What we’re drinking: Hetman, Ukrainian Spirit and Ukrainian Freedom, three vodkas from SPYRT Worldwide, a new brand that crafts and distributes wine and spirits from Ukraine
Where it’s from: SPYRT Worldwide was founded by American and Ukrainian military veterans, just months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Why we’re drinking these: First of all, while I’m all for brands supporting a good cause, I wouldn’t be talking about these spirits if they weren’t delicious. The idea for SPYRT was hatched in 2022 in a Ukrainian safe house by American military veteran Sam Lerman and a Ukrainian entrepreneur (they later brought along a retired U.S. Marine-turned-entrepreneur as a third partner).
“I wound up living in this safehouse that only had a few cell phones, a laptop, some wine, some vodka and an AK74,” says Lerman, who was in the country in a non-official advisory role. “I wound up falling head over heels in love with the people and the mission, the culture and the resilience. I wound up staying for weeks. And I fell in love with the vodka.”
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Both Stoli and Smirnoff vodkas were met with boycotts in the last week, even though neither brand is now associated with RussiaLerman discovered the that vodka he was drinking originated from a distillery called Hetman. “The more I got into it, I learned that the cradle of vodka is now eastern Poland and western Ukraine,” he says. Inspired, he started bootlegging. “I would pack up suitcases of vodka and wine and smuggle them over into Poland, then fly home to the U.S., where I would declare to customs that it was for personal consumption,” he adds.
But needing a less stressful way to import the vodka (and to land a paying job, per his wife’s request), Lerman and his team started an import company in 2023. “We want to use it as diplomacy for Ukraine, show off the country’s history and heritage, and give Americans something beautiful from this country that they can experience rather than just fixating their minds on what they see of the war every night on TV,” he says.
The vodkas are already making a mark outside of Ukraine — Hetman recently won a Double Gold medal at the 2025 WSWA Tasting Competition. And even the sales of SPYRT’s lineup are making a difference. The company has partnered with an NGO called Invictus Global Response, which is made up of American explosive ordnance disposal and combat engineer veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who go to Ukraine as unpaid volunteers and clear Russian landmines and liberated towns (10% of gross profits go straight to them as donations, and SPYRT is their main source of funding). The brand has also hired two rather interesting brand ambassadors: Kurt Volker, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, and Will Swenson, the sixth living Medal of Honor recipient since Vietnam.
Again, this is a fantastic story, but it doesn’t work unless the vodka is exceptional. Let’s take a sip.
How they taste: All three vodkas come in at 40% ABV.
- Hetman Elite: Lerman credits the mineral-heavy water used at the distillery for the softer mouthfeel. There’s a nice hint of citrus here, along with some minerality, black pepper and earthier notes.
- Ukrainian Spirit: This vodka, made using only water from a nearby well, utilizes a patented “Pentagonal distilling” technology and undergoes a 10-day resting period post-distillation. It comes off clean and bright, with no medicinal or iodine aftertaste. It’s also a bit peppery and offers a nice minerality. Three infused flavors of the vodka are coming soon.
- Ukrainian Freedom: The budget bottle ($17), this is a bit more assertive than the other two and less complex, but it’s a great price point and seems like an ideal base for a “Kyiv Mule,” a variation made with Ukrainian vodka and served in a steel mug.
Fun fact: The brand offers a three-liter bottle of Ukrainian Spirit housed in a refurbished powder charge tube. Dubbed the Limited Howitzer Edition, these are actually tubes from the battlefield that are brought back, wrapped in hand-stitched Italian leather and sold with all proceeds redirected to aid the Ukrainian military.
Where to buy: SPRYT’s lineup is available on their official website and in select stores online and nationwide for $17 to $37.
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