A colourless spirit produced from potatoes, the national alcoholic drink of Poland and Russia. It is almost tasteless, and is thus used in many mixed drinks, such as the Bloody Mary (vodka and tomato juice). It is best served chilled.
Vodka is typically a colourless liquor, usually distilled from fermented grain.
Except for various types of flavourings, vodka consists of water and alcohol (ethanol). Vodka usually has an alcohol content ranging from 35% to 50% by volume. This can be attributed to the Russian standards for vodka production introduced in 1894 by Alexander III from research undertaken by the famous Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. According to the Vodka Museum in Moscow, Russia (moved from St. Petersburg), Mendeleev found the perfect percentage to be 38, but since spirits in his time were taxed on their strength the percentage was rounded up to 40 to simplify the tax computation. At strengths less than this vodka drunk neat (not mixed with other liquids) can taste 'watery' and above this strength the taste of vodka can have more 'burn'. Under US Federal law, the minimum alcohol strength of vodka is also 40% by volume, whilst in Europe the minimum is 37.5% by volume.
Although vodka is generally drunk neat in its Eastern European and Scandinavian homeland, its growth in popularity elsewhere owes much to its usefulness in cocktails and other mixed drinks, such as the Bloody Mary, the Screwdriver, the Vodka Tonic, and the Vodka Martini.
Etymology
The origins of vodka (and of its name) cannot be traced definitively, but it is believed to have originated in the grain-growing region that now embraces Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and western Russia. A number of pharmaceutical lists contain the terms "vodka of bread wine" (водка хлебного вина) and "vodka in half of bread wine" (водка полу хлебного вина). As alcohol had long been used as a basis for medicines, this implies that the term vodka is a noun derived from the verb vodit’, razvodit’ (водить, разводить), "to dilute with water". Bread wine was a spirit distilled from alcohol made from grain (as opposed to grape wine) and hence "vodka of bread wine" would be a water dilution of a distilled grain spirit.
Interestingly, peoples in the area of vodka's probable origin have names for vodka with roots meaning "to burn": (Polish: gorzałka; In the 17th century they also played a great role in exchanging the various types of alcohols such as mead, wine, beer, and also the stronger ones such as rum, cognac, whisky and vodka, between the countries of their origin.
Poland
In Poland, vodka has been produced since the early Middle Ages. Stefan Falimierz devoted a chapter in his herbal, published at Kraków in 1534, to the distilling of vodkas, which were limited to use as medicines or cosmetics (aftershave or cologne). Wódka lub gorzałka (1614), by Jerzy Potański, contains valuable information on the production of vodka.
Some Polish vodka blends go back centuries. In the mid-17th century, the szlachta (nobility) were granted a monopoly on producing and selling vodka in their territories.
Large-scale vodka production began in Poland at the end of the 16th century, initially at Kraków, whence spirits were exported to Silesia before 1550. Silesian cities also bought vodka from Poznań, a city that in 1580 had 498 working spirits distilleries. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish vodka was known in the Netherlands, Denmark, England, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Moldavia, Ukraine and the Black Sea basin. Then the beverage was watered down, yielding a simple vodka (30–35%), or a stronger one if the watering was done using an alembic. The beginning of the 19th century inaugurated the production of potato vodka, which immediately revolutionized the market.
The end of the 18th century marked the start of the vodka industry in Poland. The implementation of new technologies in the second half of the 19th century, which allowed the production of clear vodkas, contributed to their success. In 1925 the production of clear vodkas was made a Polish government monopoly.
After World War II, all vodka distilleries were taken over by Poland's communist government.
Russia
A drink similar to modern vodka probably first appeared sometime in 15th–16th century.
The first written usage of the word vodka in an official Russian document in its modern meaning is dated by the decree of Empress Elizabeth of June 8, 1751, which regulated the ownership of vodka distilleries. The taxes on vodka became a key element of government finances in Tsarist Russia, providing at times up to 40% of state revenue (). In 1863, the government monopoly on vodka production was repealed, causing prices to plummet and making vodka available even to low-income citizens. By 1911, vodka comprised 89% of all alcohol consumed in Russia.
Today
Vodka is now one of the world's most popular spirits. By 1975 vodka sales in the United States overtook those of bourbon, previously the most popular hard liquor, and the native spirit of that country. In the second half of the 20th century, vodka owed its popularity in part to its reputation as an alcoholic beverage that "leaves you breathless," as one ad put it — no smell of liquor remaining detectable on the breath. 196ff.)
Russian culinary author William Pokhlebkin compiled a history of the production of vodka in Russia during the late 1970s as part of the Soviet case in a trade dispute; Pokhlebkin claimed that while there was a wealth of publications about the history of consumption and distribution of vodka, virtually nothing had been written about vodka production. Among his assertions were that the word "vodka" was used in popular speech in Russia considerably earlier than the middle of the 18th century, but its meaning both before and during that century differed from the present use, and for this reason the word did not appear in print until the 1860s.
Production
Vodka may be distilled from any starch/sugar-rich plant matter; most vodka today is produced from grains such as sorghum, corn, rye, or wheat. Among grain vodkas, rye and wheat vodkas are generally considered superior. In some Central European countries like Poland some vodka is produced by just fermenting a solution of crystal sugar and some salts for the yeast and distilling this after a few weeks. Today vodka is produced throughout the world, see List of vodkas.
Distilling and filtering
A common property of vodkas produced in the USA and Europe is the extensive use of filtration prior to any additional processing, such as the addition of flavourants. Filtering is sometimes done in the still during distillation, as well as afterward, where the distilled vodka is filtered through charcoal and other media. However, this is not the case in the traditional vodka producing nations, so many distillers from these countries prefer to use very accurate distillation but minimal filtering, thus preserving the unique flavours and characteristics of their products.
The "stillmaster" is the person in charge of distilling the vodka and directing its filtration. These portions of the distillate contain flavour compounds such as ethyl acetate and ethyl lactate (heads) as well as the fusel oils (tails) that alter the clean taste of vodka. Through numerous rounds of distillation, the taste of the vodka is improved and its clarity is enhanced.
Proper distillation and excluding some of the heads also removes methanol from vodka (and other distilled liquors), which can be poisonous in larger amounts.
Repeated distillation of vodka will make its ethanol level much higher than legally allowed. Depending on the distillation method and the technique of the stillmaster, the final filtered and distilled vodka may have as much as 95-96% ethanol.
Flavouring
Apart from the alcoholic content, vodkas may be classified into two main groups: clear vodkas and flavoured vodkas. From the latter ones, one can separate bitter tinctures, such as Russian Yubileynaya (anniversary vodka ) and Pertsovka (pepper vodka).
While most vodkas are unflavoured, a wide variety of flavoured vodkas have long been produced in traditional vodka-drinking areas, often as homemade recipes to improve vodka's taste, or for medicinal purposes. Poles and Belarusians add the leaves of the local bison grass to produce Żubrówka (Polish) and Zubrovka (Belarussian) vodka, with slightly sweet flavour and light amber colour. In Ukraine and Russia, vodka flavoured with honey and pepper (Pertsovka, in Russian, Z pertsem, in Ukrainian) is also very popular. In Poland, a famous vodka containing honey is called krupnik.
This tradition of flavouring is also prevalent in the Nordic countries, where vodka seasoned with various herbs, fruits and spices is the appropriate strong drink for all traditional seasonal festivities, midsummer in particular. Similarly, the German market often carries German-/Hungarian-/Polish-/Ukrainian- made varieties of vodka of 90 to 95% alcohol content (as well as Stroh rum (a spiced rum) of the same potency). A Bulgarian vodka, Balkan 176°, is 88% alcohol.
Other processing
Due to the high alcohol content of certain brands of vodka, it can be stored in ice or a freezer without any crystallization of water. This is done by placing the vodka in an open vessel (bowl, etc) in the freezer, and then after it has reached a temperature below the freezing point of water, adding one or more ice cubes, to which the free water within the vodka will crystallize, leaving a higher alcohol concentration behind.
In some countries, black market or "bathtub" vodka is widespread, as it can be produced easily to avoid taxation.
Vodka and the EU
Vodka producers in Finland, Poland and Sweden are campaigning for EU legislation that will categorize only spirits made from grain and potatoes as "Vodka" instead of any spirit made from any ethyl alcohol (provided, for example, from apples and grapes).
The brands that would be affected if the law is passed include:
Cîroc Moskva Kirov VodkaHealth
Pure vodka has a reputation of producing fewer negative side-effects, especially the infamous hangover.
But vodka, consumed in sufficient amounts, can indeed cause the dehydration, digestive irritation and other symptoms associated with a hangover, because these are inherent properties of ethanol, even if to a lesser degree than the methanol, fusel oils, and other alcohols which are absent in pure vodka.
Worldwide vodka brands
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Stolichnaya ("Capital"), Russia |
Solidarność ("Solidarity"), Poland |
Zodiac, United States |
Absolut, Sweden |
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Ikon True Russian Vodka |
Monopolowa, Poland's first industrial vodka distillery, founded 1782 by Jan Baczewski |
Żubrówka, bison grass vodka, Poland |
Finlandia, Finland |
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Wodka Gorbatschow, Germany |
Chopin, Poland |
Russkaya ("Russian"), Soviet Union. This 1992 bottle is from post-independence Belarus, but retains the Soviet-style labeling and foil cap |
Kaliningradskaya, Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) |
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Xellent, Switzerland (Xellent Swiss Vodka) |
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