Vodka is a clear distilled alcohol. It is traditionally distilled from fermented cereal grain or potatoes. It can be made from plant matter that is high in starch or sugar. Vodka is often distilled multiple times in an effort to garner a more neutral tast. Less distilling will give the vodka more of the character of which it was distilled.

In the USA, the formal defintion of Vodka was a "neutral spirits so distilled, or so treated after distillation with charcoal or other materials, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color." It has been updated to “Products to be labeled as vodka may not be aged or stored in wood barrels at any time except when stored in paraffin-lined wood barrels and labeled as bottled in bond... Vodka treated and filtered with not less than one ounce of activated carbon or activated charcoal per 100 wine gallons of spirits may be labeled as ‘charcoal filtered.’”