Vodka

It is one of the most used distillates in the world. Vodka can be made from any vegetable raw material rich in starch or sugar. Currently, sorghum, corn, potatoes, molasses, soybeans, fruit, rice and sugar beet are often used. However, the best distillates are made from rye and wheat.

Russia, Poland, Finland, Sweden - these are the countries that have made the production of vodka almost an art. In the USA, vodka was 1940 practically unknown, today it is one of the most popular spirits. Standard Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, Latvian and Lithuanian vodkas contain 40 - 75% alcohol. The European Union has set a minimum alcohol content of vodka of 37,5 %, the USA 30 %. Historians still do not know when and where vodka began to be produced. According to some sources, it was supposed to be on the territory of today's Russia in the 9th century, other sources suggest that this happened in Poland in the 8th century. Vodka was initially used as a medicine, had a different taste, color and smell and low alcohol content, because the technology of natural fermentation could achieve a max. 14 %. It was only after the discovery of distillation that "hard" alcohol came into play.

The first distillery (vinokurnya) for the production of vodka was documented in 1174 in the chronicle of the city of Vyatka, then Khlynovska (Russia). The name "vodka" originated from the diminutive of the Slavic word water. It can be interpreted as   "little water" (lots of alcohol). The word vodka was first recorded in 1405 in Poland (court documents of the Grodzkie Act). At the time, it referred to a chemical compound used as a medicine or cleansing cosmetics, while a popular drink in Poland was called gorzałka. The word vodka written in Cyrillic first appeared in 1533 in relation to a medicinal drink transported from Poland to Russia by merchants from Kievan Rus. In Central and Eastern Europe or around the Baltic Sea, vodka is mainly drunk pure. Today, vodkas with fruit flavors are very fashionable and popular. Elsewhere, vodka is mainly used to prepare cocktails and mixed drinks. It is an important part of drinks such as Bloody Mary, Sex on the Beach, Moscow Mule, White Russian, Black Russian…

Tip for making sugar syrup!

We use sugar syrup to prepare almost every cocktail. We can never add pure sugar. Cocktails with sugar syrup are softer and tastier and have a better consistency. Sugar syrup cannot be replaced by industrially produced fruit syrup. If we don't want to buy syrup, we can make it at home. To produce 1/2 l of sugar syrup, we need 1/2 kg of granulated sugar and 3/8 l of cold water. We get a basic tasteless syrup. All containers used must be perfectly clean. Pour sugar into a stainless steel or enamel pot, pour water over it and dissolve. Place on fire, bring to a slow boil and stir occasionally. When the mixture starts to boil, spray it with cold water to drop the foam that forms on the surface. We will collect the remaining foam. Then cook the mixture for about 5 minutes. We get about 1/2 l of pure sugar syrup. Pour the syrup into a jug or porcelain cup over a fine sieve or a clean thick cloth and after cooling it can be poured into bottles, closed well and stored in the cold. If we cooked the syrup two or three minutes longer, it would be thicker and would not last longer, just as honey would soon crystallize in the bottle. Let the syrup cool down and use it for making cocktails.