But this holiday season, for the first time, the world's largest vodka brand is trying to appeal to Americans' sweet tooth with zany flavours like "fluffed marshmallow" and "whipped cream."
Faced with relentless competition from established and upstart brands, Smirnoff's owner - the London-based beverage group Diageo Plc - took inspiration from things like cookie-scented candles and vanilla-scented laundry soap. It then relied on focus groups, mixologists and food scientists to come up with the new drinks, which went through some 15 iterations, according to the company's chief marketing and innovation officer for North America, Peter McDonough.
Tasters preferred a "toasted" marshmallow flavour, but the marketing team decided that "fluffed" marshmallow would be a better name, McDonough said, since it would help avoid perceptions that the drink tasted "chalky or burnt."
Diageo paired the drinks with an advertising campaign around the title "Fluffed and Whipped" that features a circus of dancers, dogs, aerialists, women spraying whipped cream into their mouths and model Amber Rose purring that "vodka never felt this good."
The mixing of sugar and spice has struck a chord, particularly with younger, female drinkers, say some New York bartenders.
"In five years of bartending, I have never seen a bottle sell out that fast," said Dena Kravitz of Rosie O'Grady's Irish Pub in Manhattan. "It's the martini of the younger generation."
Smirnoff, born in Russia about 150 years ago, says it is trying to make itself relevant and cool to younger adults. But some industry opponents see sweet drinks as moves to lure under-age drinkers who can use them to transition from soft drinks to hard liquor.
"I see this move into these sweet drinks as catering to a youthful taste," said James Mosher, president of Alcohol Policy Consultations, a private consultancy group. "This is not a drink that a mature adult is going to prefer."
Mosher wrote an article slated for publication in the January 2012 issue of The American Journal of Public Health in which he argues that youth-oriented marketing campaigns by Smirnoff and other distilled spirits, which appeal to underage drinkers, were a key factor in the rise of spirits consumption over the past decade in the United States.
The sexy images and allusions in the "Fluffed and Whipped" ad pitted Diageo against the industry watchdog group Alcohol Justice, which did a "Doghouse Blog" entry on it in November, saying the campaign "may have set the bar at a new low" for what it calls "pornahol" ads, or those that "use sexual innuendo and objectification to sell alcoholic beverages."
Diageo, which says the target market for the new varieties is 25-to-35-year-old men and women, rejects any suggestion that it is marketing to kids and cited four investigations into alcohol marketing by the US Federal Trade Commission that concluded that industry ads were directed at adults.
Diageo called Mosher's article "seriously flawed and unsupported by government data and marketplace realities."
As for the sexy ad, McDonough defended it and called it "a little bit tongue-in-cheek."
The notion of confectionary flavors in alcoholic drinks is not new. In recent years, smaller producers have come out with flavors such as cupcake, candy, chocolate and cocomut vodka. Diageo already sells Godiva Chocolate vodka, Ciroc Coconut vodka and Qream, an ice-cream inspired liqueur.
But Smirnoff is the first very large brand to go straight to dessert.
Smirnoff, the top-selling vodka in the United States, has faced competition from small, fast-growing brands that have more cachet, such as Bacardi's Grey Goose and Diageo's Ciroc.
Its sales in the United States are still more than double those of the No 2 vodka, Pernod Ricard's Absolut, but its market share has slipped.
The beverage behemoth has been pulling out all the stops, including sponsoring a reality television show and various nightlife events. Diageo said Smirnoff controls about 30 percent of the flavored vodka market, a fast-growing segment.
But the more unusual the flavour, the more limited its appeal, some say.
"As they become more esoteric, you've got to wonder what the return on these is, since you're speaking to a smaller and smaller consumer base," said Alexander Smith, editor-in-chief of the IWSR Magazine.
And while sweet cocktails in the United States date back to a rum punch by the original first lady Martha Washington, certainly not everyone wants sugar in their alcoholic drinks.
For now, at least, Smirnoff does not have to share the pie with its larger rivals.
For Absolut, confectionary-inspired flavors would "not be consistent with" the brand's flavour strategy, a spokesman said. Its newest creations include Absolut Grapevine, a blend of white grape, dragon fruit and papaya.
Skyy Vodka, owned by Italy's Campari, also has a slightly different strategy. It says its flavours - such as ginger, pineapple and coconut - are based on real fruit infusions rather than using artificial sweeteners.
"We don't think that the consumer is interested in flavours derived from the candy aisle at their local convenience store," said Skyy spokesman Dave Karraker.
