Vodka (Belarusian: Гарэлка, Polish: wódka, Russian: водка ) is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits and/or Sugar.
Traditionally prepared vodkas had an alcoholic content of 38% by volume. Today, the standard Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian vodkas are 40% abv (80 proof). The European Union has established a minimum of 37.5% alcohol by volume content for any European vodka to be named as such.[1][2] Products sold as vodka in the United States must have an alcoholic content of 40% or more.[3] For homemade vodkas and distilled beverages referred to as "moonshine", see moonshine by country.
Vodka is traditionally drunk neat in the vodka belt countries of Eastern Europe and around the Baltic Sea. It is also commonly used in cocktails and mixed drinks, such as the Bloody Mary, screwdriver, Sex on the Beach, White Russian, Black Russian, vodka tonic, and in a vodka martini.
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The name "vodka" is a diminutive form of the Slavic word voda (water), interpreted as little water: root вод- (vod-) [water] + -к- (-k-) (diminutive suffix, among other functions) + -a (postfix of feminine gender).[4][5][6]
The word "vodka" was recorded for the first time in 1405 in Akta Grodzkie,[7] the court documents from the Palatinate of Sandomierz in Poland.[7] At the time, the word vodka (wódka), referred to chemical compounds such as medicines and cosmetics' cleansers, while the popular beverage was called gorzałka (from the Old Polish gorzeć meaning to burn), which is also the source of Ukrainian horilka (горілка). The word vodka written in Cyrillic appeared first in 1533, in relation to a medicinal drink brought from Poland to Russia by the merchants of Kievan Rus'.[7]
A number of Russian pharmaceutical lists contain the terms "vodka of grain wine" (водка хлебного вина vodka khlebnogo vina) and "vodka in half of grain wine" (водка полу хлебного вина vodka polu khlebnogo vina).[8] As alcohol had long been used as a basis for medicines, this implies that the term vodka could be a noun derived from the verb vodit’, razvodit’ (водить, разводить), "to dilute with water". Grain wine was a spirit distilled from alcohol made from grain (as opposed to grape wine) and hence "vodka of grain wine" would be a water dilution of a distilled grain spirit.
While the word vodka could be found in manuscripts and in lubok (лубок, pictures with text explaining the plot, a Russian predecessor of the comic), it began to appear in Russian dictionaries in the mid-19th century. It is, however, already attested in Sámuel Gyarmathi's Russian-German-Hungarian glossary (1799), where it is glossed with Latin vinum adustum ("burnt [i.e. distilled] wine").[9]
The word vodka was attested in English already in the late 18th century. A description of Russia by Johann Gottlieb Georgi, published in English in 1780 (presumably, a translation from German) correctly explained: "Kabak in the Russian language signifies a public house for the common people to drink vodka (a sort of brandy) in."[10] William Tooke in 1799 glossed vodka as "rectified corn-spirits".[11]
Another possible connection of "vodka" with "water" is the name of the medieval alcoholic beverage aqua vitae (Latin, literally, "water of life"), which is reflected in Polish "okowita", Ukrainian оковита, Belarusian акавіта, and Scandinavian akvavit. (Note that whisky has a similar etymology, from the Irish/Scottish Gaelic uisce beatha/uisge-beatha.)
People in the area of vodka's probable origin have names for vodka with roots meaning "to burn": Polish: gorzała, berbelucha, bimber; Ukrainian: горілка, horílka; Belarusian: гарэлка, harelka; Lithuanian: degtinė; Samogitian: degtėnė, is also in use, colloquially and in proverbs[12]); Latvian: degvīns; Finnish: paloviina. In Russian during 17th and 18th century горящѣе вино or горячее вино (goryashchee vino, "burning wine" or "hot wine") was widely used. Compare to German "Branntwein", Danish; brændevin; Dutch: brandewijn; Swedish: brännvin; Norwegian: brennevin (although the latter terms refer to any strong alcoholic beverage).
Another Slavic archaic term for hard liquors, and its derivatives in other languages, was "green wine" (Russian: zelyonoye vino,[13] Lithuanian: žalias vynas).
According to the Gin and Vodka Association (GVA),[14] the first documented production of vodka, stemming from the Russian word 'voda' meaning water,[15] was in Russia in the late 9th century. The first known vodka distillery was documented almost two hundred years later at Khylnovsk, Russia, as reported in the Vyatka Chronicle of 1174. Poland lays claim to having distilled vodka even earlier in the 8th century but as this was a distillation of wine it would be more appropriate to consider it a crude brandy. What could be identified as vodka first appeared in Poland in the 11th century when they were called gorzalka, originally used as medicines.[16] Encyclopædia Britannica writes that vodka originated in Russia during the 14th century, first brewed Sydnayaska Krueger of the Krueger Family, which later evolved into the company now known as Smirnoff.[4]
For many centuries beverages contained little alcohol. It is estimated that the maximum amount was about 14% as only this amount is reachable by means of natural fermentation. The still allowing for distillation – the "burning of wine" – was invented in the 8th century.[17]
In Poland, vodka (Polish: wódka; obsolete: gorzałka) has been produced since the early Middle Ages. The world's first written mention of the drink and the word "vodka" was in 1405 from Akta Grodzkie,[7] the court documents from the Palatinate of Sandomierz in Poland.[7] At the time, the word vodka (wódka), referred to chemical compounds such as medicines and cosmetics' cleansers, while the popular beverage was called gorzałka (from the Old Polish gorzeć meaning to burn), which is also the source of Ukrainian horilka (горілка). The word vodka written in Cyrillic appeared first in 1533, in relation to a medicinal drink brought from Poland to Russia by the merchants of Kievan Rus'.[7] In these early days, the spirits were used mostly as medicines. Stefan Falimierz asserted in his 1534 works on herbs that vodka could serve "to increase fertility and awaken lust". Around 1400 it became also a popular drink in Poland. Wódka lub gorzała (1614), by Jerzy Potański, contains valuable information on the production of vodka. Jakub Kazimierz Haur, in his book Skład albo skarbiec znakomitych sekretów ekonomii ziemiańskiej (A Treasury of Excellent Secrets about Landed Gentry's Economy, Kraków, 1693), gave detailed recipes for making vodka from rye.
Some Polish vodka blends go back centuries. Most notable are Żubrówka, from about the 16th century; Goldwasser, from the early 17th; and aged Starka vodka, from the 16th. In the mid-17th century, the szlachta (nobility) were granted a monopoly on producing and selling vodka in their territories. This privilege was a source of substantial profits. One of the most famous distilleries of the aristocracy was established by Princess Lubomirska and later operated by her grandson, Count Alfred Wojciech Potocki. The Vodka Industry Museum, now housed at the headquarters of Count Potocki's distillery, has an original document attesting that the distillery already existed in 1784. Today it operates as "Polmos Łańcut".
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. Soon, however, Gdańsk outpaced both these cities. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish vodka was known in the Netherlands, Denmark, England, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria and the Black Sea basin.
Early production methods were primitive. The beverage was usually low-proof, and the distillation process had to be repeated several times (a three-stage distillation process was common). The first distillate was called "brantówka", the second—"szumówka", the third—"okowita" (from "aqua vitae"), which generally contained 70–80% alcohol by volume. 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 exact production methods were described in 1768 by Jan Paweł Biretowski and in 1774 by Jan Chryzostom Simon. 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 (eastern part of Poland was part of Russian empire at that time). Vodkas produced by the nobility and clergy became a mass product. The first industrial distillery was opened in 1782 in Lwów by J. A. Baczewski. He was soon followed by Jakub Haberfeld, who in 1804 established a factory at Oświęcim, and by Hartwig Kantorowicz, who started producing Wyborowa in 1823 at Poznań. The implementation of new technologies in the second half of the 19th century, which allowed the production of clear vodkas, contributed to their success. The first rectification distillery was established in 1871. 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. During the 1980s, the sale of vodka was rationed. After the victory of the Solidarity movement, all distilleries were privatized, leading to an explosion of brands.
A type of distilled liquor close to the one that would later become generally designated by the Russian word vodka came to Russia in the late 14th century. In 1386 the Genoese ambassadors brought the first aqua vitae ("the water of life") to Moscow and presented it to Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. The liquid that was obtained by distillation of grape must was thought to be a concentrate and a "spirit" of wine (spiritus vini in Latin), from where came the name of this substance in many European languages (like English spirit, or Russian spirt).
According to a legend, around 1430 a monk called Isidore from Chudov Monastery inside the Moscow Kremlin made a recipe of the first Russian vodka.[18] Having a special knowledge and distillation devices he became an author of the new type of alcoholic beverage of a new, higher quality. This "bread wine" as it was initially known, was produced for a long time exclusively in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and in no other principality of Rus' (this situation persisted until the era of industrial production). Thus this beverage was closely associated with Moscow.
Until the mid-18th century, the drink remained relatively low on alcohol content, not exceeding 40% by volume. Multiple terms for the drink are recorded, sometimes reflecting different levels of quality, alcohol concentration, filtering, and the number of distillations; most commonly, it was referred to as "burning wine", "bread wine", or simply "wine". ("Wine" in the modern meaning of the word - grape wine - had to be imported and was only affordable for aristocrats and wealthy merchants.) Burning wine was usually diluted with water to 24% ABV or less before drinking. It was mostly sold in taverns and was quite expensive. At the same time, the word vodka was already in use, but it described herbal tinctures (similar to absinthe), containing up to 75% by volume alcohol, and made for medicinal purposes.
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.[19] By the 1860s, due to the government policy of promoting consumption of state-manufactured vodka, it became the drink of choice for many Russians. 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. This level has fluctuated somewhat during the 20th century, but remained quite high at all times. The most recent estimates put it at 70% (2001). Today, some popular Russian vodka producers or brands are (amongst others) Stolichnaya and Russian Standard.[20]
Vodka is now one of the world's most popular spirits. It was rarely consumed outside Europe before the 1950s. By 1975, vodka sales in the United States overtook those of bourbon, previously the most popular hard liquor of the 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 — claiming no smell of liquor remains detectable on the breath, and its overall neutral flavour, (not to be confused with absence of flavour), allows it to be mixed into a wide variety of drinks, often replacing other liquors (particularly gin) in traditional drinks, such as the Martini.
According to The Penguin Book of Spirits and Liqueurs, "Its low level of fusel oils and congeners — impurities that flavour spirits but that can contribute to the after-effects of heavy consumption — led to its being considered among the 'safer' spirits, though not in terms of its powers of intoxication, which, depending on strength, may be considerable."[21]
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; this was later published as A History of Vodka. 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 the word did not appear in print until the 1860s.
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. Some vodkas are made from potatoes, molasses, soybeans, grapes, rice, sugar beets and sometimes even byproducts of oil refining or wood pulp processing. In some Central European countries like Poland some vodka is produced by just fermenting a solution of crystal sugar and yeast. In the European Union there are talks about the standardization of vodka, and the Vodka Belt countries insist that only spirits produced from grains, potato and sugar beet molasses be allowed to be branded as "vodka", following the traditional methods of production.[22][23]
A common property of vodkas produced in the United States and Europe is the extensive use of filtration prior to any additional processing including the addition of flavourants. Filtering is sometimes done in the still during distillation, as well as afterwards, where the distilled vodka is filtered through activated charcoal and other media to absorb trace amounts of substances that alter or impart off-flavors to the vodka. 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 master distiller is in charge of distilling the vodka and directing its filtration, which includes the removal of "fore-shots" and "heads" and the "tails." These components of the distillate contain flavour compounds such as ethyl acetate and ethyl lactate (heads) as well as the fusel oils (tails) that impact the usually desired clean taste of vodka. Through numerous rounds of distillation, or the use of a fractioning still, the taste is improved and clarity is enhanced. In contrast, distillery process for liquors such as whiskey, rum, and baijiu allow the "heads" and "tails" to remain, giving them their unique flavours.
Repeated distillation of vodka will make its ethanol level much higher than is acceptable to most end users, whether legislation determines strength limits or not. 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. As such, most vodka is diluted with water prior to bottling. This level of distillation is what truly separates a rye-based vodka (for example) from a rye whisky; while the whisky is generally only distilled down to its final alcohol content, vodka is distilled until it is almost totally pure alcohol and then cut with water to give it its final alcohol content and unique flavour, depending on the source of the water.[24]
Apart from the alcoholic content, vodkas may be classified into two main groups: clear vodkas and flavored vodkas. From the latter ones, one can separate bitter tinctures, such as Russian Yubileynaya (anniversary vodka) and Pertsovka (pepper vodka).
While most vodkas are unflavored, many flavored vodkas have been produced in traditional vodka-drinking areas, often as home-made recipes to improve vodka's taste or for medicinal purposes. Flavorings include red pepper, ginger, fruit flavors, vanilla, chocolate (without sweetener), and cinnamon. In Russia and Ukraine, vodka flavored with honey and pepper (Pertsovka, in Russian, Z pertsem, in Ukrainian) is also very popular. Ukrainians produce a commercial vodka that includes St John's Wort. Poles and Belarusians add the leaves of the local bison grass to produce Żubrówka (Polish) and Zubrovka (Belarusian) vodka, with slightly sweet flavor and light amber color. In Poland, a famous vodka containing honey is called Krupnik. In the United States bacon vodka has been introduced to critical acclaim.[25]
This tradition of flavoring is also prevalent in the Nordic countries, where vodka seasoned with herbs, fruits and spices is the appropriate strong drink for midsummer seasonal festivities. In Sweden, there are forty-odd common varieties of herb-flavored vodka (kryddat brännvin). In Poland and Ukraine there is a separate category (nalyvka in Ukraine and nalewka in Poland), for vodka-based spirits with fruit, root, flower, or herb extracts, which are often home-made or produced by small commercial distilleries. Its alcohol content is between 15 to 75%. In Estonia, vodkas are spiced with barbaris, blackcurrant, cherry, greenapple, lemon, vanilla and watermelon flavors.[26]
Polish distilleries make a very pure (95%, 190 proof) rectified spirit (Polish language: spirytus rektyfikowany). Technically a form of vodka, it is sold in liquor stores rather than pharmacies. Similarly, the German market often carries German, Hungarian, Polish, and Ukrainian-made varieties of vodka of 90 to 95% alcohol content. A Serbian vodka, Balkan 176°, has a 88% alcohol content.
The recent success of grape-based vodka in the United States has prompted traditional vodka producers in the Vodka Belt countries of Poland, Finland, Lithuania, and Sweden to campaign for EU legislation that will categorize only spirits made from grain or potatoes as "vodka."[22][23] This proposition has provoked heavy criticism from south European countries, which often distill used mash from wine-making into spirits; although higher quality mash is usually distilled into some variety of pomace brandy, lower-quality mash is better turned into neutral-flavored spirits instead. Any vodka then not made from either grain or potatoes would have to display the products used in its production. This regulation was adopted by the European Parliament on June 19, 2007.[2]
Excess consumption of vodka or any other alcoholic beverage can be lethal by inducing respiratory failure or unguarded inhalation of vomit by a comatose drunk person. In addition, the effects of alcohol are responsible for many traumatic injuries such as falls and vehicle accidents. Consumption of alcohol above 0.1 Blood alcohol content can cause dehydration, digestive irritation, and other symptoms associated with alcohol intoxication and hangover, and the chronic effects can include liver failure due to cirrhosis, and it is associated with many GI cancers (particularly oral cavity). In addition to ethanol, methanol, fusel oils (not present in pure vodka), and esters can contribute to hangovers.
In some countries black-market vodka or "bathtub" vodka is widespread because it can be produced easily and avoid taxation. However, severe poisoning, blindness, or death can occur as a result of dangerous industrial ethanol substitutes being added by black-market producers.[27] In March 2007, BBC News UK made a documentary to find the cause of severe jaundice among imbibers of a "bathtub" vodka in Russia.[28] The cause was suspected to be an industrial disinfectant (Extrasept) - 95% ethanol but also containing a highly toxic chemical - added to the vodka by the illegal traders because of its high alcohol content and low price. Death toll estimates list at least 120 dead and more than 1,000 poisoned. The death toll is expected to rise due to the chronic nature of the cirrhosis that is causing the jaundice.
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