Horilka

Horilka (Belarusian: гарэлка, Ukrainian: горілка) is a Ukrainian alcoholic beverage. The word horilka may also be used in a generic sense in the Ukrainian language to mean whisky, or other strong spirits and etymologically is similar to the Ukrainian word for burning - hority. Home-distilled horilka, moonshine, is called samohon (Ukrainian: самогон, literally ‘self-distillate’ or ‘self-run’). Horilka is usually distilled from grain, though it can, exceptionally, also be distilled from potatoes, honey, sugar beets etc. One type of horilka, called pertsivka (Ukrainian: перцівка), is horilka with chili peppers. Historically, outside of Ukraine pertsivka is generally referred to when people speak of horilka, although pertsivka itself is just one type of horilka.