Jewel of Russia uses a blend of hard winter wheat and rye using water drawn from deep artesian wells (over 500 ft.). It is distilled 5 times, then filtered 5 times, each using the usual Russian method of paper, sand, then finally through specially-modified charcoal made from the stones of peaches and apricots, a special technique of the Chernogolovka distillery.

Produced at a new distillery founded in 1995, and given the “luxe” (type 3) designation of the highest grade of vodka by their government their vodka is traditionally made with new equipment blending old and new to good advantage.

This is the bilberry infused version of their vodka (the other versions being the Classic, Berry Infused and Ultra). Bilberry (also known as European blueberry, blaeberry, whortleberry, whinberry, myrtle blueberry, and fraughan) are similar to blueberries, Swedish lingonberries or Canadian cloudberries.

The bilberries are picked in the wild and infused the same day they are picked for a period of 28 days to ensure maximum extraction of flavor. Unlike a flavored vodka, an true infused vodka gets a lot more juice and flavors (and uses real materials) than a flavored variety – which many times use a flavoring made in a chemical tank than in nature.