Vodka

“ The Russian grain-spirit is called "vodka." The best qualities are more like the best whiskey than anything else, only weaker; but it is of various degrees of excellence as of price. The new common vodka, like other new spirits, is fiery; but when purified, and kept for some time, it is excellent and particularly mild. Travellers to Moscow who are curious on the subject of vodka may visit a gigantic distillery in the neighbourhood, to which it is easy to gain admission, and where they can obtain information and samples in abundance. ”

“ Spirituous liquors are like sea-water and glory: the more you imbibe of them the greater your thirst. And now as he undressed, Strizhin was aware of an overwhelming craving for drink.
“I believe Dashenka has some vodka in the cupboard in the right-hand corner,” he thought. “If I drink one wine-glassful, she won’t notice it.” ”

“ When at Carnival or at the church festival, which lasted for three days, they sold the peasants tainted salt meat, smelling so strong it was hard to stand near the tub of it, and took scythes, caps, and their wives’ kerchiefs in pledge from the drunken men; when the factory hands stupefied with bad vodka lay rolling in the mud, and sin seemed to hover thick like a fog in the air, then it was a relief to think that up there in the house there was a gentle, neatly dressed woman who had nothing to do with salt meat or vodka ”

“ My husband sits sodden with a decanter of vodka before him. I gave him the vodka, the dear little father vodka.' Ivan Nicholaievitch kissed her violently. 'You are so strong, so brutal, so wonderful, Ivan Nicholaievitch,' she said. ”

“ Messieurs the commercial travelers for champagne, who talk together importantly in the lobbies of the Grand Morskaia Hotel and who have studied the Russian people even in the most distant cities where champagne is sold, will tell you that over any table of hors-d’oeuvres, and will regulate the whole question of the Revolution between two little glasses of vodka, swallowed properly, quickly, elbow up, at a single draught, in the Russian manner. ”

“ Ivan turned from the fiery beverage with loathing, and asked for kvass. “Here is no kvass,” said the old woman roughly. “No man would be fool enough to drink it who could get vodka. But you can have water, if you like.”
With this he was content. He wrapped himself up in his shuba, lay down beside the fire in the shed, and was soon fast asleep; while the mujiks sat outside talking, laughing, singing, and drinking vodka. ”

“ THE VODKA BOTTLE (A Play of Russian Life in the manner of Anton Tchekov.)
The study of Ivan Ivanovitch Bougárov, a wealthy landowner. Bougárov is alone at the desk. A vodka bottle and a measuring glass are at his elbow.
Bougárov (sniffing the glass) : It’s strong enough, I think.... Brr, what a filthy stench!... Where are the directions? (He gropes for a piece of paper.) Here they are. Sprinkle it on toasted cheese, and leave it lying about in the vicinity of their holes. (Examining the bottle.) That ought to be sufficient for all the rats in Little Russia as the saying is. ”

“ The person who supplies the vodka, tastes the precious liquid almost always as he is carrying it to the hiding-place, and replaces relentlessly what he has drunk by pure water. The purchaser may take it or leave it, but he cannot give himself airs. He thinks himself very lucky that his money has not been stolen from him, and that he has received some kind of vodka in exchange. ”

“ The Russians, doubtless, have a natural appetite for tobacco, in common with all races of mankind, whether Digger Indians, Caffirs, Hindoos, Persians, Turks, Americans, or Dutchmen; for I never yet have met with a people who did not take to the glorious weed, in some shape or other, as naturally as a babe to its mother’s breast. Vodka, or native brandy, is their favorite beverage, when they can get it. In that respect, too, they share a very common attribute of humanity—a passion for strong drinks. ”

“ The distillation is conducted by means of live steam in a double still of the “patent” type. Vodka as manufactured contains from 90 to 96% of alcohol, but it is diluted, previous to retailing, to a strength of 60 to 40%. It is illegal to sell it with less than 40% of alcohol. ”

“ Aren't you a dissenter? Here you don't take vodka. What's the meaning of that if it is not being a dissenter?"
To satisfy him I drank some vodka and I drank some wine, too. We tasted the cheese, the sausage, the pâtés, the pickles, and the savouries of all sorts that the engineer had brought with him, and the wine that had come in his absence from abroad. The wine was first-rate. For some reason the engineer got wine and cigars from abroad without paying duty; the caviare and the dried sturgeon someone sent him for nothing ”

“ All three went into a restaurant and without taking off their coats they each had two thimblefuls of vodka at the bar. Before drinking the second, Vassiliev noticed a piece of cork in his Vodka, lifted the glass to his eye, looked at it for a long while with a short-sighted frown. The medico misunderstood his expression and said—
"Well, what are you staring at? No philosophy, please. Vodka's made to be drunk, caviare to be eaten, women to sleep with, snow to walk on. Live like a man for one evening." ”

“ I have been over thousands of miles of Russia this year, in town and in village, in the melancholy north and in the passionate south, and I can give authentic witness. There is no noticeable leak of vodka. Except in Archangel city, I saw no drunken man anywhere. There they were drunk with English whisky obtained from the boats in the harbour. The pilot taking boats out always expects a bottle of whisky as well as his three-rouble tip. All manner of people are, as a British captain expressed it, “bumming around for whisky.” ”

“ As the sun sinks towards the horizon, the more grave, staid guests wend their way homewards, but many remain for supper; and as evening advances the effects of the vodka become more and more apparent. Sounds of revelry are heard more frequently from the houses, and a large proportion of the inhabitants and guests appear on the road in various degrees of intoxication. ”

“ Thus it is taken for granted that the drinking by an opulent Russian of a glass of vodka every day before each meal and a glass of wine at each meal, by a Frenchman of his absinthe, by an Englishman of his port and porter, by a German of his beer, and the smoking by a well-to-do Chinaman of his moderate portion of opium, and the smoking of tobacco, are done only for pleasure, and have no influence on the consciences of men. ”

“ At the end of [45] the meal a hissing samovar was brought in, tea was brewed, and a decanter of vodka passed round, and we all agreed that vodka makes a very good substitute for whiskey, but that weak tea without milk, drunk boiling hot out of tumblers, would take some getting used to, as it evidently is an acquired taste, and wants educating up to by a prolonged stay in Russia. The cabin of the Phœnix, though small, was so clean and cosy that it seemed quite a treat to have a decently served meal after all the “pigging” we had had to put up with on the Biscaya ”

“ Those horrible buckets of vodka. One day a greasy landowner will drag the peasants before the Zemstvo Court for trespass, and the next, if it's a holiday, he will give them a bucket of vodka, and they drink and shout Hooray ! and lick his boots in their drunkenness. A change to good eating and idleness always fills a Russian with the most preposterous self-conceit. ”

“ As to the Russians, who are generally sober, the infusion of tea is enough for them, not without a certain addition of vodka, which is the Muscovite brandy.
I, a Frenchman, and even a Gascon, am content to drink my bottle of Kachelie, as we drank our Château Laffite, in those regretted days, when the sun still distilled it on the hillsides of Pauillac. In truth this Caucasian wine, although rather sour, accompanied by the boiled fowl, known as pilau—has rather a pleasant taste about it.
It is over and paid for. Let us mingle with the sixteen thousand inhabitants of the Georgian capital. ”

“ Just drink and drown your sorrows!
FEDYA. Drink mine, too, sir! Oh! [Throws down a five-copeck piece] If you drink, you die; if you don't drink, you die. It's good not to drink vodka, but by God you're easier when you've got some! Vodka takes grief away. ... It is hot!
BORTSOV. Boo! The heat!
MERIK. Give it here! [Takes the medallion from TIHON and examines her portrait] Hm. Ran off after the wedding. What a woman! ”

“ Marya Alekséyevna, do you ever take a glass of vodka before dinner? It's very healthful, especially this kind, made out of bitter oranges; I tell you this as a medical man. Please try it; yes, yes, you must try it! without fail ”

“ The man who in the evening drinks a bottle of wine, a glass of vodka, or two tankards of ale, finds himself in the customary condition of headachiness or depression which follows exhilaration, and therefore in a condition of intellectual debasement, which is still further increased by smoking. ”

“ Hunter, an American resident of Petropavlovsk. In every house I visited I was pressed to take petnatzet copla (fifteen drops,) the universal name there for something stimulating. The drops might be American whisky, French brandy, Dutch gin, or Russian vodka. David Crockett said a true gentleman is one who turns his back while you pour whisky into your tumbler. The etiquette of Kamchatka does not permit the host to count the drops taken by his guest. ”

“ Pouring out a cup of vodka and making the sign of the cross, he now invites the Dziadys to partake of the feast; he himself, imitated by his wife and all the members of the family, empties the cup; and then they eat and drink till they can do so no longer. ”

“ Before beginning to eat, the householder pours out a cup of vodka, and letting a few drops fall upon the cloth, he empties it, whereupon all the others do the same. During the meal a portion of the food is set aside for the deceased, and finally the kutĭya is served. ”

“ Wine and tobacco destroy the individuality. After a cigar or a glass of vodka you are no longer Peter Sorin, but Peter Sorin plus somebody else. Your ego breaks in two: you begin to think of yourself in the third person. ”

“ Man, seeking ways of producing alcohol from substances other than wine, early made the important observation that fermentation and the production of alcoholic liquids go hand in hand. This discovery, as time passed, became common knowledge, with the result that fermented liquids from different sources came to be looked upon as characteristic national drinks—thus in France wine from grapes, in Jamaica rum from cane, in Russia vodka from rye, in Japan saki from rice, in Germany beer from barley and in America whiskey from Indian corn. ”

“ Alcoholic liquors are most generally used for the preservation of animal substances, if they are more costly, they are liable to fewer objections. Brandy, rum, tafea, are coloured by a resinous substance, which clouds their transparency, and which is liable to be deposited. The alcohol of cherries, of grain, of cider, or of wine, is preferred at present, which can be procured well rectified and transparent, and which may be afterwards weakened with distilled water, so as to obtain alcohol very limpid, marking from 22° to 30° of Baumè’s areometer. ”

“ As the vapor passes through the tube, it cools and drops out at the end into the worm-tub, changed into a liquid stronger in alcohol than that from which it was drawn or distilled.
In this way gin is made from beer, brandy from wine, and rum from fermented molasses. These are very strong drinks, and only hard drinkers like them. But very few people begin by taking these; they first learn to like alcohol by drinking cider, beer, or wine, and end with gin, whiskey, or rum when they have become drunkards. ”

“ De-natured Alcohol and De-naturing Formulæ
The uses of alcohol are very numerous and varied, the principal being, of course, for the production of all alcoholic liquors such as brandy, gin, rum, whiskey, liquors, etc.; that distilled from grain is almost entirely consumed in the manufacture of whiskey, gin, and British brandy. In the arts, strong alcohol is employed by the perfumers and makers of essences for dissolving essential oils, soaps, etc., and for extracting the odor of flowers and plants ”

“ Daily experience convinces us that the same quantity of alcohol, applied to the stomach under the form of natural wine, and in a state of mixture with water, will produce very different effects upon the body, and to an extent which it is difficult to comprehend; it has, for instance, been demonstrated that Port, Madeira, and Sherry, contain from one-fourth to one-fifth their bulk of alcohol, so that a person who takes a bottle of either of them, will thus take nearly half a pint of alcohol, or almost a pint of pure brandy! ”

“ The most common form in which alcohol is employed in this country is that of beer. Beer is distinguished from other alcoholic beverages by the addition of hops, which are the female catkins of a plant extensively grown in this country. Case 35 contains the materials from which porter is brewed, and illustrates the changes which malt undergoes during its conversion into beer. The analysis of stout, porter, pale ale, mild ale, and strong ale are exhibited in Case 35, and the quantities of water, alcohol, sugar, and acetic acid are shown in an imperial pint of each. ”

“ Wines, as well as all varieties of malt and spirituous liquors, owe their intoxicating qualities to alcohol. But the medical and dietetic qualities of wine are not solely due to it; a mixture of water and alcohol, or whiskey of equal strength, has a very different effect on the animal economy. Pure wines contain also natural acids, sugar, ethers, albumen, phosphates, etc. Their value is, however, mainly determined by their “Bouquet” or flavor, produced by substances natural to the grapes, heightened and rendered more delicate by fermentation. ”