Mernaya (МѢрная) is a traditional Ukrainian vodka. The name Mernaya means measure, so could it be loosely translated as “measure of quality”? Mernaya Tradition is made from wheat, filtered through a silver ion process and softened with glucose and honey. Mernaya is one of the most popular vodkas in the Baltic countries, based on the view of how often it seems to appear in people’s shopping carts in stores. Store shelves are also often at least half-empty, which means the sellers don’t have time to fill them as quickly as it has been sold. It is also the most widely available Ukrainian vodka in Estonian stores. A 20 cl small bottle cost €2.69 in Latvia.

Mernaya has a pleasant grainy and slightly sweet aroma. The taste is neutral, somewhat sweet. It’s kind of thick in terms of viscosity, which means glucose or honey must have been added quite a bit. The sweet note also remains in the mouth all the time and is also prominent in the aftertaste. In the meantime the ethanol bites briefly but quite sharp. Tradition is sweeter and slightly sharper than another popular Mernaya product, Na Moloke (“On milk”, milk-filtered vodka), which will be reviewed later. Adding water brings out a very light hint of honey. The grainy aroma is also felt lightly, while the alcohol’s burn is reduced. However, the graininess is quite minimal in the taste compared to some rye vodkas from small producers.

Mernaya Tradition is a good basic vodka. The addition of glucose and honey and silver filtration is not very “traditional”, but nowadays it is already very common, especially among the big producers. Mernaya has a very good price/quality ratio, so I can easily recommend to try it at least once. 

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