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Smirnoff Vodka
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Smirnoff Vodka
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Vodka
Vodka
Vodka
Vodka found its origins in Eastern Europe. The name comes from the Russian "voda" (meaning water or, as the polish would say "woda.") The first documentation of vodka production was in Russia to wards the end of the 800's, but the first known distillation was at the Khylnovsk about 200 years later, as reported in the Vyatka Chronicle of 1174. Polish distillers have claimed to have distilled vodka even earlier in the 800's. The first identifiable Polish vodkas appeared in the early 1100's they were then called gorzalka and were originally used as medicines.
During the Middle Ages, liquor distillation was widely used for medicinal reasons, as well as being a minor ingredient in gunpowder production. In the latter half of the 1300's a after sampling the vodka a British Ambassador to Moscow described it as the "Russian national drink" and by the middle of the 1500's it was established also as the national liquor in Finland & Poland.
Since early production methods were crude, vodka often contained impurities, so to mask these the distillers flavored their spirits with fruit, herbs or spices.
The mid 1500's saw the first appearance of pot distillation in Russia. Prior to that, seasoning, aging and freezing were all used to remove impurities, around this time vodka started to be produced in large quantities and the first recorded exports of Russian vodka were to Sweden. Polish 'woda' exports started nearly 100 years later.
The various varieties of vodkas produced included - acorn, anisette, birch, calamus root, cherry, chicory, dill, ginger & hazelnut, horseradish, juniper, lemon, mint, mountain ash, oak, pepper, peppermint, raspberry, sage, sorrel, wort and water melon.
In St. Petersburg around the 1700's a professor discovered a method of using charcoal to purify alcohol filtration. Felt and river sand widely used at this time in Russia for filtration.
The spread of awareness of vodka continued throughout the 19th century, helped by the presence in many partdrunkennesss of Europe and Russian soldiers involved in the Napoleonic Wars. Increasing popularity led to escalating demand and to meet this demand, lower grade products were produced based largely on distilled potato mash.
After the Russian Revolution, all private distilleries in Moscow were confiscated by the Bolsheviks. because of this most of the chief vodka makers emigrated to other countries, taking all their knowledge and recipes along with them. Of the those who left one of the main distillers started a distillery in Paris, using the French version of his family name - Smirnoff.
In the 1930s one such exile emigrated from Russia to the U.S bringing with him the secrets to one of the popular makes of vodka in the world today.
Through his dealings with another Russian who had emigrated, the first vodka distillation plant in the U.S was set up in the early 1930s. Although at first not particularly a successful venture, it was then sold on to an entrepreneur who then turned it around and made a it a success in the 1950s with a vodka-based cocktail - the Moscow Mule.
Vodka wasn't widely popularity in the West until the 1960s and 1970s when many more brands were created in the U.S and the U.K.
The number of vodka cocktails are almost matches the number of those made with gin and are seen in the same exclusive circles and stylish bars through out the world.
Vodka Cocktails - The finest vodka cocktails
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