Vodka Trivia
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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.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'vodka' was borrowed into English from Russian and literally translates as what?
Little water
'Little water': vodka is a diminutive of the Russian voda, 'water'; older Slavic names such as 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%
EU spirit-drink regulation sets 37.5% as the minimum for vodka; the United States requires 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
The 1405 Akta Grodzkie court records of the Palatinate of Sandomierz, in Poland, used wódka for medicines and cosmetic cleansers rather than for a drink.
Q 05In 1386, Genoese ambassadors presented the first aqua vitae in Moscow to which Grand Prince?
Dmitry Donskoy
The Genoese presented aqua vitae to Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy, who had beaten the Tatars at Kulikovo in 1380; Russian monks later adapted wine distilling to make vodka.
Q 06Ivan III established the first Russian state monopoly on vodka in which year?
1474
Ivan III's monopoly dates to 1474; by 1505 Russian vodka was being exported to Sweden, and state control of the drink funded the treasury for centuries.
Q 07By 1911, vodka made up roughly what share of all alcohol consumed in the Russian Empire?
89%
By 1911 vodka accounted for about 89% of the alcohol drunk in the Russian Empire; vodka taxes supplied at times up to 40% of Tsarist state revenue.
Q 08Which empress's 1751 decree was the first official Russian document to use 'vodka' in its modern sense?
Elizabeth
Empress Elizabeth's decree of 8 June 1751 regulated who could own vodka distilleries; before then 'vodka' in Russian usually meant herbal medicinal tinctures and the drink was 'bread wine'.
Q 09Which of these countries is NOT part of the so-called vodka belt?
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is beer country; the vodka belt runs across the Nordics, the Baltics, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, roughly north of the −2 °C January isotherm.
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 vodka bottled at a notorious 88% alcohol by volume, comes from which country?
Bulgaria
Balkan 176° is made in Bulgaria; its 88% ABV equals 176 proof, hence the name, and its label carries a long list of health warnings.
Q 12US regulations require vodka to be distilled to at least what proof before dilution?
190 proof
US rules define vodka as neutral spirits distilled at or above 190 proof (95% ABV), which are then reduced to at least 80 proof for bottling.
Q 13Which product was the first Swedish spirit marketed as 'vodka' rather than brännvin?
Explorer
Explorer, from the Swedish state monopoly Vin & Sprit, was the first Swedish spirit sold as 'vodka'; 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
Stolichnaya means 'of the capital' (stolitsa is Russian for capital city); the old label showed the Hotel Moskva, a Moscow landmark, to match.
Q 22Which American company bartered its product for Western rights to Stolichnaya in 1972?
PepsiCo
PepsiCo's 1972 deal made Pepsi-Cola the first American consumer product produced and sold in the Soviet Union, with Stolichnaya flowing the other way; it followed 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
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
The Swedish state sold its Vin & Sprit monopoly, Absolut's owner, to Pernod Ricard in 2008; Sweden had nationalised its alcohol industry in 1917.
Q 16Which artist's $65,000 Absolut ad for its US importer launched the brand's long art campaign?
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol painted the Absolut bottle for importer Michel Roux in the mid-1980s; Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and hundreds of other artists followed.
Q 17Which two brands joined Absolut in the American Marketing Association's Hall of Fame in 1992?
Coca-Cola and Nike
Coca-Cola and Nike were the only other brands in the AMA's Marketing Hall of Fame when the Absolut campaign, begun with TBWA's bottle-and-halo 'Absolut Perfection' ad in the early 1980s, was inducted in 1992.
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
Bacardi bought Grey Goose from Sidney Frank Importing in 2004 for about US$2.2 billion, seven years after Frank had launched the brand in 1997.
Q 20The 'honey deuce', a Grey Goose cocktail, became the signature drink of which event?
The US Open tennis tournament
The honey deuce, created for the US Open in 2007 when Grey Goose became the tournament's official vodka, is garnished with honeydew melon balls that look like tennis balls.
The company also announced it would source its alcohol from Slovakia instead of Russia.
Q 24The version of Stolichnaya sold outside Russia is made in which country?
Latvia
SPI Group's Stolichnaya is made at Latvijas Balzams in Riga, Latvia; the Russian state, which claims the trademark, sells a rival version at home.
Q 25Pyotr Smirnov's Moscow distillery, founded in 1864, pioneered which production technique in the 1870s?
Charcoal filtration
Smirnov's distillery introduced charcoal filtration in the 1870s, producing a cleaner spirit; he also pioneered newspaper advertising for vodka and became purveyor to the Tsar in 1886.
Q 26With which slogan did Heublein finally sell Smirnoff as a 'white whiskey' after buying the US rights in 1939?
No taste, no smell
Heublein's John Martin, who paid $14,000 for the US rights, marketed Smirnoff as 'white whiskey' with the line 'No taste, no smell'; the bottles even had whiskey corks.
Q 27Smirnoff, the world's best-selling vodka in 2014, is owned by Diageo, a company based in which country?
Britain
Diageo is based in London, Britain; Smirnoff is distilled in Illinois for the US market and nowhere in Russia, which did not stop some bars boycotting it in 2022.
Q 28In the US, Smirnoff Ice is unusual for a Smirnoff product because it contains what?
No vodka at all
American Smirnoff Ice contains no vodka at all: it is a brewed, citrus-flavoured malt beverage, while 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
The copper mug became the Moscow mule's trademark in 1940s Los Angeles; Heublein's John Martin photographed bartenders holding one beside a bottle of Smirnoff to sell the drink bar by bar.
Q 30In 2022 some bars renamed the Moscow mule after which other capital city?
Kyiv
The 'Kyiv mule' was a 2022 gesture of solidarity with Ukraine; the drink itself was born in 1940s Los Angeles when Smirnoff's owners and a ginger-beer maker had stock to shift.