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WARSAW, Poland – Whether it is a source of national pride or negative stereotypes, vodka is an integral part of Polish identity.
The country has just turned an old distillery into a museum celebrating its long tradition of vodka, but the location in a Warsaw neighborhood formerly known for thieves and drunkards also recalls the disadvantage of the tipple national.
"says Andrzej Szumowski, president of the Polish Vodka Association, who co-sponsored the new museum, the first of its kind in Poland
" Just as there is no 39, history of France without cognac or champagne, no British history without gin or scottish whiskey or no Mexican history without tequila, you can not speak Polish history without mentioning vodka. "
This story includes the French expression" Drunk as a Pole ", which is now derogatory, but originally had the opposite meaning when Napoleon would have used it first with his soldiers.
It was his way of saying, "You can drink but you must know how to be drunk like the Poles who, even when intoxicated, are" Szumowski
Noble monopoly
Poland was a kingdom of beer and mead before vodka appeared in the fifteenth century and consumption habits were reversed.
The nobility began to assign an ever increasing percentage of the wheat crop to the production of spirits.
According to the monopoly that completely disappeared just before the 19th century, the nobles had the exclusive right to import, produce and sell alcohol on their properties.
They even had the right to require their serfs that they buy a certain amount of alcohol.
Named after "woda", Polish for "water", vodka also served as barter currency during periods of scarcity, which were numerous over the course of history hectic Poland.
After the First World War, the alcohol monopoly accounted for 10% of the state budget and even up to 15% after the end of the Second World War, according to the report. Polish edition of Forbes.
Poland currently produces the equivalent of almost 100 million liters of pure alcohol each year, according to the National Association of Spirits Industries ZPPPS
which ranks it among the top producers with the United States, Ukraine and Russia.
King of Consumption
"Unfortunately, we are especially exceptional in the consumption of alcohol," says Krzysztof Brzoska, head of the state agency for the prevention of problems related to alcohol.
"Almost all the alcohol produced here ends up on the domestic market," he adds, saying that Poles are drinking more and more. The current favorite is beer.
While neighboring Lithuania consumes the most alcohol per capita each year in Europe, the Poles are ahead in terms of the amount consumed at any given time.
"We drink less often than the French or the Italians, but when we drink, we continue all the way," says Brzoska, adding that about 1,500 Poles are dying from an alcohol overdose every year.
According to Dariusz Wasilewski, a psychiatrist specializing in drinking problems, more than 800,000 people are addicted to alcohol in the country of 38 million people
. But he adds that the number of Poles whose consumption habits are detrimental to health. three or four times higher.
"I simply can not accept the idea that an alcoholic beverage can be a source of national pride," he told AFP. .
Art of vodka
For Tadeusz Dorda, marketing manager of the Chopin brand, there is an art of drinking vodka: "We want to talk about it intelligently" . [19659002] He wants us to know for example that vodka does not have to be icy served.
In fact, some connoisseurs say that the quality of a vodka is whether it is drinkable at a temperature between six and eight degrees Celsius (43 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit).
It is then that it is possible to detect the particular taste and scent of vodka, which depend on its main ingredient, as well as the place and the time when it was made, according to Dorda .
Potato-based vodka has a high quality, while the rye variety is lighter and is also known for its bitter taste and strong fragrance. Wheat-based vodka offers the sweetest flavor.
AFP
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