Vodka (Russian: водка, Polish: wódka; from вода (woda) [water] + ка (ka) [little]) is a clear distilled liquor composed of water and ethyl alcohol, made from a fermented substance of either grain, rye, wheat, potatoes, or sugar beet molasses; it also might contain trace amounts of other substances, either a flavour or unintended impurities. Vodka’s alcoholic content usually ranges between 35 to 50 per cent by volume; the standard Russian, Lithuan...
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Vodka (Russian: водка, Polish: wódka; from вода (woda) [water] + ка (ka) [little]) is a clear distilled liquor composed of water and ethyl alcohol, made from a fermented substance of either grain, rye, wheat, potatoes, or sugar beet molasses; it also might contain trace amounts of other substances, either a flavour or unintended impurities. Vodka’s alcoholic content usually ranges between 35 to 50 per cent by volume; the standard Russian, Lithuanian, and Polish vodkas are 40 per cent alcohol by volume (80 proof).
Historically, this alcoholic-proof standard derives from the Russian vodka quality standards established by Tsar Alexander III in 1894. The Muscovite Vodka Museum reports that chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (viz. the Periodic Table of the Elements) determined the ideal proof as 38 per cent; however, because, in that time, distilled spirits were taxed per their alcoholic strength, that percentage was rounded upwards, to 40 per cent, for simplified taxation calculus.
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