The world is drinking a lot of vodka. The biggest market is, unsurprisingly, Russia, followed by the USA. Here are the top tipplers (2008 numbers, source: The Drinks Business):
- Russia: 269 million cases
- USA: 55 M
- Ukraine: 41 M
- Poland: 33 M
- Kazakhstan: 10 M
- Belarus: 9 M
- UK: 8 M
- Germany: 7 M
- Uzbekistan: 6 M
- Brazil: 5 M
(269 million cases is approximately 24 million hectolitre, if the calculator serves us well. As a comparison, France produces around 60 M hl of wine.)
A few interesting vodka products?: Bakon Vodka, with a flavour of, yes, bacon; Thunder Vodka, with a flavour of (are you sitting down?) toffee, “taste the storm” they say (internally?); of Lex Vodka with this information in their marketing ”6 months maturation and crystal purity … unique aging technology … sophisticated process gives us untold harmony and crystalline product purity … a sublime taste that defies description … 11 filtration stages (including silver and platinuma filters) … artesian water from … natural composition is thus maintained” etc.
The ten biggest vodka brands:
- Smirnoff 25 M cases and a market share of 4.8%
- Green Mark 12 M
- Absolut 11 M
- Nemiroff 8 M
- Khortystsa 8 M
- Pyat Ozer 6 M
- Putinka 6 M
- SV 4 M
- Myagkov 4 M
- Absolwent 4 M
(this latter sounds like an intriguing cocktail made from Absolut and some solvent, doesn’t it?)
