That's a tough call. There are two categories:

a) Drinking it straight up, right out of the freezer

b) Mixing it.


Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to take Finlandia or Absolute and mix it with some juice drink, so I take the lower cost approach and use Smirnoff with that. You certainly can find Vodka at 2/3 the price of Smirnoff, but, there comes a point where the lack of smoothness is noticeable, even in a mixed drink.