While most vodkas are unflavored, many flavored vodkas have been produced in traditional vodka-drinking areas, often as home-made recipes to improve vodka's taste or for medicinal purposes. Flavorings include red pepper, ginger, fruit flavors, vanilla, chocolate (without sweetener), and cinnamon. In Russia, vodka flavored with honey and pepper, pertsovka in Russian, is also very popular. In Poland and Belarus, the leaves of the local bison grass are added to produce żubrówka (Polish) and zubrovka (Belarusian) vodka, with slightly sweet flavors and light amber colors. In Lithuania and Poland, a famous vodka containing honey is called krupnik. a b "The Production of Vodka". Archived from the original on 22 January 2008 . Retrieved 20 January 2007.

A type of distilled liquor designated by the Russian word vodka came to Russia in the late 14th century. In 1386, the Genoese ambassadors brought the first aqua vitae ("the water of life") to Moscow and presented it to Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. The liquid obtained by distillation of grape must was thought to be a concentrate and a "spirit" of wine ( spiritus vini in Latin), whence came to the name of this substance in many European languages (like English spirit, or Russian спирт, spirt).Other popular Russian vodka producers or brands include Stolichnaya and Russian Standard. [25] William Pokhlebin's A History of Vodka Sweden: sales volume of the leading spirits brands in Systembolaget stores 2018". Statista . Retrieved 5 December 2019. Delos, Gilbert (1998). Vodkas of the World. Edison, New Jersey: Wellfleet Press. ISBN 0-7858-1018-8. Boycotting Russian vodka brands: How big of an impact does it have and on who?". MSN . Retrieved 26 February 2022. Everclear Uses and Products FAQs". Make it Your Own with Everclear. Luxco . Retrieved 4 August 2017.

Vodka Can Finally Have a 'Distinctive Character' Thanks to U.S. Regulations Change" . Retrieved 22 January 2021. According to a legend, around 1430, a monk named Isidore from Chudov Monastery inside the Moscow Kremlin made a recipe of the first Russian vodka. [22] Having a special knowledge and distillation devices, he became the creator of a new, higher quality type of alcoholic beverage. This "bread wine", as it was initially known, was for a long time produced exclusively in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and in no other principality of Rus' (this situation persisted until the era of industrial production). Thus, this beverage was closely associated with Moscow. Evseev, Anton (21 November 2011). "Dmitry Mendeleev and 40 degrees of Russian vodka". Science. Moscow: English Pravda.Ru . Retrieved 6 July 2014. av vissa bestämmelser i alkohollagen samt av bestämmelserna om försäljning av teknisk sprit m.m. Kommittédirektiv 1998:19 - Riksdagen". www.riksdagen.se. Another possible connection of vodka with "water" is the name of the medieval alcoholic beverage aqua vitae ( Latin, literally, "water of life"), which is reflected in Polish okowita, Ukrainian оковита, Belarusian акавіта, and Scandinavian akvavit. Whiskey has a similar etymology, from the Irish and Scottish Gaelic uisce beatha/uisge-beatha.Multhauf, Robert P. (1966). The Origins of Chemistry. London: Oldbourne. ISBN 9782881245947. pp. 204-206. Our panel – made up of 10-accredited spirits experts and vodka-loving consumers – put 20 vodkas to the test. Each was tried neat and blind, to avoid brand bias, then followed by some water to dilute and soften the alcohol and bring out the core flavours. Lingwood, William; Ian Wisniewski (2003). Vodka: Discovering, Exploring, Enjoying. New York: Ryland Peters & Small. ISBN 1-84172-506-4. a b "27 CFR § 5.22 – The standards of identity". LII / Legal Information Institute . Retrieved 22 January 2021. Price, Pamela Vandyke (1980). The Penguin Book of Spirits and Liqueurs. Penguin Books. pp.196 ff. ISBN 0-14-046335-6.

Ermochkine, Nicholas, and Iglikowski, Peter (2003). 40 degrees east: an anatomy of vodka, Nova Publishers, p. 217, ISBN 1-59033-594-5. Up until the 1950s, vodka was not used as a designation for Swedish distilled beverages, which were instead called brännvin ("burn-wine"), the word having the same etymology as the Dutch Brandewijn, which is the base for the word brandy. This beverage has been produced in Sweden since the late 15th century, although the total production was still small in the 17th century. [27] From the early 18th century, production expanded, although production was prohibited several times, during grain shortages. Although initially a grain product, potatoes started to be used in the production in the late 18th century and became dominant from the early 19th century. [28] From the early 1870s, distillery equipment was improved. Distillation techniques were developed in Roman Egypt by the 3rd century, but the description of aqua ardens ("burning water", i.e., alcohol) made by distilling wine with salt appears in Latin works only by the 12th century. The process was well known among European medieval chemists by about 1300. [18] Poland

Branch, Legislative Services (3 June 2019). "Consolidated federal laws of canada, Food and Drug Regulations". laws.justice.gc.ca . Retrieved 15 July 2019. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. Abad-Santos, Alexander (8 August 2013). "The Russian Vodka Boycott Is Working, Whether You Like It or Not". The Atlantic . Retrieved 26 February 2022. In these early days, the spirits were used mostly as medicines. Stefan Falimierz asserted in his 1534 works on herbs that vodka could serve "to increase fertility and awaken lust". Wodka lub gorzałka (1614), by Jerzy Potański, contains valuable information on the production of vodka. Jakub Kazimierz Haur, in his book Skład albo skarbiec znakomitych sekretów ekonomii ziemiańskiej ( A Treasury of Excellent Secrets about Landed Gentry's Economy, Kraków, 1693), gave detailed recipes for making vodka from rye. a b Schrad, Mark Lawrence (5 May 2023). "Russia Has a Vodka Addiction. So Does Vladimir Putin – But Not the Same Way". POLITICO . Retrieved 7 May 2023.

Until the mid-18th century, the drink remained relatively low in alcohol content, not exceeding 40% ABV. Multiple terms for the drink were recorded, sometimes reflecting different levels of quality, alcohol concentration, filtering, and the number of distillations; most commonly, it was referred to as "burning wine", "bread wine", or even in some locations simply "wine". In some locations, grape wine may have been so expensive that it was a drink only for aristocrats. Burning wine was usually diluted with water to 24% ABV or less before drinking. It was mostly sold in taverns and was quite expensive. At the same time, the word vodka was already in use, but it described herbal tinctures (similar to Nalewka), containing up to 75% ABV, and made for medicinal purposes. Since the 1890s, standard vodkas have been 40% alcohol by volume (ABV) (80 U.S. proof). [4] The European Union has established a minimum alcohol content of 37.5% for vodka. [5] [6] Vodka in the United States must have a minimum alcohol content of 40%. [7] The heritage of professor Juozas Balčikonis, the great educator of the native language". Archived from the original on 11 April 2008 . Retrieved 11 March 2008. Under Canadian regulations, Vodka is a potable alcoholic distillate obtained from potatoes, cereal grain or any other material of agricultural origin fermented by the action of yeast or a mixture of yeast and other micro-organisms. [45] United States regulations

Pokhlebkin V. V. / Похлёбкин В. В. (2007). The history of vodka / История водки. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraph / Центрполиграф. p.272. ISBN 978-5-9524-1895-0. After Sweden joined the European Union in 1995, the regulations were changed so that privately owned companies could produce Vodka. [31] The production of liquor begins in the mid-15th century, with varied local traditions emerging throughout Europe, in Poland as vodka ( Polish: wódka or gorzałka). In the 16th century, the Polish word for the beverage was gorzałka (from the Old Polish verb gorzeć meaning "to burn"), which is also the source of Ukrainian horilka (горілка). The word written in Cyrillic appeared first in 1533, about a medicinal drink brought from Poland to Russia by the Russian merchants. [19]