While you may have heard of several Russia-based vodka brands. Stolichnaya’s entry into our vocabulary is fairly recent but according to us, it might just overtake the rest. If you’re unfamiliar with the history of this brand, here’s a quick lowdown to brush up your knowledge!
- In 2001, a new Russian State Standard was established for the purest vodka, Stolichnaya became the original Alpha grade spirit. It is distilled at a level 14 times higher than Alpha grade to create a spirit without measurable impurity
2. Stolichnaya also became the creators of the world’s first commercially produced flavoured vodka with their offerings of Pepper and Honey & Herb in 1962. They also were the pioneers who introduced the world to lemon flavoured vodka with their Limonaya flavour in 1986. So we know they know how to do flavours in liquor just right.
3. Here’s a fun fact that’ll be handy at every party – Not only did Stolichnaya feature in the award-winning series Mad Men and the video for the song in Love The Way You Lie by Eminem ft Rihanna, it also has a much older pop culture reference to its name. In 1975, when the astronauts on the Apollo mission docked with Soyuz 19, Alexei Leonov handed them tubes of Stolichnaya vodka. The kicker is these tubes actually contained borscht soup and just had Stoli labels stuck on top!
4. The original Stoli logo that we have now come to know and love was actually selected from a contest run by the state in the year 1953. The bottles on the other hand, that we see on our shelves today, were redesigned to suit more modern tastes in 2015.
5. In 1972, along with the many accolades they received, Stolichnaya also became the first Russian vodka to be imported to the US, and this was done through PepsiCo who have the exclusive rights. And owing to this worldwide takeover, India too now gets to taste this iconic benchmark of a vodka that Stoli has created.
