0:02

Happy Saturday and Happy New

0:04

Year's Eve. Since for a lot of folks,

0:06

New Year's Eve is a night of revelry and

0:09

fun and spirits, we're bringing

0:11

out our February episode

0:14

on the history of vodka as Today's

0:16

Saturday Classic. Also,

0:18

we end this episode by talking about

0:20

some household uses for vodka

0:23

that do not involve drinking it. And

0:25

after it came out, we got a note from listener Megan

0:27

adding one more to the list that

0:30

is substituting vodka for half

0:32

the water that goes into a pie crust will make

0:34

your crust flake year. Totally

0:37

need to try that. Still, Happy

0:39

New Year, everybody, and thank you so much

0:41

for being with us over this past year. If

0:44

you're headed out tonight to ring in the New Year with

0:46

some cocktails or beer or champagne or other

0:48

alcohol, please make sure to

0:50

plan ahead for how to get home safely so

0:52

we can all have a safe start to the new year

0:55

and enjoy this episode. Happy New

0:57

Year, Welcome

1:01

to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a

1:03

production of I Heart Radio. Hello,

1:12

and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frying and

1:14

I'm Tracy V. Wilson. I'm

1:17

excited and self serving because today, we're

1:19

going to talk about my spirit of choice, vodka.

1:23

As soon as you told me what you were researching,

1:26

I thought this is gonna be Holly's favorite

1:28

episode ever. Um,

1:31

sort of. I mean, I would get into some of

1:33

the bleak stuff that comes with vodka, so

1:35

it's not all fun in games. I

1:37

certainly enjoy a cocktail, but obviously we are

1:39

not advocating over imbibing drink responsibly.

1:42

We just want to talk about the history of this drink. Um,

1:45

and the story of vodka is one that is really

1:47

closely tied to cultural identity for several

1:49

countries. But we're gonna

1:51

examine where it originated and how it evolved

1:54

over time, and how those identities sort

1:56

of formed. I bet when I say vodka and

1:58

country, people automatic make a connection,

2:01

and we'll talk about why that's the case. Uh.

2:03

We're going to talk a little bit also about how vodka

2:06

is made, and then we'll get into

2:08

that part about where it came from and how it has

2:10

expanded to become really

2:12

a global market, focusing on

2:14

those countries where it remains and has

2:16

become most popular. And then we

2:19

have to talk about some of the problematic aspects

2:21

of vodka's place in the world, but

2:24

I promise we'll end in a fairly fun place.

2:26

Yeah, vodka is a little

2:28

unusual and that it can be made from a

2:31

lot of different things while still being considered

2:33

vodka, which isn't so much the case with

2:35

a number of other spirits. There are of

2:38

course, a lot of opinions and disagreements

2:41

about just how far afield you can

2:43

go and selecting the base ingredient

2:45

while still calling the resulting spirit

2:48

vodka. Yeah, this starts some heated debates.

2:50

I discovered in my research. Uh,

2:53

it requires a sugar or starch

2:55

element to begin with, so most popular

2:57

in Russia and Poland as well as other country

3:00

is kind of in that northern belt are grains, potatoes

3:03

or sugar beat molasses as the starting

3:05

ingredient. Uh. There is actually an area

3:07

that's colloquially called the vodka belt,

3:09

which stretches from Sweden to Poland, and

3:11

that produces the majority of the vodka

3:14

that is consumed in the European Union. In

3:16

other places, though, there's a greater variability,

3:19

including using things like corn and

3:21

fruit, and whether those things should

3:23

be considered vodka was the matter

3:25

of debate for some time. European

3:28

Parliament ruled on the matter in two thousand

3:30

seven, giving a wider range of options

3:32

for distillers, all following under this vodka

3:35

umbrella, defining vodka as a

3:37

spirit drink produced from ethyl alcohol

3:40

of agricultural origin. Yeah,

3:42

you can even if you're feeling very very

3:44

ambitious and uh want

3:46

to do some some juggling and

3:48

babysitting. You could even start a vodka

3:51

from just sugar. Although it's not really

3:53

the recommended for general making,

3:55

is my understanding. I have never distilled vodka

3:57

myself, so I'm going by what I have read.

4:00

Uh. That ruling that we

4:02

just talked about was unsurprisingly

4:05

not entirely popular for

4:07

vodka purists. It really signaled a degradation

4:10

to the spirit, and the Finnish

4:12

politician Alexander Stubb made

4:14

the case that vodka should be more specifically

4:16

defined. He said at that time, quote,

4:19

we have made vodka out of potato and

4:21

grain for over five hundred years.

4:23

When we became EU members in we

4:26

were told that vodka would have a tight definition,

4:29

just like rum, just like whiskey, just like

4:31

grappa. We don't want vodka

4:34

to be some kind of alcoholic waste basket.

4:37

I really like the idea that like

4:40

it sounds almost like they're they're becoming

4:42

part of the EU was in

4:45

some ways contingent on the

4:47

definition of vodka. Yes,

4:50

that was definitely part of what they were

4:52

they were agreeing to, is that vodka

4:54

would have this this rigorous,

4:57

fairly rigorous standard applied to it,

4:59

and that didn't really pan out. Now. The reason

5:01

that the rules of what could be used to produce

5:04

vodka were relaxed was that vodka

5:06

was already being made from a variety of ingredients

5:08

of distilleries all over Europe, and

5:11

excluding the producers that used alternates

5:13

to grain and potatoes could have led to

5:16

a trade war. Countries outside

5:18

of the EU were making vodka out of all kinds

5:20

of things, and so had the ruling had taken

5:22

a more strict stance, that would have

5:24

opened a huge can of worms in

5:27

terms of the global spirits market.

5:29

Yeah. So if you would imagine trying

5:32

to put this in sort of real terms

5:34

instead of just theoreticals, if you

5:37

went into your local liquor

5:39

store today to buy vodka and you see all

5:41

of the offerings, and then something

5:43

like this had happened and some people

5:45

in the world said, no, no, that thing

5:47

you've been buying is vodka for X number

5:49

of years? Is no longer vodka? Like it would just be

5:51

a little bit of chaos. Uh.

5:54

In terms of how manufacturers labeled

5:57

things, I imagine there would be pushback

5:59

because people wouldn't want to change the identities

6:02

of the products they had been making for a long time.

6:04

It really just would have been an absolute

6:07

chaotic miss uh. Incidentally,

6:09

in the US, vodka is legally

6:11

defined in ultra broad terms

6:13

as quote neutral spirits

6:15

so distilled or so treated after distillation

6:18

with charcoal or other materials, as

6:20

to be without distinctive character, aroma,

6:23

taste, or color that is pretty,

6:26

it's so bad and yet

6:29

regardless of whether the primary ingredient

6:32

is an old school traditional take

6:34

or one that falls under the wider rules,

6:37

after the fermenting ingredient is selected,

6:39

it goes through fermentation. The base

6:41

material is crushed, blended

6:44

with water, and heated, which turns the start

6:46

into sugar. That result is

6:48

combined with yeast, and then the fluid is distilled

6:50

from the combined mixture. So

6:53

alcohol, of course boils more quickly than

6:55

water, so the alcohol component in that

6:57

mixture vaporizes more quickly than the

6:59

water in the mix, and that vapor is captured

7:02

excluding the very first and last vapors

7:04

of the batch. And next that

7:06

vapor is then condensed into a very

7:09

potent alcohol, and then that alcohol

7:12

is combined again with water to produce

7:14

the final product, vodka. That's

7:16

the very basic process. If you've

7:19

completed those steps, you have what could

7:21

technically be called vodka, but

7:23

it can be and usually is further

7:26

refined and process to alter the

7:28

taste and the purity. Filtering

7:30

it through charcoal, lava, linen,

7:32

or a number of other substances, or

7:35

performing multiple distillations will make

7:37

the spirit cleaner and purer and

7:39

also remove virtually all

7:41

of the taste. Yeah, if you go on a

7:44

an online splunking expedition to

7:46

see what people have used to filter vodka, you

7:48

will find everything from like diamond dust

7:51

to two pieces of

7:53

cloth. Uh. And for something

7:55

that becomes part of their brand identity or

7:57

if they're doing like small batch artism

8:00

and stuff, it's part of their thing that they're they're

8:02

creating new ways to do it. And

8:04

of course, UH flavored vodka

8:07

is very popular and the flavor

8:09

has to be added after all of these other steps.

8:12

This is often done at the production level.

8:14

But there are also plenty of consumers who like

8:16

to add their own flavor infusions to plain vodka

8:19

for custom flavors. So I'm sure if

8:21

you have friends who drink, you know somebody

8:23

who has been Like I infused my vodka

8:26

with jolly ranchers, or

8:28

with apples, or with any number of other

8:30

I've had friends who have done it with jelly beans.

8:32

The result was delicious. Uh,

8:35

it just depends on what you like. There

8:39

are consumers and connoisseurs

8:41

who desire a vodka that still

8:43

tastes at least a little bit like its original

8:45

ingredients, rather than having a post distillation

8:48

added flavor. Some artisanal

8:50

vodka producers use small copper moonshine

8:53

stills instead of the stills that are used

8:55

in larger production setups, because

8:57

the resulting spirit retains some of

9:00

those component tastes. Yeah,

9:02

if you want your vodka to taste like a little

9:04

like the wheat or the potato

9:07

or whatever was used initially, then

9:10

that is probably a better way to achieve it.

9:13

Quality standards for vodka are actually

9:15

a really tricky topic because there

9:17

aren't any that are universally recognized.

9:20

UH. Some countries such as Poland defined

9:23

quality by purity, there are other municipalities

9:26

that categorize simply by alcohol content,

9:28

like what percentage of the resulting

9:31

spirit is alcohol? Uh. There's

9:33

also marketing in the mix playing apart, with

9:35

some distillers touting the purity

9:37

of the water that they use as the ultimate

9:39

determinant of quality. We're about to

9:41

dive in so where all of this vodka production

9:44

started, or at least where people think it

9:46

started. But first we will take a break

9:48

to hear from one of the sponsors that keeps the show

9:50

going. While

10:01

the identity of vodka today is one of

10:03

an intoxicant, initially it's

10:05

believed that it was developed for medicinal use,

10:08

but it's exact point of origin is

10:10

lost to time and is consequently argued

10:13

by various countries wishing to claim ownership

10:15

of the world's most popular spirit. Russia

10:18

and Poland remain locked in their ongoing

10:21

argument over the matter. Both using

10:23

language is evidence. So the Russian

10:25

word for water is voda with

10:27

a V. The Polish word for

10:29

water is vota with a W. It's

10:32

a very subtle difference. I'm probably not enunciating

10:35

it in a way that makes that that difference apparent

10:37

to native speakers, but they do sound very similar,

10:41

uh, particularly to Western

10:43

ears, and proponents of the Polish

10:45

origins of vodka say that the word vodka

10:48

with a W spelled the W instead

10:50

of a V, appeared in print before vodka

10:53

with a V, and thus it must be Polish

10:55

in origin. There are some additional

10:57

elements in this whole Russia versus

11:00

Poland debate on where vodka

11:02

came from. A Polish drink

11:04

called gor zolka has

11:06

existed since the eleventh century,

11:08

and there have been some assertions that that's the original

11:11

proto vodka, but the counter

11:13

argument is that the historic drink of

11:16

gorge yolka is a more general,

11:18

undefined alcoholic spirit and

11:21

not really anything that can be definitively linked

11:23

to vodka. Ukraine also has

11:25

a claim to vodka's birthplace because that

11:27

area produced the most grains in the region

11:30

in the fifteenth century, so it would

11:32

make sense that grain based alcohol

11:34

originated there, and there is even

11:36

the possibility, truly that vodka actually

11:38

first entered the region from somewhere

11:41

else, and that locals then figured

11:43

out how to make their own. We know that vodka

11:45

as we know it originated somewhere in eastern

11:48

Europe, but whether that's in modern Ukraine,

11:50

Russia, Poland or Belarus, we don't really

11:52

know. The whole region is inhospitable

11:55

to grapes as a crop, so inventive

11:58

folks came up with new ways to make alcohol. All

12:00

The prevailing theory is that we

12:02

have monks to thank for it. This

12:05

is true with the number of other alcohols. They

12:07

needed a spirit to use as a sedative

12:10

and disinfectant in the communities where

12:12

they worked, and they turned to wheat to get

12:14

it. Yeah, so that's why it kind of

12:16

has those origins as a medicinal. In

12:19

the fourteen hundreds, vodka production became

12:21

more refined, and it also branched

12:23

out to use other grains. Early

12:26

vodkas were most likely quite sharp, having

12:28

a very unpleasant flavor. They weren't

12:30

doing all of that refining and filtering

12:33

that we would do today, so flavoring

12:35

started to be added in order to help make it

12:38

more palatable. Fruit, honey,

12:40

and spices came into the picture. But

12:43

in making vodka more tasty, distillers

12:45

helped to shift it away from simply medicinal

12:48

use to recreational because then

12:50

it started to be yummy, and that shift

12:52

in identity to a beverage from a medicine

12:55

lead to more experimentation and innovation.

12:58

Vodka stayed largely in Northern Europe

13:00

for a while, but eventually it began to spread.

13:03

Like other products we've talked about as

13:05

shipping and industry group, vodka

13:07

was able to travel farther and farther away

13:09

from its point of origin. But even

13:11

so there was still a lot of cool stuff going on

13:14

in that sort of cradle where it first came about.

13:16

In Poland, in particular, herbal vodkas

13:18

were developed to treat all manner of ailments

13:21

and concerns in the sixteenth century,

13:23

and it was also in Poland the potatoes were

13:25

first used in fermentation to create vodka,

13:28

and Polish distillers continued to drive

13:30

the exploration of flavorings and tweaks

13:33

to distilling methods well into the nineteenth

13:35

century. But vodka is

13:37

often linked with Russia and Russian

13:39

cultural identity, and that's due in

13:41

part how quickly I'm in the Third of Russia

13:44

also known as I'm in the Great, established

13:46

vodka as a key revenue source in the

13:48

country. In fourteen seventy four,

13:50

he started taxing vodka and set

13:52

up a government based monopoly on

13:54

the beverage, and that set the stage for

13:57

his successor, i'm In the Fourth known as

13:59

i'm In the Terrible, to continue

14:01

manipulating the flow of vodka to

14:03

suit his own desires. Ivan the Fourth

14:05

went so far as to exclude most of

14:07

his people from having access to vodka.

14:10

He set up a new social class of loyal

14:13

favorites, and only they could have vodka,

14:16

and in this move he redistributed land

14:18

to them and also turned his back on the nobility

14:20

that had existed before this restructure.

14:23

He also used vodka to keep people

14:25

loyal to him, because cross the czar and

14:27

you would lose your drinking privileges. Other

14:30

Russian leaders similarly used vodka

14:32

as a means to reward their favorites and to intoxicate

14:35

guests so that they would tell state secrets,

14:37

and, in the case of Peter the Great, force enemies

14:40

to drink until they collapsed. But

14:42

it was Catherine the Second, also known as Katherine

14:44

the Great, who instituted changes that once again

14:46

put vodka in the glasses in the cups

14:48

of common people. Under her rule,

14:51

the vodka monopoly ended, and more distillers

14:53

were licensed to produce the spirit The costs

14:56

of vodka were also regulated

14:58

to keep prices reasonable, but this

15:00

often led to the dilution of

15:03

the product on a part of the producers.

15:05

Yeah, if the costs were going to be capped

15:07

at a pretty low amount, they were like, well, we're going

15:09

to stretch our products then. Uh.

15:11

This also led to vodka quality

15:14

being seen as a shorthand way to identify

15:16

one's status. So even though they had taken away

15:18

the the access through the hierarchy,

15:21

it's sort of built itself

15:23

again in a new way. The wealthiest

15:25

households began distilling their own vodkas

15:28

with an array of expensive flavorings

15:30

and spices, and this was to maintain

15:32

their distance from peasants in the eyes

15:34

of guests. Even the potency

15:37

of the perfect vodka was scientifically

15:39

measured by the Russian scientist Dmitri.

15:42

Mentally, if you believe that myth

15:45

that name sounds familiar, it's because his published

15:47

work Tentative System of Elements

15:49

as the foundation of the periodic Table of the Elements.

15:51

But before that, his dissertation

15:54

A Discourse on the Combination of Alcohol

15:56

and Water is said to have established

15:59

thirty eight percent alcohol by volume as

16:01

the best proportion for vodka.

16:03

In fact, he was working with theoreticals

16:05

and alcohols and much higher concentrations

16:08

than that. None of it had anything to do

16:10

with setting a gold standard for vodka. His

16:12

connection to vodka has been mythologized

16:15

a lot over the years. It's

16:17

easy to find assertions that he invented

16:19

vodka. Obviously he did not do that,

16:22

or that he served on the state's regulatory

16:24

commission and was tasked with implementing

16:26

rules for the perfect vodka. He

16:28

did serve on a government weights and measures

16:31

agency, but he wasn't given any kind of

16:33

mandate to codify vodka production.

16:36

Just the same. His story, used

16:38

in various advertisements and spread

16:40

throughout the Internet, has added to

16:42

this perception that Russia is the epicenter

16:45

of all things vodka. Yeah. The

16:47

trick there is that at least I could not find

16:49

an English translation of that dissertation

16:52

that he wrote, so it's very easy for people

16:54

to claim what is in it. So

16:57

it really really does spread like wildfire.

16:59

I'd read that cirtation, though I

17:01

would do uh. In the eighteen sixties,

17:04

Pyotr A. Smyrnov founded a vodka

17:06

company in Moscow, which became the favored

17:08

source of the spirit for the country's royals,

17:11

and it is now one of the most common brands

17:14

in the world, and it continues that link

17:16

between Russia and vodka in the minds

17:18

of consumers everywhere. Under the Bolsheviks

17:21

in the nineteen teens, alcohol was outlawed.

17:24

When the Soviet Union was established in ninety

17:26

two, mild alcoholic drinks were once

17:28

again allowed to be sold, and in vodka

17:31

was again legalized at normal proof. When

17:34

Joseph Stalin gained power in the nineteen thirties,

17:37

he had state run distilleries increased

17:39

production to generate revenue, even though

17:41

he knew there was a real problem with alcoholism

17:43

in the country. Yeah, we're going to talk

17:45

about that again in just a little while.

17:48

But though some temperance efforts started

17:50

after Stalin died, drinking remained

17:53

a problem, and it wasn't until the nineteen

17:55

eighties under Gorbachev that temperance

17:57

efforts got a real boost, and the Fament

18:00

made a concerted effort to get the entire country

18:02

on board. And while the programs

18:04

that were initiated during this time did curtail

18:07

drinking to some degree and improve overall

18:09

health statistics of the population, eventually

18:12

public sentiment turned against it. Next

18:15

up, we're going to talk about how vodka became one

18:17

of the most popular liquors in the United

18:19

States. But first we will have a quick sponsor

18:21

break.

18:31

Uh surprise, the US is

18:33

the world's second greatest consumer of vodka

18:35

after Russia. That may or may not surprise

18:38

you. I found it a little surprising. Vodka

18:40

didn't really get a serious place in drinking

18:43

state side though until after prohibition.

18:45

Prior to that, there was just a smattering of

18:48

mediocre vodka options available, and

18:50

it really didn't catch on in any sort of significant

18:53

way. In the nineteen thirties, the Russian

18:55

immigrant named Rudolph Kunnitt, who had

18:57

purchased the rights to use the smeared Off name,

18:59

started selling better vodka in the United

19:02

States than had been available previously.

19:04

His Connecticut distillery struggled

19:06

until the end of that decade when it was

19:09

purchased on behalf of Hublind's

19:11

Liquor Company by John G. Martin. Hublands

19:14

was absorbed by a larger company, but

19:16

Martin had wisely made sure that he

19:18

retained the rights to the smear Knoff name. Yeah,

19:21

he had been an executive with Hublands

19:23

and uh he had had written

19:25

that in Smartly, where he got some rights

19:27

for distribution, but Martin didn't

19:29

figure out a way to capitalize on his rights

19:31

to the smear knof name until when

19:34

he and his friend and tavern owner

19:36

came up with the combination of ginger beer

19:39

and vodka with lemon or lime

19:41

juice in a copper mug. Uh.

19:44

This has its own mythology around it. Where

19:47

it happened in l A, which is where

19:49

his friend's tavern was, versus it happened in New

19:51

York, and it only took off in l A. And

19:54

that one of them had too much ginger beer

19:56

and one of them had too much vodka, and it was almost

19:58

a Reese's Cup situation. Uh.

20:01

And we don't really know, but he they he

20:04

is completely recognized, he and his friend

20:06

as originating the Moscow mule

20:09

uh. And once that drink was born, it

20:11

finally made drinkers in the United States

20:13

embrace vodka, at least until

20:16

World War Two. After the war,

20:18

for a while, vodka became sort of

20:20

spirit non grata in the US as the

20:22

Cold War began and all things associated

20:24

with the Soviet Union reviewed through

20:27

that lens. It didn't go away completely and

20:29

Martin was still concocting other cocktails

20:31

with vodka, but it really it kind of had

20:34

a big spike in in popularity and then

20:36

a big drop off. Vodka's reputation

20:38

perked up once Sean Connery ordered

20:40

a vodka martini and dr No in

20:42

nineteen sixty two, but then it really

20:45

got a boost when President Richard Nixon,

20:47

after visiting the Soviet Union, approved

20:50

business between Pepsicola and the USSR

20:53

and exchanged for assistance and setting up

20:55

a Pepsi factory in the Soviet Union.

20:57

The US business was paid in Stolich

20:59

nine of vodka, which made the soda

21:01

giant the stolely distributor in the

21:04

US. With the backing of a

21:06

massive Kola brand, vodka

21:08

became the most popular spirit in the US

21:10

in nineteen Vodka

21:13

remains one of the most popular liquors in the

21:15

United States and smeared off as the most

21:17

popular brand. Yeah. If

21:19

you look at like year to year top

21:21

ten UH spirits

21:24

in the US, vodka

21:27

is almost always in the top two,

21:29

and usually it is um

21:32

smear Koff. It shifts

21:34

a little bit, but I think whiskey

21:37

kind of stays at the top or has for the last

21:39

several years anyway. Um,

21:41

but that's all funny games. But we have to acknowledge

21:43

that vodka has a pretty dark side

21:46

to its history as well. There have certainly

21:48

been plenty of issues that stemmed from

21:50

over indulgence in and addiction to alcohol

21:53

in the world's ongoing story. For

21:55

example, in a late nineteenth century Russia

21:58

was in the middle of a real crisis of alcoholism.

22:01

It was so bad that it threatened the labor

22:03

pool and caused outcry from activist

22:05

groups and churches and medical professionals.

22:08

Eventually, Zar Alexander the Third couldn't

22:10

ignore the problem any longer and limited

22:13

the production of vodka, put regulations

22:15

in place to mandate quality, and

22:17

formed a Temperance Society that touted

22:20

the idea of drinking in moderation, despite

22:22

the fact that the name of the society, which was

22:24

the Guardianship of Public Sobriety,

22:27

might suggest that it would be against the drink altogether.

22:30

To be clear, though Alexander the Third himself

22:32

was a drinker. Yeah, he was definitely

22:35

responding to outside pressures. He was

22:37

not like, hey, we should cut back on drinking in the

22:39

country because he loved to drink.

22:42

The state also started a program to boost

22:44

non alcoholic entertainments as a

22:46

means to curtail drinking. Free

22:49

theater and concerts, as well as adult

22:51

education offerings and other leisure incentives

22:54

were offered, but none of this really worked

22:56

at all. Regulations did not

22:58

stop illicit liquors sales and the production

23:01

of inferior product, and this problem

23:03

with alcoholism persisted into

23:05

the Russo Japanese War and actually cost

23:08

Russia battles, backing them into

23:10

a corner and putting them in a really weak position

23:12

for brokering a treaty. Additionally,

23:15

the Czar's decision to ban alcohol

23:17

in an effort to help the troops stay on task for

23:19

that conflict meant that a huge source

23:22

of tax revenue was lost in the process.

23:24

And all of that was before the twentieth century

23:26

efforts to sober up the country that we mentioned

23:29

earlier. In a study

23:31

titled Alcohol and Mortality was

23:33

conducted at the University of Toronto, and it featured

23:36

some really grim data. The authors

23:38

of the paper, Jurgen rem and

23:40

Kevin D. Shield, outline the fact

23:43

that more than two hundred different diseases

23:45

are linked to alcohol, but their

23:47

research focuses on cancer, liver, cirrhosis

23:50

and injury, and their research indicated

23:52

that in four of

23:55

all deaths globally from those

23:57

diseases were attributable to alcohol consumption

24:00

that same year, alcohol consumption resulted

24:03

in an average percentage of years

24:05

lost of four point Those

24:08

numbers increased as compared to

24:10

similar data from This

24:13

is not in your outline, but I was reading a thing recently

24:15

that was a hypothesis that one of the reasons

24:17

that breast cancer rates are lower

24:20

in Utah is because of Utah's more

24:22

stringent alcohol laws.

24:25

I cannot speak to that because I have not

24:27

read it. Yeah, I mean, it's

24:29

one of those things, right, we definitely

24:32

have to kind of acknowledge

24:35

that, uh, consuming alcohol

24:37

comes with inherent danger. There was a recent

24:39

study I didn't put it in my notes either, so I'm

24:41

quoting it kind of out of the air that

24:43

basically, I think it was from or

24:46

twenty seventeen that was like, really,

24:49

the safest way to consume alcohol

24:51

is to not consume alcohol, because

24:53

even though there are and it's outlined in

24:55

the RAM paper, there are some

24:58

specific health issues

25:01

that alcohol and moderation can actually

25:03

help, but for the most part,

25:05

like the dangers are far worse than any of those,

25:07

So just things to consider.

25:10

We're not telling people to go out and drink a ton of vodka.

25:12

UM, let's all be grown ups.

25:15

Uh. We and we don't want to minimize also

25:17

or downplay the issue of over indulgence

25:19

or addiction. Uh. But that

25:22

would be a really downer place to end this episode.

25:24

So instead, I thought it might be fun

25:26

to close with a few anecdotes and facts

25:29

about vodka that are just sort of fascinating

25:31

on their own. We mentioned earlier that

25:33

vodka was probably originally concocted

25:36

for medicinal use, but there are still plenty

25:38

of sort of old wives remedies

25:40

that make use of it. Alcohol infused

25:43

with St. John's work and sage

25:45

is believed to have had curative powers

25:47

as a liniment. Vodka served

25:49

with black pepper is an old Russian

25:51

cold remedy, and vodka fumes

25:53

from infused fabrics are believed by

25:55

some to cure everything from muscle aches

25:57

to ear problems. It's also used

26:00

as an astringent cleanser to clean out

26:02

pours and as a disinfectant for wounds.

26:05

It can be used for cleaning surfaces as well

26:07

as humans, as a polished for mirrors,

26:10

chrome tile and the like. Yeah,

26:12

it definitely will kill all your stuff. My favorite

26:14

use for vodka, which

26:17

I didn't put in here, but it is. Here's

26:19

the trick I give to you that I learned from working

26:21

in costume shops forever. If

26:23

you get cheap, cheap vodka and you put it in

26:25

a spritzer bottle, uh,

26:28

if you can't make it to a dry cleaner, that will

26:30

freshen up your clothes, kill any bacteria

26:32

that are causing odor, and help you get through to

26:34

your next thing. Yeah, this is why I have in

26:36

my bathroom under the sink there are two spray

26:38

bottles, both clearly marked so I don't

26:41

confuse them. One contains peroxide,

26:43

the other contains vodka. Yeah.

26:46

I At one point I was helping

26:49

out as like a really low level

26:52

mouse in a costume shop that was serving

26:55

a ballet company and their uh,

26:57

their costume director was

26:59

all was walking around with the bottle of vodka and

27:01

spritsing things to make sure that they did

27:03

not smell bad, especially if you were doing like a matinee

27:06

performance in an evening, and there was no way to really

27:08

do serious cleaning between the two

27:10

in terms of time, especially when you're trying

27:12

to prep things for a full quarter ballet. Uh,

27:15

A little vodka sprits will help perk things up and

27:17

make it not smell bad. Uh. There's

27:19

also another little household hand, which is that

27:22

adding vodka and sugar to water

27:24

at the base of Christmas trees or two vases

27:26

of flowers is thought to prolong the

27:28

life of the plants. I have never tried that

27:30

one me neither. Just don't make

27:32

your don't make your Christmas tree

27:34

water accidentally flammable. In

27:38

the eighteen sixties, the smear enof distillery

27:40

added annis and egg whites to combine

27:43

with the vodka to make it more delicious. I would like

27:45

to disagree. It's smeared

27:47

off about whether that would be more delicious.

27:50

Is it the liquorice or

27:53

the egg whiteyic? I

27:55

love liquorice, so this sounds delightful. You can have all

27:58

mine. If you've never had like egg

28:00

white foam in an alcoholic drink, and that

28:02

may sound weird to you, I encourage you, if

28:04

you are of legal drinking age, to try it because

28:07

it's quite interesting. There's a there's some good tiki

28:09

drinks to feature it as well. Uh.

28:11

This is another one that I love. In eleven,

28:14

the Bullshowy Theater in Moscow, which was originally

28:16

built in seventeen seventy six, went through

28:18

a major spruce up and renovation.

28:21

It actually started far before eleven, but that's

28:23

when it finished after it had been

28:25

neglected for several decades. But

28:27

when it came to the finishing touches performed

28:29

by guilders, they turned to a medieval

28:32

recipe. It turns out to make perfect

28:34

gold guilt, egg whites have

28:37

to be first kept in a warm room for

28:39

forty days, and then those egg whites

28:41

are mixed with a clay, and then the magic

28:43

ingredient vodka is added

28:45

to that mixture, which is then used to

28:47

apply gold leaf. And according

28:49

to Mikhail Sudarov, who works with the company

28:51

that handled this refurbishment project, quote,

28:54

this method keeps gold from being overused

28:56

and helps retain its luster for fifty

28:59

to seventy years. So, in essence,

29:01

the same kind of thing that makes baked bread look

29:03

shiny and delicious will also make your

29:05

gold gleam and gleam in the

29:07

light. Due

29:10

to an uptick in specific diets,

29:12

there are now vodka's marketed that fit

29:15

within various eating restrictions,

29:17

so any domestically made, non flavored,

29:19

grain or potato based vodka in the

29:22

US is considered kosher. Some

29:24

brands made outside the US to use

29:26

to seek Kosher certification from the Orthodox

29:29

Union, including stolach

29:31

Naya and Crystal Head, and some vodkas

29:33

include messaging on the label about their

29:35

gluten free status. Yeah,

29:38

if you have dietary restrictions, there is probably

29:40

a company out there making

29:42

vodka that wants to make sure you know you can drink

29:45

whatever it is they're making. Um.

29:47

And because I love talking about

29:49

art, we're gonna end with innovative Norwegian

29:51

artist Zebjorn sand And

29:54

when Sound was visiting Antarctica and was

29:56

inspired to paint using the watercolors

29:58

that he had brought with him, ran into a little

30:00

bit of a problem, which is his paints were

30:02

freezing before he could get anything done, and

30:05

his Russian guides suggested vodka,

30:07

and he found success when he mixed that with

30:09

his pigments, and he called the resulting

30:11

technique vodka color. I

30:14

love a little innovation. I feel like vodka

30:17

is sort of one of those universal solvent substances

30:20

because it does get you still medicinally

30:23

still for cleaning and a

30:26

stringent needs and also in art

30:28

and also to make things beautiful and guilt

30:31

edged with gold fabulous.

30:34

Okay again, don't overindulge.

30:36

Please be careful with your vodka

30:38

consumption or don't drink at all if

30:40

that is the choice that you would rather make. Yeah,

30:43

totally fine. Uh

30:45

whatever works for you and is best

30:47

for your health. I feel

30:49

a little like Steve Rule, but I'm

30:52

back up off of that. Thanks

30:58

so much for joining us on this Saturday.

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