70 Fun Facts About Vodka

The word 'vodka' was borrowed into English from Russian and literally translates as what?

It is a diminutive of voda, 'water'. Older Slavic names for the drink, like Polish gorzałka and Ukrainian horilka, come from roots meaning 'to burn'.

Since the 1890s, the standard strength of vodka has been what percentage of alcohol by volume?

That is 80 US proof. The 40% figure was actually set by the Russian government in 1843, long before the Mendeleev legend attached itself to it.

The European Union sets what minimum alcohol content for a spirit to be sold as vodka?

The United States is stricter and requires a minimum of 40%, which is why some export bottlings differ from the home version.

The world's first written mention of the word wódka, in 1405 court documents, comes from which country?

At the time the word referred to medicines and cosmetic cleansers rather than a drink; the recipes came from the Palatinate of Sandomierz.

In 1386, Genoese ambassadors presented the first aqua vitae in Moscow to which Grand Prince?

Russian monks then adapted the practice of distilling wine into vodka production; the Latin spiritus vini is why we still call strong drink 'spirits'.

Ivan III established the first Russian state monopoly on vodka in which year?

By 1505 distilled Russian vodka was already being exported to Sweden. State control of vodka would fund the Russian treasury for centuries.

By 1911, vodka made up roughly what share of all alcohol consumed in the Russian Empire?

Vodka taxes provided at times up to 40% of Tsarist state revenue, which is why the government spent the 1860s actively promoting it.

Which empress's 1751 decree was the first official Russian document to use 'vodka' in its modern sense?

Until then 'vodka' in Russian usually meant herbal medicinal tinctures; the everyday drink was called 'bread wine' or 'burning wine'.

Which of these countries is NOT part of the so-called vodka belt?

The belt runs across the Nordics, the Baltics, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia; its southern edge roughly follows the −2 °C January isotherm, below which grapes become hard to grow.

Under US regulations, which of these is forbidden for a spirit labelled as vodka?

Trace citric acid (up to 1,000 ppm) and a little sugar are allowed. The old requirement that vodka be 'without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color' has been dropped.

Balkan 176°, a notoriously strong Bulgarian vodka, is bottled at what alcohol by volume?

Bulk grain alcohol like Everclear can be even stronger, but it does not count as vodka because it has not been through vodka's filtration and refining.

An NPR Planet Money experiment tasting many brands of vodka found what?

The result raised the question of how much of a 'super-premium' vodka's price is really the branding.

Which 1958 product was the first Swedish spirit called 'vodka' rather than brännvin?

It flopped in America but remains one of Sweden's most popular vodkas. Absolut did not launch under that name until 1979.

Absolut Vodka is produced in only one place, Åhus, in which country?

It is made from winter wheat and sells over 100 million litres a year, making it one of the biggest spirit brands on earth after Smirnoff and Bacardi.

When Pernod Ricard bought Absolut in 2008 for €5.63 billion, who was the seller?

Sweden nationalised its alcohol industry in 1917, so the brand had been government property for nine decades.

Which artist did Absolut's US importer pay $65,000 in 1983 for an ad, launching its long art campaign?

Haring, Basquiat, Rauschenberg and hundreds of others followed; by 2017 the brand counted 550 artists on 850 projects.

Which two brands joined Absolut in the American Marketing Association's Hall of Fame in 1992?

The bottle-and-halo 'Absolut Perfection' ad that started it all ran in 1981.

Grey Goose, created in the 1990s by American importer Sidney Frank, is made in which country?

Frank chose France for its culinary prestige and hired a cognac maker, François Thibault, to develop the recipe; the wheat comes from Picardy.

Which company bought Grey Goose in 2004 for a reported US$2.2 billion?

That year it was the best-selling premium vodka in the US, moving more than 1.5 million cases.

The 'honey deuce', a Grey Goose cocktail, became the signature drink of which event?

Grey Goose has been the tournament's official vodka since 2007; the drink is served with honeydew melon balls that look like tennis balls.

The name Stolichnaya is the adjectival form of a Russian word meaning what?

The old label showed a Moscow landmark, the Hotel Moskva, to match.

Which American company bartered its product for Western rights to Stolichnaya in 1972?

It made Pepsi-Cola the first American consumer product produced and sold in the Soviet Union, a détente deal struck after Nixon's Moscow summit.

In March 2022 the Stoli Group dropped the name Stolichnaya for 'Stoli' in response to what?

The company also announced it would source its alcohol from Slovakia instead of Russia.

The version of Stolichnaya sold outside Russia is made in which country?

Two rival Stolichnayas exist: SPI Group's, made at Latvijas Balzams, and the Russian state's, made in Kaliningrad. They have fought over the trademark since 2003.

Pyotr Smirnov's Moscow distillery, founded in 1864, pioneered which production technique in the 1870s?

He also ran the first newspaper advertising for vodka and by 1886 held two-thirds of the Moscow market.

With which slogan did Heublein finally sell Smirnoff as a 'white whiskey' after buying the US rights in 1939?

John Martin's board thought he was mad to pay $14,000 for a vodka brand; Americans were whiskey drinkers. The bottles were even sealed with whiskey corks.

Smirnoff, the world's best-selling vodka in 2014, is owned by Diageo, a company based in which country?

It is not made in Russia or anywhere in Eastern Europe. US bottles come from Illinois, which did not stop it being mistakenly boycotted in 2022.

In the US, Smirnoff Ice is unusual for a Smirnoff product because it contains what?

The American Smirnoff Ice is a brewed, citrus-flavoured malt beverage; the version sold in most other countries is a premixed vodka drink.

A Moscow mule (vodka, ginger beer, lime) is traditionally served in a mug made of what?

Heublein's John Martin photographed bartenders holding the mug and a bottle of Smirnoff to sell the drink bar by bar. Health agencies now recommend a lined mug because the drink is acidic.

After the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, some bars renamed the Moscow mule after which capital?

The drink itself was born in 1940s America, when Smirnoff's owners and a ginger-beer maker had stock to shift.

Bartender Fernand Petiot claimed to have invented the Bloody Mary in 1921 at which Paris bar?

The bar, a haunt of Hemingway and other American expats, also claims the White Lady and the Sidecar.

According to its Paris bar's tradition, what was the Bloody Mary originally called?

One story says the name Bloody Mary came from a patron's girlfriend, Mary, whom he had met at a cabaret called the Bucket of Blood.

Which comedian claimed to have created the Bloody Mary at New York's 21 Club in the 1930s?

Gossip columnist Lucius Beebe printed his 'newest pick-me-up' in 1939: half tomato juice, half vodka. Petiot said he merely refined it with spices at the St. Regis.

A Bloody Mary made with gin instead of vodka is known as what?

A Bloody Maria uses blanco tequila and a Virgin Mary drops the alcohol altogether.

Canada's national cocktail, the Caesar, differs from a Bloody Mary chiefly by including what?

It is made with Clamato and served in a celery-salt-rimmed glass. Inventor Walter Chell said the idea came from spaghetti alle vongole.

Walter Chell invented the Caesar in 1969 as a signature drink for a new Italian restaurant in which city?

He spent three months perfecting it at the Calgary Inn, now the Westin. An English regular reportedly declared it 'a good bloody Caesar'.

The name 'screwdriver' for vodka and orange juice first appeared in the 1940s in which country?

It showed up in Ankara in 1943-44. The popular story that Americans stirred the drink with a screwdriver because they lacked a spoon is unattributed.

Adding which Italian liqueur to a screwdriver turns it into a Harvey Wallbanger?

The drink was a 1969 marketing campaign by Galliano's importer, complete with a surfer cartoon character; the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers were nicknamed 'Harvey's Wallbangers'.

Which 1998 film, whose protagonist calls the drink a 'Caucasian', boosted the White Russian?

A White Russian is simply a Black Russian with cream added; a version with skim milk is called an Anna Kournikova.

The Black Russian was created in 1949 by barman Gustave Tops at the Hotel Metropole in which city?

It was made in honour of Perle Mesta, then the US ambassador to Luxembourg. Neither the Black nor the White Russian has any Russian origin.

Which orange liqueur goes into a classic cosmopolitan alongside vodka, cranberry and lime?

The IBA recipe uses lemon-flavoured vodka, Cointreau, cranberry and fresh lime. Bartender Neal Murray says his 1975 version was a Kamikaze with a splash of cranberry, and the first taster said 'How cosmopolitan.'

Toby Cecchini created the recognised cosmopolitan recipe in 1989 at which Manhattan restaurant?

It was based on a poorly described version of Cheryl Cook's mid-1980s South Beach drink, which used Absolut Citron before it had even officially launched.

Which London bartender is usually credited with inventing the espresso martini in the 1980s?

He made it at the Soho Brasserie for a model who asked for something to wake her up. It is not really a martini, since it has neither gin nor vermouth.

James Bond's Vesper uses three measures of gin, one of vodka and half a measure of which apéritif?

Kina Lillet went out of production in 1986, so modern bartenders substitute Lillet Blanc or Cocchi Americano.

The Vesper was not actually Ian Fleming's invention. Which friend of his mixed the first one?

Fleming inscribed Bryce's copy of Casino Royale 'For Ivar, who mixed the first Vesper'. When Fleming finally tasted one he found it 'unpalatable'.

'Shaken, not stirred' first appears in which Ian Fleming novel, though not spoken by Bond himself?

On screen a version of the line is first uttered by the villain in Dr. No (1962). The vodka martini itself was popularised by that film.

Cîroc, the French vodka Sean Combs promoted from 2007, is unusually distilled from what?

The name blends the French cime (summit) and roche (rock), for the high-altitude Gaillac vineyards where the Mauzac grapes are grown.

The EU 'vodka war' over vodka labelling ended in a 2007 compromise named after which German MEP?

Vodka made from anything other than cereals, potatoes or molasses must say 'Vodka produced from...' on the label. Poland called it the 'wódka war lost'.

Tito's Handmade Vodka is distilled in which American city?

Founder Tito Beveridge started at Texas's first legal distillery in 1997. It is made from yellow corn and distilled six times; the 'handmade' claim drew lawsuits in 2014.

Ketel One is made by the Nolet Distillery, founded in 1691 in Schiedam, in which country?

'Ketel' is Dutch for pot still; the brand is named after the original coal-fired copper still, Distilleerketel #1. Diageo bought half the business in 2008 for $900 million.

Belvedere Vodka, the official vodka of the Bond film Spectre, is named after what?

Belweder in Warsaw appears on the bottle. The rye vodka is made in Żyrardów and owned by luxury group LVMH.

Every bottle of Polish Żubrówka contains a blade of which plant, picked in the Białowieża Forest?

The name comes from żubr, the European bison. It ranks as the third or fourth best-selling vodka brand in the world.

Żubrówka was illegal in the US before 2010 because its signature ingredient contains which compound?

The FDA lists coumarin among substances prohibited as food additives, so since 2011 the American version is made to mimic the flavour without it.

Żubrówka topped with a certain fruit juice is called szarlotka. What does that literally mean?

Abroad the same drink is branded Apple ŻU or, in the UK, a Frisky Bison; it made the Independent's list of the top 50 drinks in the world.

Crystal Head Vodka, sold in a skull-shaped bottle, was co-founded in 2008 by which actor?

Its final three filtrations pass through Herkimer 'diamonds', which are really quartz. Ontario's liquor board initially refused to stock it because the bottle might offend.

Skyy vodka is instantly recognisable on the shelf for its bottle of what colour?

Creator Maurice Kanbar's slogan boasted it was 'so filtered we even took the Russia out of it'.

Finlandia vodka is distilled from which grain?

Finnish six-row barley is distilled at Koskenkorva and blended with glacial spring water at Rajamäki. In 2023 Coca-Cola HBC bought the brand from Brown-Forman.

Reyka vodka, whose water is drawn from a lava field, is made in which country?

The name comes from the Icelandic word for smoke. William Grant & Sons built the Borgarnes distillery in 2005 to break into premium vodka.

Roughly how old was Mendeleev when the Tsarist government actually set vodka at 40% in 1843?

His 1865 dissertation was about alcohol concentrations over 70% and never mentioned vodka. Russian Standard still leans on the legend in its marketing.

Russian Standard built its Saint Petersburg distillery to be near which lake, whose soft water it uses?

Winter grain from the steppes is fermented, distilled and filtered four times through charcoal before the water is added.

The distinctive bottle of Polish rye vodka Wyborowa was designed by which architect?

Wyborowa became the first vodka brand registered as an international trademark in 1927 and once made up over 60% of vodka exported to the UK.

The first attested recipe for penne alla vodka appeared in a 1974 cookbook by which Italian actor?

He called it pasta all'infuriata, 'enraged pasta', and suggested that a chilli-spiked Polish vodka meant you could skip the fresh chilli.

Besides tomato and vodka, what is the other defining ingredient of a vodka pasta sauce?

The ethanol emulsifies the sauce and balances the tomato and cream; half or more of the vodka evaporates during cooking.

Bakers sometimes substitute vodka for water to make which item flakier?

Vodka also turns up in cheesecake, seafood dishes and bitters. The vodka sauce for pasta took off in the 1970s.

A Long Island iced tea contains no tea, and its five spirits give it roughly what alcohol concentration?

That is far higher than most highballs because there is so little mixer; the cola is only there to give it the amber colour of iced tea.

Vodka, cranberry and pineapple juice — pineapple replacing a better-known highball's grapefruit — is served as what?

The whole family descends from Ocean Spray's 1945 Red Devil, later the Cape Codder, invented to sell cranberry juice as a mixer.

The lemon drop was invented in the 1970s at Henry Africa's, a fern bar in which city?

Norman Jay Hobday's bar in Russian Hill opened in 1969; the drink was probably named after lemon drop candy and later became a 1990s shooter.

In which city did J. A. Baczewski open Poland's first industrial vodka distillery in 1782?

Jakub Haberfeld followed with a factory at Oświęcim in 1804, and Hartwig Kantorowicz began making Wyborowa in Poznań in 1823.

How many working spirits distilleries did the Polish city of Poznań have in 1580?

Kraków had started exporting spirits to Silesia before 1550, but Gdańsk soon surpassed both cities.

What is the Polish name for home-made vodka-based spirits infused with fruit, roots, flowers or herbs?

The Ukrainian equivalent is nalyvka; alcohol content ranges anywhere from 15 to 75 percent.