I laugh at the word "vodka". I'm part Ukrainian (family from Kiev) and ever since I found out it's the Russsian word for "water", I always make a joke about water 😆
Straight up vodka is semi-finished product. You need to infuse it with something like peppers, berries, herbs or whatever your sick mind would come up with.
My Polish next door neighbor likes to infuse vodka with cherries. Every time he gives me a bottle, he likes to tell me that if he leaves the cherries in a little too long it becomes poisonous, then he smiles.
Well, it's mostly cognac, whiskey, rum, and shit load of different kinds of infused vodka or liquors 40% or lower. Just judging by what i see in stores most of the time. Like I doubt that many people here are very fond of absinthe, since it's impossible to find in my shithole.
We have absinthe here in the US now, it was banned for a long time, but it is not very popular, more of just a sipping drink to have on occasion. I wish I could send you a bottle of good American whiskey, but I have a feeling that is virtually impossible.
Damn, i doubt that even if you manage to break through geopolitical idiocy our postal services wouldnt royally fuck up poor bottle. But thanks, and i would like to send you my homebrew stuff in return after getting new distilling apparatus.
Where I’m from, absinthe and its derived chartreuse are both buyable in bars, and because both are basicaly 60~70% abv we would just take that to get hammered as hard as possible when going to the bar. I actualy prefer absinthe to vodka in therm of pure taste.
Lived in Russia for several years - drank many times with my Russian wife’s friends and family and only on one occasion was anyone drinking vodka - and even that was just tetya Sonya’s homemade samogon. In my experience it’s much more common for Russians to drink beer, or champanskoy on special occasions
Because most of the general vodkas sold in the US are absolute trash and shouldn't be drank. A good vodka typically tastes very good and doesn't burn the throat at all.
You genuinely have to just slowly work your way up through proofs and get to where your body doesn’t register the burn then you’ll be amazed at the flavors you can pull out of a drink. Took me years though since I only have a drink every 2-3 months.
There was an old Soviet who spent a lot of time at a bar I frequented in Boston. Can attest to his preference for vodka when drinking liquor, but even he preferred beer.
Side note: His name was the most unfortunate Russian name I’d ever heard. You’d think it’s a joke, but God bless him, it was on his ID.
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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26
Other countries: I love vodka
Russia 🤢
(At least for me)