67 Fun Facts About Vodka

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

'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'.

Standard vodka is bottled at what percentage of alcohol by volume?

40% is the usual bottling strength, or 80 proof in America, where the number is simply double the percentage; US rules make it the legal floor for vodka, while EU rules allow as little as 37.5%.

Sex on the Beach blends vodka and two fruit juices with which liqueur?

Peach schnapps is the liqueur in the official IBA recipe, built over ice with vodka and two juices; leave out the citrus one and bartenders call the result a woo woo.

Before creating Grey Goose, importer Sidney Frank built his business on which liqueur?

Jägermeister was a staid German digestif when Frank secured the US import rights in the 1970s; in the 1980s he pushed it to students as a party drink.

Travellers from which Italian city are said to have carried aqua vitae to Moscow in the late 1300s?

Genoa: its travellers are said to have brought the spirit with them, and Russian monks later turned the craft of distilling to grain, the first step towards vodka.

Which grandfather of Ivan the Terrible set up Russia's first state vodka monopoly?

Ivan III saw vodka as a way to fill the treasury, and his monopoly opened five centuries of tug-of-war between the state and its drinkers over price and supply.

In Russia, vodka is traditionally downed alongside zakuski, a word for what?

Small snacks: zakuski, from a verb meaning to have a bite, are pickles, cured fish and cold cuts, each mouthful meant to follow a shot of vodka.

Which of these countries lies in Europe's vodka belt?

Belarus sits in the vodka belt with Russia and the Baltic and Nordic states, where vines are hard to grow; Czechs favour beer, and Croatia and Romania lie in the wine belt.

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.

Which French liqueur joins vodka and pineapple juice in a French martini?

Chambord, a black raspberry liqueur, is what makes the drink French; it is not a true martini at all, just one of many cocktails that borrowed the name.

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

Sweden: the brand's admen modelled the bottle on an old apothecary flask and printed the text straight on the glass, even though American market tests came back against so plain a bottle.

Who sold Absolut to Pernod Ricard for €5.63 billion in 2008?

A national government: the vodka belonged to Vin & Sprit, founded in 1917 as an alcohol monopoly, which had created the brand in the late 1970s purely as an export product.

Which artist's painting of the Absolut bottle for its US importer launched the brand's long art campaign?

Andy Warhol painted the bottle in the mid-1980s and then recommended artists to follow him, Keith Haring among them; hundreds more were commissioned after that.

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

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.

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

France was importer Sidney Frank's choice for its culinary prestige; he hired a cognac maker, François Thibault, to develop the recipe, and the wheat comes from Picardy.

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

Bacardi paid the reported US$2.2 billion because Grey Goose, invented by Sidney Frank only seven years earlier, had already become America's best-selling premium vodka.

The honey deuce, a Grey Goose vodka cocktail, is the signature drink of which tennis Grand Slam?

The US Open's signature cocktail is vodka, lemonade and raspberry liqueur, topped with a skewer of honeydew melon balls cut to look like tennis balls.

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

Stolichnaya means 'of the capital' (stolitsa is Russian for capital city); the old label showed the Hotel Moskva, a Moscow landmark, to match.

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

PepsiCo took its payment in Stolichnaya because roubles could not be taken out of the Soviet Union; the deal made Pepsi the first American consumer product made and sold there.

Ketel One vodka is named after the Nolet family's original what?

A pot still: Distilleerketel No. 1, the family's original still, gave its name to a vodka launched only in 1983, by the tenth generation of a firm distilling since 1691.

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

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.

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

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.

Which slogan did Heublein use to sell Smirnoff as 'white whiskey' after buying the US rights?

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.

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

Britain: Diageo is based in London. The founder's son rebuilt the brand abroad after fleeing the Russian Revolution, which is how a Moscow vodka came to be British-owned.

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

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.

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

Copper mugs became the drink's trademark after Heublein's John Martin toured American bars photographing bartenders with one beside a bottle of Smirnoff, then showed the prints to the next bar.

In 2022 some American and Canadian bars renamed the Moscow mule after which other city?

Kyiv: bars made the switch in protest at Russia's invasion of Ukraine, though the drink was never Russian, having been devised in 1940s America to sell Smirnoff and ginger beer.

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

Harry's New York Bar began as a Manhattan saloon that was dismantled and shipped to Paris in 1911; it also claims the White Lady and the Sidecar.

Chopin, the Polish vodka named after the composer, is best known for a spirit distilled from which crop?

Potatoes: the maker says about three kilograms go into every bottle, although most vodka today is distilled from grain.

Which sauce seasons a classic Bloody Mary alongside Tabasco and celery salt?

Worcestershire sauce gets two dashes in the IBA recipe; bartender Fernand Petiot said the drink was only vodka and tomato juice until he added it with salt, pepper and lemon.

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

Red Snapper is still what the St. Regis in Manhattan calls the Bloody Mary its barman Fernand Petiot made famous; bartenders elsewhere use the name for the gin version.

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

The Caesar uses Clamato, a tomato juice blended with clam broth, and is 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?

Chell spent three months perfecting the Caesar at the Calgary Inn (now the Westin) for its Marco's restaurant; an English regular reportedly declared it 'a good bloody Caesar'.

A screwdriver is simply vodka mixed with what?

Orange juice: Americans in wartime Turkey were calling the mix a screwdriver by 1943, and the popular tale that oil workers stirred it with the tool 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?

The Big Lebowski's hero, the Dude, drinks White Russians all through the film, and its cult following grew into Lebowski Fest, bowling parties where fans turned up dressed as its characters.

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

Gustave Tops mixed the Black Russian at the Hotel Metropole in Brussels in honour of Perle Mesta, then US ambassador to Luxembourg; it has no Russian origin beyond the vodka.

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

The IBA recipe pairs citron vodka with Cointreau, cranberry and fresh lime; bartender Neal Murray said 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 at which Manhattan restaurant?

Cecchini's late-1980s recipe at the Odeon in Tribeca, using Absolut Citron and fresh lime juice, was his refinement of Cheryl Cook's mid-1980s South Beach drink.

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

Dick Bradsell said he first mixed it at London's Soho Brasserie for a model who wanted a drink to wake her up; despite the name it holds 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.

James Bond invents the Vesper, a martini of gin and vodka, in which Ian Fleming novel?

Casino Royale has Bond name it for Vesper Lynd, but the recipe came from Fleming's friend Ivar Bryce, and Fleming later admitted he found the drink unpalatable.

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

In Diamonds Are Forever (1956) Bond's martini is described as 'shaken and not stirred'; on screen the line is first heard in Dr. No (1962), spoken by the villain.

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

Grapes, not grain: the name is said to blend the French cime (summit) and roche (rock), for the high Gaillac vineyards where its Mauzac fruit is grown.

After the EU's 2007 'vodka war', vodka made from non-traditional crops must show what?

Its raw material on the label: the compromise drafted by German MEP Horst Schnellhardt lets any farm crop be used, but a vodka made from anything outside the traditional ones must add 'produced from' and name it.

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

Tito Beveridge founded Texas's first legal distillery in Austin in 1997; the corn-based vodka is distilled six times, and the 'handmade' claim drew lawsuits in 2014.

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

The Nolet family has distilled in Schiedam, in the Netherlands, since 1691; Diageo paid $900 million in 2008 for half the brand, leaving the family to run the distillery.

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

Belvedere takes its name from Belweder, the Warsaw palace that served as the Polish presidential residence and appears on the bottle; the rye vodka is made in Żyrardów and owned by LVMH.

Every bottle of the Polish vodka Żubrówka contains a single blade of which plant?

Bison grass, Hierochloe odorata, goes into each bottle one blade at a time; the vodka is named for the grass, whose name comes from the Slavic word for the European bison, żubr in Polish.

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

Coumarin, a chemical relative of the blood thinner warfarin, is barred from food in the US, so the version sold to Americans imitates the flavour without it.

What does szarlotka, the name of a popular Żubrówka-and-juice drink, literally mean?

Apple cake is the Polish meaning, earned because the drink is Żubrówka topped with apple juice, ideally the cloudy unfiltered kind; abroad it is sold as Apple ŻU.

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

Dan Aykroyd founded Crystal Head with artist John Alexander, who designed the skull bottle; its final filtrations pass through Herkimer 'diamonds', which are really quartz crystals.

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

Cobalt blue glass has marked Skyy since 1992, when inventor Maurice Kanbar launched it claiming his distilling left the vodka nearly free of congeners, the impurities in spirits.

Finlandia vodka is distilled from which grain?

Barley is the grain, and for the 1970 launch sculptor Tapio Wirkkala designed a bottle of textured glass meant to look like ice.

Reyka vodka, launched by William Grant & Sons in 2005, is distilled in which country?

Iceland: Reyka is made at Borgarnes with water drawn from a lava field, which is clean enough to be used without any treatment.

Russian legend wrongly credits which scientist with fixing vodka's strength in his 1865 doctoral thesis?

Dmitri Mendeleev's thesis studied how alcohol and water combine and never called any strength of vodka best; his real link was a seat on a state commission on alcohol taxes.

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

Ladoga was besieged Leningrad's lifeline in the Second World War: trucks crossed its winter ice on the 'Road of Life', carrying food in and evacuees out.

The distinctive bottle of Wyborowa Exquisite, a premium Polish rye vodka, was designed by which architect?

Frank Gehry, whose mother was born in Łódź, designed the 2004 bottle as one of his side projects, alongside cardboard furniture and jewellery for Tiffany.

Which pasta shape is traditionally served alla vodka?

Penne: the first known recipe, in a 1974 cookbook by the Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi, added vodka and chilli to the tomatoes, and he called it 'enraged pasta'.

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

Cream: the vodka is said to help the cream and the acidic tomato bind into one smooth sauce, while sharpening its flavour.

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

Pie crust: vodka wets the dough without building as much gluten as water would, because gluten does not form in alcohol, so the crust rolls out easily and bakes up flaky.

Vodka, gin, rum, tequila and orange liqueur all go into which famously strong cocktail?

Long Island iced tea: despite the name it contains no tea at all, and a splash of cola gives it the amber colour of the real thing.

Which cocktail mixes vodka with cranberry juice and pineapple juice?

Bay breeze: it is a sea breeze with pineapple juice in place of the grapefruit, which is why it is also sold as a Hawaiian sea breeze.

The lemon drop is said to have been invented at Henry Africa's, a 1970s fern bar in which California city?

San Francisco: owner Norman Hobday said he wanted to take the opium-den atmosphere out of saloons, and decked Henry Africa's with hanging plants and antique lamps instead.

The satirist Tom Lehrer said he invented which party staple to sneak vodka into a naval-base Christmas party?

Jello shots: with alcoholic drinks barred from the party, Lehrer said, he and a friend set vodka in cups of orange Jell-O and carried it in.

Which Soviet leader's 1985 anti-alcohol campaign slashed official sales of vodka and other drinks?

Mikhail Gorbachev: official alcohol sales fell by as much as two-thirds, but Russians made more moonshine at home, and the campaign was abandoned by 1988.

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

Nalewka is made by steeping fruit, roots, flowers or herbs in vodka or spirit, often with sugar, for weeks or months; the Ukrainian equivalent is nalyvka.