I have a special place in my heart for the Smirnoff brand. My first ever legal purchase of alcohol was a half-bottle (okay, I’m possibly the only person who uses this expression) of Smirnoff vodka, bought at Tesco’s on my 18th birthday and tucked discreetly under my bed for the next few months. After one quickly aborted attempt to drink it straight - the taste and smell is not dis-similar to nail polish remover (not that I’ve ever tasted nail polish remover) - I embarked on a quest to find the perfect mixer. Results shown below.

Coke: very nice. Popular choice, this one, as you get the pleasant, smooth buzz of the booze, and it actually tastes nice.

Orange Fanta: also good. See above.

Lemon Fanta: not so keen on it, but I don’t like the drink much in the first place.

California style Sunny Delight: Tasted very sour to me, but by this time I’d polished off quite a few drinkies in the pursuit of science so wasn’t the best judge.

Florida style Sunny Delight: A mix-up with the bottles meant I couldn’t tell the difference between this and the California one. Didn’t like it much, though.

Lemonade: Not bad, but Smirnoff Ice is miles better.

Milk: I wasn’t that drunk.

A quick word about Smirnoff Ice - this is a vodka drink which tastes like old-fashioned lemonade. Costs about £1.40 a bottle and I could quite happily drink nothing else for the rest of my life. Beer’s never been my cup of tea (err, so to speak) but slide a nicely chilled Sm.Ice in my direction and I’ll be as happy as a... something.

Anyway, conclusions. My brother calls vodka ’the poor man’s drink’ (or indeed ’the student’s drink’) While I’m indeed poor as a tiny wee mouse, I can still dig deep enough to afford a decent bottle of this every so often. There are plenty of cheaper vodkas about. Thing is, ’and nasty’ usually follows. I’ve tried the rest (repeatedly); in my humble opinion, this one’s the best. Fork out a little bit more and get the good stuff.

Purchase Price (INR):	£1.40
Reason for Purchase:	I like its flavour
Occassion best suited for:	Party time