!  I’m sure many of you can relate to that, and depending on how sensitive you are, stand on one side or the other of that dilemma.  Here is a solution.

Both vodkas are made from grapes grown in the Barossa Valley where many of the great Shiraz and Cabernet wine grapes are grown.  They both contain pure Australian water from the South Pacific.  Bombora is distilled five times and CorranBong is distilled TEN times.  I’m sure that has a lot to do with how smooth these are.

Bombora is a Premium vodka, according to the company.  I’m not educated in vodkas, but I would consider this in the same category as a Sky, Absolute, or Smirnoff vodkas.  Unless you really like the “bite” of vodka, this would be a great vodka to make mixed drinks with!  The advertisement reads, “The #1 selling premium Australian vodka.”  I found Bombora for $19.99.

CooranBong is a Super-Premium vodka.  I would put this right up there with Grey Goose, which I am fan of.  I found CooranBong for $25.99.  CooranBong was great by itself with some ice.  I would feel bad wasting a vodka like this in a mixed drink, but that mixed drink would be even better!  In the end, now I will always buy CooranBong over Grey Goose.  Grey Goose has become too cliche and overpriced, and CooranBong is 100% GLUTEN FREE!!! You can’t beat that!

After I picked up these vodkas, I started noticing them all over Kansas City and St. Louis in bars in liquor stores.  I have a list of about 40 places they are offered in the Kansas City area, and I assume other cities will be following closely behind.  I don’t only like them because they are gluten free, but they taste great!

I’ve been stingy with my samples over the past few months, because I wanted to give as many gluten free people a try.  I took them to a few events and all of my family events where there are ten gluten free people.

Each time I sampled them, I did a blind taste test between the two.  Nine out of ten people could tell a difference between the two and liked CooranBong better.  The most common response was that Bombora still had that vodka “bite” to it, and CooranBong was good and smooth.  Keep in mind we did try these only with ice.  Most people said the Bombora still has the typical vodka taste, but the CooranBong had much less of that taste.  Both were smooth but the CooranBong was better.

I always like to support products that market to the gluten free population, and these vodkas are perfect in the usual price range of $20-30.  It is worth giving them a try, especially for the piece of mind that they are 100% gluten free.