Wódka (vodka) is a Polish staple — the word means, roughly, “precious little water.” Poles take vodka seriously and control its production assiduously. Its ingredients are domestically grown, and pure vodka contains some combination of just six ingredients: potatoes, rye, wheat, barley, oats, and the wheat-rye hybrid triticale. Quality vodkas have different flavor profiles depending on how the distiller has blended these ingredients; for example, potato gives an oily consistency, rye is sweeter

Wódka (vodka) is a Polish staple — the word means, roughly, “precious little water.” Poles take vodka seriously and control its production assiduously. Its ingredients are domestically grown, and pure vodka contains some combination of just six ingredients: potatoes, rye, wheat, barley, oats, and the wheat-rye hybrid triticale. Żubrówka, the most famous brand of vodka, comes with a blade of grass from the bison reserves in eastern Poland (look for the bison on the label). The bison “flavor” the