Jak będzie po polsku "cingu lingu"?

[muckefuck]

Those who know my drinking habits know that, in general, I'm not much for vodka. This probably has something to do with the fact that I first encountred it in college, when no one could afford really good vodka. So my mates tended to place a premium on smoothness, i.e. lack of character, and would mask the unpleasant burn of lesser distillations with strong flavours such as fruit jello or Kahlua.

So I probably never would've developed a taste for the stuff at all if Nuphy hadn't introduced me to Okhotnichya, a.k.a "hunter's vodka". This is a traditional flavoured vodka which is steeped with mountain herbs and sweetened with honey, but for all that you'd never mistake it for any monastic herbal liqueur; it still tastes very much like vodka. This was right before the market for flavoured vodka really exploded in this country, a development which paradoxically pushed Okhotnichya off the shelves to make room for concoctions with everything from vanilla to watermelon. Around this time, a Polish co-worker told me about Żubrówka, which takes its name from a Polish word for its chief aromatic, buffalo grass (Hierochloe odorata). I was intrigued, but since the FDA had banned true Żubrówka due to the presence of coumarin, I couldn't get my hands on the real stuff.

Flash forward to last Christmas, when lhn handed me a bottle of buffalo grass vodka. I didn't even realise until looking at the label to write this entry that it's not actually Polish, but a Lithuanian brand (Stumbras, from the Lithuanian name for the same plant, stumbražolė). I joyfully hoisted it home, put it in the liquor cabinet, and basically ignored it for half a year until my eyes fell on it last night and I resolved to give it a try this afternoon, when I would have plenty of time for the alcohol to work its way out before bedtime.

It has--as one might expect--a pleasant grassy scent and I initially decided to give it my usual treatment for new-fangled flavoured vodkas, i.e. tall with tonic. But the subtle taste was completely overwhelmed by quinine, so I followed this up with a shot of it room temperature and neat. Verdict: I could get used to it. It's neither as sweet nor as herbal as the Okhotnichya, but burns a little less. Certainly, it's more interesting than straight Stoli or Absolute.

Comments

Kocham Żubrówkę!

[joliecanard.livejournal.com]

My favorite way to drink it is to mix it with apple juice, a cocktail called szarlotka (or tatanka, the more common term around Kraków, at least according to a friend). It tastes astoundingly close to apple pie (hence the name szarlotka)!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw this in Wikipedia. What are the proportions?

[joliecanard.livejournal.com]

Good question. I'm not too careful with proportions... I just pour a shot or two of zubrowka over ice and top it up with the juice. Maybe 1:3 or 1:4?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

1:4 seems to be the official Żubrówka recommendation, at least according to some website I found. Boże mój, those are fantastic! I drank three in a little over an hour this afternoon before I realised what I'd done.

[thedeli.livejournal.com]

What's the source ingredient of that stuff? Rye? Potato? Or the usual?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

"Herbal Bison Grass is produced from the Finest Rye Vodka[.]" I take their word for it since it's not like I can tell the difference between various neutral grain spirits.

[thedeli.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Some people insist they can tell the difference - and those same people usually swear by potato vodka. Or, so I've noticed. Personally, I swear by any vodka that tastes exactly like water, but that's a rare find outside the Vodka Belt.

[thedeli.livejournal.com]

PS: Really weirdly and just now, as I was fixing up entries at my new place (shhh) I came across this handsome mark of quality:

[joliecanard.livejournal.com]

The russkies are getting in on it, too, huh? I definitely don't remember even running into Zubrowka in Russia, but I wasn't on the lookout, either.

[thedeli.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that if you ask them, many Russians will insist that they invented Zubrowka. Along with polyphonic choral music and the steam engine.

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

Mmm, one of my favourite drinks. When I first went to Poland about ten years ago I stayed with a friend in the east for about a week, and throughout the winter they always kept a bottle of it stuck in a snowdrift outside the back door. Yum. The Poles insist they invented vodka, of course, but don't get into that argument if there's a Russian nearby..

[joliecanard.livejournal.com]

While we're talking about Eastern European herbal liquors...
Have you tried the Czech Becherovka? The cinnamon flavor is a little too overpowering, for me, but I'm still a fan. I can't tell you how many "betony" I drank while I was in Prague!

Also, the Serbian/Croatian Pelinkovac, which I like better than Becherovka. Wikipedia's claim that it tastes like Jägermeister is only true in the sense that they're both herbal liquors. I have trouble finding that one, though. Even in Macedonia I couldn't find it in any stores, only some bars. This one I like to drink neat.