If it seems to you that modern producers of hard drinks invented this "magic liquid", you are seriously mistaken. The origins of vodka date back to ... Ancient times. Exactly!

Aristotle himself wrote about the distillation of alcohol. Following the example of the local sages, the Arabs (Al. Koh'l - purified substance) started to produce high-percentage alcohol.

Zosimosa of Panapolis (4th century CE) is assumed to be the first known person responsible for the correct performance of the distillation process. When it comes to wider production, the Arabs mentioned above gained the title of the first, starting work in the 8th century in Andalusia.

Historical inaccuracies, i.e. Arabs, Egyptians or Chinese?

Historians are still arguing where vodka production was first started on an at least international scale.

In the literature on the subject, Arabia is intertwined with Egypt, Mesopotamia and China. Why? Well, this drink has been considered a medicine since the dawn of time, and a key ingredient of ... perfume. Numerous healing agents, essences and lotions were made of it.

  • We know that around 1800 BC, at the court of the Mesopotamian king named Zimrilima, distillation was used to produce copious amounts of balms and incense for spiritual rituals, including embalming the dead.
  • In other books, we can read that the first vodka distillation equipment (alembic) was invented in the 2nd century BC by Maria Żydówka and Zosimos from Panapolis (an Egyptian alchemist who had many interesting inventions, including reflux condensers).
  • Of course, let's not forget about the Arabs who experimented with perfume extracts, as well as turning bronze into gold. They had the necessary knowledge and skills to create an alembic. Fun fact: alembic (Greek Ambix - vase with a small hole). The Arabs changed the Greek word to Ambic, and the distillation device itself was called Al. Ambic.
  • It is certain that as early as 800 BC, the Chinese were producing alcohol from rice.

A few words about vodka in the Middle Ages

What was the vodka issue like in the Middle Ages? The drink was produced on an ongoing basis, but not for the purposes for which it is used today. Such strong alcohols were used only as medicines. Of course, the present day also knows the cases of using high-alcohol drinks for medicinal purposes.

Poland is worth mentioning here. Vodka appeared relatively late in Polish records - only in 1405, in court documents in Sandomierz. Over 100 years later, Stefan Falimierz described in his herbarium (About Herbs and Their Power) 72 types of herbal vodkas, recommended for consumption under specified ailments.

Drinking vodka as an alcoholic beverage did not appear in Eastern Europe until the end of the Middle Ages (vodka). The first ruler to introduce a monopoly on its production was the Grand Duke of Moscow, Ivan III the Sroga.