Spirit that can be distilled from any starch or sugar substance present. It is generally used, however, a cereal or potato flour and pulp.

It is considered the traditional national alcoholic beverage of Russia and Poland, where the ideal rate of alcohol should be present by 38%, as indicated by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev.

Vodka is now the most popular alcoholic beverage in the world, there are plenty of brands: for example, just Poland produces over a thousand different Vodkas.

Highest use is registered in Est Europe and in the Scandinavian countries, where Vodka has a centuries-old tradition, and in the U.S.A. and Western Europe, where its widespread use has relatively recent origins.

The word "Vodka" is derived from the diminutive, in Slavic languages, OF the corresponding English word "water", such as Russian or Ukrainian "Bода" [Voda], or the Polish "Woda".

The first written appearance of this word came to Poland in 1405 in a register of Sandomierz Voivodato, a unit of administrative division and local government of the Kingdom of Poland from the fourteenth century until the partition of Poland in 1772-1795 between the Russian Empire, the United Kingdom of Prussia and the Habsburgs of Austria under the name "little water" you would probably give euphemistically a distillate light and clean in taste but certainly not in the alcohol volume.

Vodka is also called, in places where it is assumed to be born with words whose root means "burned" in the Belarusian "Гарэлка" [Garelka]; Polish "Gorzałka"; in Ukrainian "Горілка" [Gorilka].

In 1520 one in Gdansk, Poland, were already sixty distilleries officers, not counting the underground.

In Russia, however, a first document relating to Vodka dates back to 1649 when Czar Alexei Imperial promulgated a code to regulate the production and granted the noble landowners to hold a still  for small productions for private consumption.

In 1533 the name appeared on a prescription Vodka brought from Poland to Russia by a merchant came from the zone of the ancient Kievan Rus', a medieval monarchy was founded in the late ninth century in an area where today there are Ukraine, western Russia, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia East, considered the oldest Slavic East organized state, which was long the capital Kiev.

Just on 8 June 1751, however, in a decree by Empress Catherine I, which regulated the ownership of some distilleries, the word Vodka was written by giving it the modern meaning.

In the West first became popular Vodka in the U.S.A. where, in 1930, Vladimir Smirnoff took contact with Rudolph Kunett, a Russian immigrant whose family had in 1920 been a supplier of spirits to Smirnoff before the revolution of October 1917, to organize the sale of Vodka in North America.

In 1938 Kunett, not having the funds necessary to carry on the operation that did not seem profitable as it was thought, sold the rights of Smirnoff acquired by John G. Martin, president of Heublein, a small American factory of spirits.

It was the owner of Heublein to give Vodka  the image that still feature today.

The entrepreneurial genius of Martin was, in fact, to market a neutral spirit that would lend itself well to being mixed with other ingredients departing significantly from the traditional Russian drink, full character, smooth and served ice cold as an accompaniment to food.

The advertising of the product emphasized the enormous versatility of this drink taste clean and refined, in stark contrast with the strongest and most full-bodied Bourbon, Gin and Scotch Whiskey.

The idea of a pure distilled and sophisticated can give strength to the juices and sodas, or to infuse vitality and vigor in liquors such as Vermouth was immediately successful.

In the 50s were launched slogans and posters focusing on the versatility of this distilled spirits destined to become one of the future throughout the world. A well-known image depicting an inviting cocktail, result of the marriage between dry Martini and Vodka, with the imposing pyramid of Cheops in the background. Other exploited known movie stars to publicize the drink. The tradition of associating the Vodka to monuments and famous faces has survived until today, just think of the Smirnoff portrayed near the colossal statues of Easter Island or the anthropomorphic Statue of Liberty.

The message is clear: it is a timeless and spaceless international drink.

Vodka, as mentioned, can be obtained from different raw materials rich in sugar or starch in order to be able to allow fermentation.

Once fermented various distillations are carried out: by this process bring their alcohol content and aroma to the threshold level you want.

To delete unwanted notes, finally, the distillate is filtered to obtain a neutral product by using activated carbon, or diamond dust, diatomaceous earth, etc.

Sometimes, rather than filter, you want to make a greater number of distillation to afford to have resulted in an ethyl alcohol, which also maintains the characteristic aromas.

After these processes are performed with water stretches, which may be rainwater, distilled or spring water, giving rise to Vodka.

It is used to divide the Vodka into two broad categories: Vodka pure and aromatic.

Remain the ingredients used, therefore, the factors that contribute most to give it the taste and aroma characteristic. Know the products from which it originates is therefore essential to be able to appreciate it best:

Cereals, rye is the grain traditionally used in the production of Vodka, especially in Eastern Europe. In Russia, its use was almost exclusively until 1870, following the use of cereals and other plant products such as potatoes became increasingly common, especially in times of economic crisis.

Rye, which is Poland's largest producer, even if mixed with other grains in the first wort such as wheat, oats and barley, is the main ingredient of the best Russian Vodkas that have nice flavor, sweetand delicate and unique taste.

Elsewhere, Wheat, cheaper and more popular, has now taken the place of rye. The best quality of wheat, from North America and Western Europe, where they break down easily, allowing a rapid process of transformation of complex starches to fermentable sugars.

These varieties allow distillers to obtain high levels of purity, a highly desirable requirement;

Potatoes, though considered an ingredient of the second category, are used for centuries in many eastern countries, like Ukraine. They have, in fact, some drawbacks: they allow a lower yield than cereals, a tonne of potatoes you get 30% of Vodka in less than the same quantity of wheat, the separation into its constituents is more difficult and, during fermentation, are released waste products complicated to remove during the process of rectification of alcohol.

Vodka made from potatoes, therefore, is heavier and has a stronger flavor and complex than those made with wheat.

Today, however, progress in agricultural and distillation have led to good-quality Vodka, like especially those who appreciate the strong flavors;

Water constitutes 60% of the liquid contained in most of the bottles of Vodka, is softened by reducing dissolved salts content, should contain less than 0.0042 g per 1.2 l of dissolved salts to be as pure as distilled water. This process is carried out in deionized water and channeling it then pumping it through layers of sand or activated carbon to purify it further.

In the past, in the absence of these techniques, the distilled water was used very much, although a Vodka produced more opaque and less bright flavor.

The stage described is fundamental for the realization of a good Vodka since the addition of water or polluted ground is not perfectly pure distilled undermines their aroma and delicate flavor and cloud the issue clear: certain materials, such as iron change color on contact with water, altering the pitch deteriorated and, therefore, doing the same with distilled at which it is added.