Vodka - Today

Today

By 1975, vodka sales in the United States overtook those of bourbon, previously the most popular hard liquor of the country. In the second half of the 20th century, vodka owed its popularity in part to its reputation as an alcoholic beverage that "leaves you breathless", as one ad put it — claiming no smell of liquor remains detectable on the breath, and its overall neutral flavor, (not to be confused with absence of flavor), allows it to be mixed into a wide variety of drinks, often replacing other liquors (particularly gin) in traditional drinks, such as the martini.

Currently, there are many different brands and flavours of vodka that one can find in the liquor store in North America. Some of the most common brands include Grey Goose, Three Olives Vodka, Smirnoff, and Absolut Vodka. There are a wide variety of flavors which include raspberry, green apple, mango, vanilla, coconut, birthday cake, blueberry, and many more.

According to The Penguin Book of Spirits and Liqueurs, "Its low level of fusel oils and congeners — impurities that flavour spirits but that can contribute to the after-effects of heavy consumption — led to its being considered among the 'safer' spirits, though not in terms of its powers of intoxication, which, depending on strength, may be considerable."

Russian culinary author William Pokhlebkin compiled a history of the production of vodka in Russia during the late 1970s as part of the Soviet case in a trade dispute; this was later published as A History of Vodka. Pokhlebkin claimed while there was a wealth of publications about the history of consumption and distribution of vodka, virtually nothing had been written about vodka production. One of his assertions was that the word "vodka" was used in popular speech in Russia considerably earlier than the middle of the 18th century, but the word did not appear in print until the 1860s.