Alcohol Belts of Europe - Vodka Belt

Vodka Belt

Being an informal term, the "vodka belt" has no established definition. However, the general definition tends to include the following states:

• Russia
• Ukraine
• Belarus
• Nordic States (including Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and Greenland, but not Denmark.)
• Baltic states (Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania)
• Poland
• Rusyn areas of Slovakia and Hungary bordering Poland and Ukraine.

Northern Germany may be in the Vodka belt as well. The German clear grain distilled liquor Korn is similar to vodka. However, it is drunk just as one of many other varieties of liquors while beer is the main alcoholic beverage. Northern Scotland is sometimes included in the list under a more general heading of a "spirit belt" (the prevalent alcoholic drink in northern Scotland is not vodka, but a differently flavoured distilled spirit: whisky).

The few EU countries of the Vodka Belt produce over 70% of the EU's vodka.

The southern boundary of the "vodka belt" roughly corresponds to -2°C January isotherm. With the exception of Ukraine and some regions of southern Russia, cultivation of grapes is impossible or very difficult in the Vodka belt.

In his book about the Soviet Union, Alex de Jonge elaborates on his concept of "geoalcoholics". In particular, he explains Russian peculiarities by their belonging to the vodka belt and the absence of the beer belt in the Soviet Union. Other than the prevalent hard liquor, the vodka belt is also characteristic of higher occurrence binge drinking pattern compared to the rest of Europe. Likewise, in his Russia and the Russians historian Geoffrey Hoskins notes the distinct effect vodka culture has had on the countries of the former Russian Empire, creating drinking as a social problem on a different level from other European countries.

However, in many countries historically belonging to the Vodka Belt, vodka has been supplanted by beer as the alcoholic drink of choice. Residents of Finland and Sweden consume twice as much beer as vodka (in terms of pure alcohol). The Polish Beer-Lovers' Party (which won 16 seats in the Sejm in 1991) was founded on the notion of fighting alcoholism by a cultural abandonment of vodka for beer. And indeed in 1998, beer surpassed vodka as the most popular alcoholic drink in Poland. In Russia, annual consumption of beer has grown from 12 litres per capita in 1995 to 67 litres in 2006 (but still remains lower than consumption of vodka).

The term has been generating much buzz since 2006 in relating to the "vodka war" within the European Union about the standardisation of vodka: the Vodka Belt countries insist that only spirits produced from grains and potato must be allowed to be branded as "vodka", according to the long established traditions of its production, a brand protection similar to the "protected designation of origin". The "Schnellhardt compromise", proposed by Horst Schnellhardt, suggests that vodkas from other than cereals, potatoes and molasses, should be labeled to say "Vodka produced from..."