The Vodka belt - which should be called the Whisky-Vodka belt or perhaps
the Whisky-Aquavit-Vodka belt - streches from Russia to Ireland crossing on
the way at least the Nordic countries, Poland and the Great Britain along
with the smaller countries in between. Germany and even France are
borderline cases, I suppose. (I don't know about the Baltic countries,
though, perhaps someone will enlighten me.) What's common for a large
number of the people in those areas is, not how often they drink or how
much they consume alcohol on the yearly basis, but that they drink hard
liquor to get loaded. Anyway, that's my understanding.

Interestingly enough, it seems that a similar "barbarian border" has
existed since the times of the ancient Greeks, then between them and
Scythians and between diluted and non-diluted wine.

Anyway, I'm trying to do some research on this northern tradition and
particularly how the people themselves in these countries traditionally
explain the babit - if they do explain, after all we may drink a lot of
coffee or tea without having an urge to explain why we do it.

For example in Finland people drink to get drunk because it's in the genes
or anyway it's somehow in the people's nature - or so the story goes.
Perhaps the cold climate has to do with it, too. A more recent tradition
has that the prohibition and the following state monopoly made liquor a
forbidden fruit or otherwise prevented a natural attitude from arising
(after all in the early 1900s, before the prohibition, Finland's alcohol
consumption was about the lowest in Europe). So, in essence the civilising
process in this sence never arrived in Finland.

I wonder if the explanations are similar or different in other "Vodka-belt
countries".

Tomi

What's common for a large


It is dark up north half the year. Lack of sunshine causes depression in
people. This is a proven fact, if you notice, Jamaicans, Hawaiians, Cajuns,
etc are on the bigger end of the cheerfulness scale than, say, people from
Ottawa, Reykjavik, Glasgow, St Petersburg, etc.

People who have no sunshine for a good part of the year, need ways of curing
depression. Seasonal celebrations are one of them, encouraging drink and
merriment. Although alcohol is a depressant, it is a mood lifter, and a
rudimentary cure for the winter doldrums. It makes being stuck in one place
for a long time in the dark interesting to a human brain that craves
stimulation.

This is also true for the north in North America. See Canadians and beer.
Needless to say, teetotalers in the north such as Scottish Calvinists,
Brethren, etc., are more dour, fatalistic, damning, and restrained the
further north you go. Unless, of course, they smoke dope, which in the
Alaska 23-hour sunlight growing season, can get to about 12 feet tall.

alliekatt


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Lithuanians were fairly sober until Russians corrupted them in the Czarist
era. Sometimes farm labourers were paid in vodka rations.

GK

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Heavy drinking is not in the genes of most of the Finns, it is a cultural
habit.

Other replient answered that heavy drinking is because of darkeness. Wrong.

A more recent tradition


I didnt know that somebody has stated that drinking habits has something to
do with civilising process. Civilising process is more to do with how
temperamently you act (when you are drunk or not drunk).

I would be carefull of the estimate that Finns didnt drink that much before
prohibition. I wouldnt trust that much of the scientist who claims so.
Before Finns made the alcohol at home, or a village had a man to do the
booze for everybody - it is difficult to say how much the consumption really
was. I need to read the article in Tiede, or was it in it?

I like your concept of "Vodka-belt". Did you made it up, or is it
commonly used?

Have you noticed that young people's drinking habits are quite different
than traditional vodka drinking habits? Habits are changing!

I wish I had more time now to think this, but hopefully later Tomi....

on

Where do you find people drinking Aquavit on a normal basis? Here in Norway
it's almost exclusively a Christmas tradition, not something you'd drink
rest of the year.

Well, the "perhaps" was meant to indicate that the Norwegians (and Swedes
and Danes) don't necesserily traditionally drink vodka or whisky but have a
tradtional drink of their own. Has Aquavit always been restricted to
Christmas? What is Aquavit anyway?

Tomi

Until recently, drinkable wine was a luxury at any longer distance
from the vine growing areas and it was obviously in the interests of
the northern states to encourage the drinking of domestic liquor
rather than importing plonk from people who often as not were enemies
or at the very least competitors.
The people who drink hard liquor around the Mediterranean also end up
pretty sloshed, it's harder to control the "buzz" and it's not very
much fun to sit and sip for hours like you can with wine and beer.

The statistics that I have seen about the high level of drinking in
Ireland are inaccurate for the following reasons.

Liquor is more expensive here. The statistics quoted the amount of
money spent on liquor.

By European standards, we have a relatively high number of young
people 16-26.

These are the big spenders on alcohol.

Poteen (moonshine) used to be made on a large scale in the Irish
mountains. It is now almost extinct.

Home brewing was widely practised in Ireland from about 1970. Kits
were available in most supermarkets.

We had fine weather this year starting in March. I decided to ferment
honey to mead as honey was very cheap. I could not find a single
outlet in my area or in central Dublin, where I could buy brewer's or
wine yeast and nutrients.
So all the home-brewers and poteen drinkers who were left out of the
statistics before are now buying duty paid liquor.

Many years ago, I read that a home-still was legal in Norway, if the
spirits were only for use in the home. Is that true?

Flora

Aquavit = Aqua Vitae - the water of life. Ie same roots as the
word Whiskey, if I remember correctly.

Aquavit is, like whiskey or vodka, basically a destilled spirit
("Brennevin" - "burned wine"). Aquavit can be made from potatoes
or grain, and is generally rather strongly flavored with anis,
cummin and something I forget.

Storage is supposed to improve it. Linieakevitt is aquavit that
has been carried in the hold of a ship travelling far enough to
cross the equator and come back again to Norway.

Personally, I think it tastes like bad toothpaste. Probably be-
cause anis is a common flavouring agent in toothpaste in Norway.
I get the same reaction when I drink American root beer - it just
reminds me of tooth paste :-)

Grin,
Stein

Actually I doon't believe that the Irsh would drink more, they just drink
more heevily, more at the time, to get drank, that's what I mean. (Sorry
for the poor translittaration, thaat's the way it sounds!)

In American moovies dealing with the Irish cops, they drink a lot but seem
to be proud of it. No remorse: "that's teh way we are!" ...

Tomi