So, Tuesday. Tuesday saw the Soulshakers roll into town to kick off the 2009 Finlandia Finnishing School, which made for an excellent day of vodka tasting and training along with a regional qualifier for the 12th Finlandia Vodka Cup. The competition proved to a great end to the day, given that I came second and qualified for the UK final in November.

There were some really interesting points raised during the day, not least when Marku - the brand ambassador from Finland - suggested we try to think about vodkas into three distinct categories: as a clean, pure spirit, as a medicinal, slightly sweet Russian style, and as a bold, more robust style. Marku's dream, he said, was that people would talk about variation in vodkas as they do when discussing whiskies.

All in all, a good (long) day. In other news, you should totally check out Under The Stairs when it's not full of sweaty bartenders drinking neat, room temperature vodka.