This vodka trivia quiz has 70 free questions with answers and covers the world's most-consumed spirit from every angle. It starts with the basics (what the word means, why the standard is 40%, which countries make up the vodka belt) and the long argument between Poland and Russia about who invented it, from a 1405 Polish court record to a Genoese delegation carrying aqua vitae to Moscow in 1386. From there it moves to the brands and the marketing that built them: how Smirnoff was sold to whiskey-drinking Americans, why Absolut paid Andy Warhol, who created Grey Goose in France, the Pepsi-for-Stolichnaya barter deal of 1972, the EU 'vodka war' over grape vodka, Dan Aykroyd's skull bottle and the Mendeleev myth. The cocktail rounds cover the Moscow mule, Bloody Mary, Caesar, screwdriver, Harvey Wallbanger, White Russian, cosmopolitan, espresso martini and James Bond's Vesper, plus penne alla vodka and the flakier pie crust. Roughly a third of the questions are easy enough for anyone who has ordered a vodka tonic, a third need a decent bar education, and the rest are for people who read the back of the bottle. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and brand histories, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
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Q 01The word 'vodka' was borrowed into English from Russian and literally translates as what?
Little water
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'.
Q 02Since the 1890s, the standard strength of vodka has been what percentage of alcohol by volume?
40%
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.
Q 03The European Union sets what minimum alcohol content for a spirit to be sold as vodka?
37.5%
The United States is stricter and requires a minimum of 40%, which is why some export bottlings differ from the home version.
Q 04The world's first written mention of the word wódka, in 1405 court documents, comes from which country?
Poland
At the time the word referred to medicines and cosmetic cleansers rather than a drink; the recipes came from the Palatinate of Sandomierz.
Q 05In 1386, Genoese ambassadors presented the first aqua vitae in Moscow to which Grand Prince?
Dmitry Donskoy
Russian monks then adapted the practice of distilling wine into vodka production; the Latin spiritus vini is why we still call strong drink 'spirits'.
Q 06Ivan III established the first Russian state monopoly on vodka in which year?
1474
By 1505 distilled Russian vodka was already being exported to Sweden. State control of vodka would fund the Russian treasury for centuries.
Q 07By 1911, vodka made up roughly what share of all alcohol consumed in the Russian Empire?
89%
Vodka taxes provided at times up to 40% of Tsarist state revenue, which is why the government spent the 1860s actively promoting it.
Q 08Which empress's 1751 decree was the first official Russian document to use 'vodka' in its modern sense?
Elizabeth
Until then 'vodka' in Russian usually meant herbal medicinal tinctures; the everyday drink was called 'bread wine' or 'burning wine'.
Q 09Which of these countries is NOT part of the so-called vodka belt?
Czech Republic
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.
Q 10Under US regulations, which of these is forbidden for a spirit labelled as vodka?
Aging it in wood
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.
Q 11Balkan 176°, a notoriously strong Bulgarian vodka, is bottled at what alcohol by volume?
88%
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.
Q 12An NPR Planet Money experiment tasting many brands of vodka found what?
Negligible differences in taste
The result raised the question of how much of a 'super-premium' vodka's price is really the branding.
Q 13Which 1958 product was the first Swedish spirit called 'vodka' rather than brännvin?
Explorer
It flopped in America but remains one of Sweden's most popular vodkas. Absolut did not launch under that name until 1979.
Q 21The name Stolichnaya is the adjectival form of a Russian word meaning what?
Capital city
The old label showed a Moscow landmark, the Hotel Moskva, to match.
Q 22Which American company bartered its product for Western rights to Stolichnaya in 1972?
PepsiCo
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.
Q 23In March 2022 the Stoli Group dropped the name Stolichnaya for 'Stoli' in response to what?
Russia's invasion of Ukraine
The company also announced it would source its alcohol from Slovakia instead of Russia.
Q 14Absolut Vodka is produced in only one place, Åhus, in which country?
Sweden
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.
Q 15When Pernod Ricard bought Absolut in 2008 for €5.63 billion, who was the seller?
The Swedish state
Sweden nationalised its alcohol industry in 1917, so the brand had been government property for nine decades.
Q 16Which artist did Absolut's US importer pay $65,000 in 1983 for an ad, launching its long art campaign?
Andy Warhol
Haring, Basquiat, Rauschenberg and hundreds of others followed; by 2017 the brand counted 550 artists on 850 projects.
Q 17Which two brands joined Absolut in the American Marketing Association's Hall of Fame in 1992?
Coca-Cola and Nike
The bottle-and-halo 'Absolut Perfection' ad that started it all ran in 1981.
Q 18Grey Goose, created in the 1990s by American importer Sidney Frank, is made in which country?
France
Frank chose France for its culinary prestige and hired a cognac maker, François Thibault, to develop the recipe; the wheat comes from Picardy.
Q 19Which company bought Grey Goose in 2004 for a reported US$2.2 billion?
Bacardi
That year it was the best-selling premium vodka in the US, moving more than 1.5 million cases.
Q 20The 'honey deuce', a Grey Goose cocktail, became the signature drink of which event?
The US Open tennis tournament
Grey Goose has been the tournament's official vodka since 2007; the drink is served with honeydew melon balls that look like tennis balls.
Q 24The version of Stolichnaya sold outside Russia is made in which country?
Latvia
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.
Q 25Pyotr Smirnov's Moscow distillery, founded in 1864, pioneered which production technique in the 1870s?
Charcoal filtration
He also ran the first newspaper advertising for vodka and by 1886 held two-thirds of the Moscow market.
Q 26With which slogan did Heublein finally sell Smirnoff as a 'white whiskey' after buying the US rights in 1939?
No taste, no smell
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.
Q 27Smirnoff, the world's best-selling vodka in 2014, is owned by Diageo, a company based in which country?
Britain
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.
Q 28In the US, Smirnoff Ice is unusual for a Smirnoff product because it contains what?
No vodka at all
The American Smirnoff Ice is a brewed, citrus-flavoured malt beverage; the version sold in most other countries is a premixed vodka drink.
Q 29A Moscow mule (vodka, ginger beer, lime) is traditionally served in a mug made of what?
Copper
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.
Q 30After the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, some bars renamed the Moscow mule after which capital?
Kyiv
The drink itself was born in 1940s America, when Smirnoff's owners and a ginger-beer maker had stock to shift.