Word: alcohols
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Galluccio testified on Monday that he had showered and brushed his teeth twice before the tests, stating that he had not ingested alcohol that morning, according to the Globe...
Peter the Great - who was rumored to drink up to half a gallon (2 L) of vodka a day - cracked down on home-brewed alcohol by creating liquor licenses, which were required in order to sell vodka. Catherine the Great made it illegal for anyone other than the aristocracy to purvey it, which boosted the drink's quality - and the Czarina's coffers. By 1860, more than 40% of government revenue came from vodka. The distillation process had improved (vodka was now filtered with charcoal and occasionally flavored), leading to increased consumption. By 1913, Russian citizens could boast one unlicensed...
...understand the grip vodka has on Russian culture, one need only to look at its name: vodka is a diminutive form of the word voda - Russian for water. The average Russian drinks 4.75 gal. (18 L) of pure alcohol a year, mostly in the form of vodka. Distilled from grains or potatoes, it has no real taste. It is not sipped; it is not savored. In fact, there's no real reason to drink it except to get drunk. With an alcohol content of between 40% and 55% (80-110 proof), vodka is consumed as a shot, usually...
...Monastery began distilling the first Russian spirits some time in the 15th century. Ivan the Terrible served vodka to his oprichniki - the special police force that carried out his violent and, well, terrible orders. To facilitate their drunken revelry, Ivan opened kabaks, or taverns, that served vodka and other alcohol (no food). By 1648, with Russians developing a strong taste for drink, a third of the country's male population was in debt to the state-owned kabaks. When Moscow started collecting the debts, peasants responded by distilling and distributing vodka at home. (See the best pictures...
...time to cut down on the booze. On Jan. 1, the Kremlin adopted new minimum-price standards for vodka that will nearly double the cost of a half-liter bottle of the national spirit, from $1.69 to $3. The move, part of President Dmitri Medvedev's anti-alcoholism campaign, is designed to curb Russians' excessive drinking. With a per capita alcohol consumption twice as high as that of the U.S. and an active underground market for homemade alcohol (known as samogon), Russians aren't about to give up their vodka so easily. The 2010 price hikes are just the latest...