National Vodka Day Helps You Get Ready For National Bosses Day

4 North (Rigby, ID) distills its vodkas from Idaho-grown Burbank and Russett potatoes. Craft bartenders have embraced the Rainier Cherry and Mountain Huckleberry flavors; an unflavored “Magic Valley Vodka” made with local winter wheat also is available.

Hangar One Mandarin Blossom (Alameda, CA) This artisan distiller makes soft, sophisticated vodkas distilled from viognier wine and wheat. In addition to other creative fresh-fruit infusions like Kaffir Lime and Citron “Buddha’s Hand,” their Mandarin Blossom infusion is one of the best around, with a honeyed-floral fragrance and a clean, brisk flavor.

There is some dispute on where it all began for Vodka. Russians claim they were the first to distill somewhere around the end of the 9th century. Some say the Poles did in the 8th. Even others claim the Poles were making a distillate of wine, so it truly wasn’t vodka because it was made of grapes… yikes. What we do know is that written history (specifically a document called the Vyatka Chronicle of 1174) places the first distillery, Khylnovsk, in Russia around that time.

It is generally accepted that the word vodka comes from the Romanization of the Polish and Russian word "Водка" or the word “voda” meaning “water” in Russian. There are speculations that the naming of vodka with “water” stems from the Latin “aqua vitae” used to describe alcoholic beverages in nearby civilizations.