A decade or so I was a bartender at a posh university club.  Whereas most restaurants and watering holes in the area served cheap American beers and cheap booze, the faculty club had a fine selection- imported beers and microbrews, some obscure single malt scotches, even liqueurs.

One day as we were preparing to host a very pricey wedding reception, a couple cases of a lemon flavored vodka arrived.  I remember eyeballing it curiously.  "Lemon flavored vodka- this should be good.  Anything to take the edge off vodka," I thought.

Late that eve as the reception was degenerating into gross drunkenness, I sneaked a shot of this lemon vodka.  My eyes bulged, my throat burned.  The only thing different from doing a shot of regular vodka was that instead of exhaling a cloud of alcohol vapor I half-sneezed a lemony cloud of alcohol vapor.  I quickly switched to sneaking beers.

By my reckoning, not much progress has been made since that day.  Fruit flavored vodkas abound, but most suffer because they remain at heart harsh vodkas.  They're sharp, and unless you are a serious vodka drinker, you can't sip them over ice.  You have to knock them back as a shot, then fight to keep from shaking your head violently and breaking into a sweat.

Zone Vodkas, however, are a great exception.

Zone is an Italian vodka.  It's made in Padova, Italy and comes to America by R & A Imports of Pacific Palisades, California, and fetches a ludicrously low $16 a bottle.  Zone comes in five flavors- Banana, Lemon, Melon, Peach and Tangerine.  All five are made with very good fruits and are 50 proof instead of 80 or 100 proof.  Reducing the alcohol and upping the quality and quantity of fruit was a stroke of brilliance.   Doing so lowers the alcohol ester and increases the fruitiness.

The result is that Zone vodkas are astonishingly smooth and tasty.  My darling Zelduh, who tolerates liquor only when it is blended with large amounts of non-alcoholic fluids, was able to sip (sip!) Zone vodkas straight.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Veronica Pekorovic, who runs R&A Imports, said she sought to create a vodka that you would drink and it would seem as though you were biting into fruit.  Well, she has.  All of these vodkas can be sipped, even guzzled straight or on the rocks.  And if you mix Zone vodkas, you can dump two or three shots in a glass and just a couple ounces of orange juice, cranberry, soda water or whatever and you will scarcely be able to tell that there alcohol in it.

I enjoyed all five flavors- none was a turn off.  Taking them in order and straight up at room temperature:

The Banana tastes less like a bland banana than banana chips.  It's sweet and the banana flavor is intense but not obnoxious.  This one you can sip straight or on ice.

The Lemon is pungent and its flavor not citrus-y like the lemons one gets at the grocery store.  It's flavor is smoother, less acidic, and generally broader.  It's almost as if there was a tiny element of orange in it.  Again- you don't need to put this on ice to drink it.

The Melon is stellar.  It smells and tastes just like a freshly cut honey dew or cantaloupe.  I dumbstruck.

The Peach is lush, though it does have a mild post-swallow alcohol taste.  However, it does not flush you mouth and face with heat.  You just taste a little alcohol, which isn't surprising, considering it is alcohol.  Anyway, drink it over ice or mix 2 shots of Peach with one shot of orange juice to create a magnificent Fuzzy Navel.

Lastly, the Tangerine.  Like the peach, it finishes a hint warm; but, if drank over ice, you can't even tell there's alcohol in it.

On the whole- amazing.  Almost anyone, no matter how much the light weight, could enjoy these vodkas straight. (Rating ****1/2)