Vodka – A Versatile Spirit

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Vodka traces its origins to the eastern region of Europe. Russia as well as Poland claim to be the first producers of vodka. The word vodka stems from voda or woda which means water in both the countries. The physical appearance of the drink may have been the reason why it was called water, or probably because it was drunk with such ease and it was almost as common as water.

Vodka is now popular around the world but it took a long while for the drink to reach the rest of the world. The spirit can be produced from a variety of agricultural materials. In the EU, vodka is mainly produced from grain or molasses while potatoes and rice are usually used for the production of vodka in Eastern European countries.

History

Distilleries at Khylnovsk that bear evidence of the first production of vodka date back to the 12^th century although the first documented production in Russia was around the end of the 9^th century. Assertions from Poland date back the history of the drink to the 8^th century but the first Polish vodkas emerged during the 11^th century.

The use of distilled liquor during the middle ages was primarily for medicinal purposes and for the production of gunpowder. Russia produced various qualities of vodka starting from plain to high quality. With the crude production methods used in the vodka distilleries, the drink often had impurities which were masked by the distillers by flavouring it with fruits, herbs and spices.

During the 18^th century, a professor in St. Petersburg used charcoal filtration to purify the spirit. The awareness of vodka spread across many parts of Europe and production methods continued to improvise. The increasing popularity of vodka escalated the production of the spirit.

Towards the end of the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks seized all private distilleries that operated in Moscow. Emigration of the population led to many Russian vodka makers taking their recipes and skills to new places.

One of those emigrants began production in Paris under the French version of his family name – Smirnoff. The distiller did not meet with much success in the beginning, but soon he collaborated with a Russian émigré from the USA. They set up a distillery in 1934 and the vodka produced from this distillery was sold to a US drinks company.

This is how vodka was introduced to the western world and today it is considered as one of the most versatile spirits. The ability of vodka to mix easily with a variety of drinks is the reason why you will find it in the shelves of all the pubs and bars around the world.

Top Vodka Producing Countries

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Tequila – Get Educated Before Your Next Shot

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History and Where It Is Made

Tequila is a drink that is known to have originated from the Western sides of Mexico. The drink is highly valued in Mexico and consumers of the drink tend to praise it as far as term it as the best spirit in the world. It is an agave base spirit and it is created or manufactured mainly in the areas around Tequila, Jalisco. This area is approximately 65 kilometers towards the area of the northwest of Guadalajara. The area contains plenty of volcanic soils and the presence of it makes it possible for supporting growth of the cactus-like-blue plant called the agave. The area around tequila, thus produces an amount of approximately 300 million of the cactus like blue plant in a year that is used to make tequila. By the law of the Mexican state, tequila should only be produced in the areas around Jalisco. Other permitted areas are few in number and they include areas around the states of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Tamaulipas and in Nayarit.

History

The history of tequila is known to date back to the 16th century in the area near the city of tequila. The city was officially established in the year 1666. There was a creation of a fermented beverage that was made from the agave plant. This beverage was made a long time by the Aztec people even before the arrival of people from Spain. This was the path to the founding of tequila.

About a time of 80 years from then, a rich ranch owner called Don Pedro Sanchez de Tagle, started the creation of tequila in large amounts at a factory that was situated somewhere in today’s Jalisco. The products produced by the factory of Don Pedro were good and they sold to a lot of customers in the region and some from outside the region. The colonial governor of Nueva Galicia noticed this and even started taxing Don Pedro’s products.

The first official license to be handed to a producer that was handed to the Cuervo family by the king of Spain at that time was known as Carlos who was the fourth of his name. Don Sauza was the creator of Sauza Tequila and he was also the president in terms of the municipality of the town of tequila. The first exportation of tequila to the United States was mainly masterminded by him. After this, Tequila became modernized very fast and legitimate companies and distributors emerged to form the current worldwide demand, manufacture and distribution of Tequila.

How Tequila is Made

Tequila is made from the blue agave plant. Piña is extracted from mature blue agave plants. The hearts of the piña are then opened by splitting them; afterwards they are steamed in huge pressure cookers. The extracted fluid from the pressure cooked heart of the piña is left to ferment and takes about 12 days. The time of fermentation depends on the amount of sugar, water, temperature and the type of yeast.

After fermentation, the fluid is taken through a double distillation process. From this process, the product derived is potent, high-proof tequila. The color of the tequila until this point is of a colorless nature. The different colors of different tequilas can then be added using different processes to bring out the desired color. For example the gold tequila is made to be so in color by adding caramel coloring. Some of the different tequilas are colored by allowing them to age for either a longer or a shorter period depending on the suitable color. 

Types of Tequila

There are two main types of tequila, the Tequila Mixto which is a mixed type and the 100% Blue Agave. Tequila Mixto consists of about 51% of blue agave and the other part of it is from different sugars mostly from sugar cane. Mixto tequila allows the additions of other products like the caramel color, the oak extract flavoring, sugar based syrup and glycerin. Dividing the two categories of tequila, one can derive other types including;

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