IN PRAISE
OF RUSSIAN VODKA
text by Kevin Grubb

Each of the regions traversed by the Silk Route has its own drinking traditions. The medicinal qualities of Chinese tea are well known; as are those of kumys, fermented mare's milk drunk in the Turkic countries, and airan, a steppe drink made by mixing yoghurt, spring water and usually a little salt. Armenian cognac is as highly esteemed as the sometimes delicate, sometimes rich wines of Georgia and the dark syrupy elixir that is Turkish coffee. But from China to the Black Sea the chief, the foremost, the supreme alcoholic beverage is vodka, which you can find in an astonishing variety of forms. (This may sound a little Russian- or Soviet-imperialist, or perhaps nostalgic; but it's still true: vodka is the most popular drink.) The Chinese make it from rice and the Mongols and Altays from mare's milk. The Caucasian highlanders make something pretty similar, chacha, from grapes, and the renowned poet and wanderer, Omar Khayam, drank barley vodka at at least one (and if one, why not more?) caravanserai. But the most revered of them all is Russian vodka.

In pre-Christian times, Russians drank a low-alcohol beverage on three occasions: at the birth of a child, to celebrate a victory in battle, or at a funeral. Only kings were allowed to hold feasts, and then not to amuse themselves but to entertain diplomats and important traders in pursuit of political and commercial aims. At such feasts they drank wine only from abroad - the mead and barley beer were local.
When the Russians finally got round to making vodka, they didn't call it vodka at first (this is the time of ancient Rus) but grain wine. It was first made in a distillery in the Monastery of the Miracle, in the Kremlin, the monks drinking it to improve not their mood but their health. Used mainly to treat wounds and as an anaesthetic, it also helped the monks through colds and the flu.  Therapeutic doses did not exceed a single cup, although authorities differ as to the precise size of the cup. Its medicinal reputation boosted its popularity and soon it was an everyday drink throughout Russia. It didn't take long for it to become controversial: the monastery lost favour with Tsar Ivan III during a dispute with him over control of vodka production, and later Ivan the Terrible, to increase his revenues, banned the vodka trade from Moscow except in special drinking houses - called balchuga or kabak in Tatar - which he had set for that purpose (and thus was the Russian pub born); and of course Mikhail Gorbachev tried to ban it, not with much success.

Thanks to Peter I, who liked a drink and permitted drinking among his nobles, vodka became a permanent feature of the average dinner table and an indispensable element of military service during the Russian Imperial period. During the reign of Catherine the Great noblemen produced their own vodka at home, many of them maintaining a so-called alphabet of flavoured vodkas, each one infused with an ingredient whose name began with a different letter of the alphabet - everything, they used to say, from anise to apple (the Russian for apple beginning with the last letter of the Cyrillic alphabet). The high quality of Russian vodka brought it international prestige and the Empress was not averse to sending vodka as a gift to coronations in Europe or indeed to Voltaire, who was something of a connoisseur of French wines and cognacs.

In the 19th century, the Russian chemist Mendeleev identified the optimum strength of vodka as 40 per cent alcohol. At this strength it would be relatively safe to drink, easy to produce at a consistently high level of quality and yet retain its warming properties. His formula was subsequently adopted by the government.

The word vodka is derived from the word for water, which is the drink's principal constituent. The best water is natural spring water, and the best spring water comes from Mystishinsk, near Moscow. Before the water can be mixed with the grain alcohol to make the vodka, it must pass through a series of purification processes: separation, filtration through quartz sand and oxygenation. However it must not, according to Russian tradition, under any circumstances be distilled or boiled, and this is one of the secrets of Russian vodka's pre-eminence: the water remaining in a sense alive, the vodka possesses a unique softness. Despite the absence of either scent or aftertaste, it has flavour.

The grain alcohol is also purified, of unwanted oils and other substances, by multiple distillation, freezing and filtration through charcoal (whose cleansing potential, incidentally, was first discovered by a pupil of Mendeleev's, the academician Zelinskii, who was the first to use charcoal filters in gas masks).

These two components - pure rye or wheat alcohol and Russian spring water - combine to create the inimitable taste of genuine Russian vodka. It might seem obvious, but in this marketing-dominated world, it's nevertheless worth saying: if it's not made in Russia, it's not Russian vodka.

Russians drink vodka preferably chilled and almost always neat, never following it with a chaser, but instead with a zakuska, a little nibble of something, usually lightly salted pickles or marinated mushrooms. Good vodka goes well too with borshch, bliny with caviar, or Siberian pelmeni (similar to ravioli but spherical rather than cuboidal in shape). In Uzbekistan arak, a local vodka, is drunk on an empty stomach during the many hours of preparation for the Plov Festival. However the table is laid without it because traditionally alcohol is not drunk at the Uzbek dining table - the beverage most closely associated with plov is green tea. In the chaikhana, the teahouse, one can order vodka but it will be served only in a teapot or teacup: the bottle must be kept out of sight. In Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Kashghar in China, vodka is drunk with beshbarmak (a dish of boiled meat served in its own broth with noodles, so called  - its literal translation being five fingers - because it is eaten with the hand,) or spicy Uyghur, Chinese or Korean dishes. Georgian chacha is a grape vodka of gorgeous golden hue, but very strong  - over 50 per cent alcohol - whose smell and taste are surprisingly reminiscent of not very good whiskey. It is only offered to close relatives and friends who can be relied upon not to be offended at not being offered the higher-status substitute, wine.