Vodka drinkers world-wide

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?)