Vodka: How a Colorless, Odorless, Flavorless Spirit Conquered

Vodka: How a Colorless, Odorless, Flavorless Spirit Conquered America

It began as poisonous rotgut in Medieval Russiaâ€”Ivan the Terrible liked it, Peter the Great loved itâ€”but this grain alcohol â€œwithout distinctive character, aroma, taste, or colorâ€ has become our uncontested king of spirits. Over a thousand brands fight for market share, shelved in glass skulls, Tommy guns, bulletproof bottles; flavored with pears, currants, chipotle; or quintuple distilled by Donald Trump. But it wasnâ€™t always thus. For 200 years, America drank the brown stuff, which gave us Colonial rumrunners, the Whiskey Rebellion, and Bourbon County, Kentucky. So how did Russiaâ€™s â€œlittle water,â€ originally a medieval rotgut medicine, unseat Americaâ€™s favorite hooch? Vic Matus takes us on an incredible visual journey from vodkaâ€™s humble American origins in a Depression-era Connecticut factoryâ€”using the family recipe from a poor Russian exile in France named Vladimir Smirnovâ€”through its rise to glamour and fame at the hands of James Bond and the 1990s boom enshrined in Sex and the Cityâ€™s Grey Goose Cosmos to todayâ€™s craft distillery movement, which approaches the drink as an art form. Youâ€™ll see in clear, intoxicating detail how hippie culture, womenâ€™s lib, and an absolutely ingenious Swedish company all played their part, transforming the booze into a status symbol. By 1975, the war had ended: Vodka officially became our favorite spirit. Today, a third of all cocktails ordered contain it. Last year $20 billion in sales poured in from more than 140 million gallons of the stuff. Here is the crisply distilled, bracing story of how risk-taking entrepreneurs defied the odds and turned medieval medicine into a multibillion-dollar industry.
Country USA
Brand Lyons Press
Manufacturer Lyons Press
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber 9780762786992
ReleaseDate 2014-07-01
UnitCount 1
UPCs 660813786999
EANs 9780762786992

Country	USA
Brand	Lyons Press
Manufacturer	Lyons Press
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	9780762786992
ReleaseDate	2014-07-01
UnitCount	1
UPCs	660813786999
EANs	9780762786992

Vodka: How a Colorless, Odorless, Flavorless Spirit Conquered America

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