Examine Vodka's Intriguing History on National Vodka Day Today (Oct. 4)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Oct. 4, 2013 - PRLog -- October 4 is National Vodka Day and a good time to look at the liquor’s intoxicating history which reaches back so far that no one is exactly sure of its origins, says J.K. O’Hanlon, author of “3 Ingredient Cocktails” and found at http://www.thirstyjane.com.

Some say it’s about the water, says the author who has a section in her book about the history of vodka. “The Russian and Polish words for water are, respectively, voda and woda.  Vodka can be translated as dear little water,” O’Hanlon says.

In Poland, aficionados look to the eighth century when Poles “distilled” spirits by leaving fermented wine out to freeze, then sloughing off the frozen water to get a concentrated spirit. The alcohol initially was used medicinally, but by the 1400s Poles began imbibing for pure enjoyment, or perhaps more likely as a diversion from the cold and difficult times, O’Hanlon says.

“Russia stakes its claim to vodka based upon spirits created by monks in the 12th or 13th century. The monks probably learned early distillation techniques from their Italian counterparts who picked up the practices from travelers from Arabia. Although the exact origins are nebulous, by 1500 vodka was being produced in Russia and drunk prodigiously by the peasantry to celebrate everything from births to weddings to funerals,” the author says.

As the power of vodka captured the peasants’ hearts, souls and bodies, aristocracies in both Russia and Poland noted the industry’s profit potential and attempted to seize control of the spirit’s production and sale, as a way to control the purses of the underclass,” O’Hanlon says.

“Like Americans would learn hundreds of years later, when it comes to booze, where there’s a will, there’s a way. So for a good part of the late 1500s through the mid-1700s, the pendulum swung back and forth between state control and peasant revolt,” she says.

And for those who think flavored vodka is a new thing, think again, O’Hanlon says.  Russians flavored vodka as early as the 15th century, but the aristocracy took it to a new level during the reign of Catherine the Great in the late 1700s. There were dozens of options ranging from spices to herbals to fruits, she says.

         “The 1920s cocktail craze gave rise to one of the most popular vodka drinks of all time: the Bloody Mary. Invented in Paris’ Ritz Hotel, the Bloody Mary became de rigueur for hangovers of the party-hearty Europeans and ex-pats. Before long, the Bloody Mary crossed the Atlantic, got spiced up, and became popular in New York,” O’Hanlon says.

The rise in popularity of the cosmopolitan cocktail made other specialty flavored vodka based cocktails sexy and all the rage, she adds. Restaurants and bars around the country soon had extensive “martini” menus mostly consisting of fruity vodka drinks.

In “3 Ingredient Cocktails,” one of the vodka cocktails O’Hanlon features is the infamous “Moscow Mule.” It’s a simple concoction of 2 ounces of vodka, 4 ounces of ginger beer and one-half lime.  “You squeeze the lime in a highball glass, add vodka and fill with ice. Add ginger beer and stir gently,” O’Hanlon says.  “The ginger beer, not ginger ale, gives it the spicy kick at the end.”  Follow O’Hanlon on Facebook as Thirsty Jane and at http://www.thirstyjane.com.