Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka () is a flavored Polish

vodka Vodka ( pl, wódka , russian: водка , sv, vodka ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage. Different varieties originated in Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impuriti ...

, which contains a bison grass blade (''Hierochloe odorata'') in every bottle. The Żubrówka brand name is also used on bottles of conventional

, labeled as Żubrówka Biała. An easy way to tell the difference is to look for the blade of grass in the bottle. The grass is sourced from the

Białowieża Forest Białowieża Forest; lt, Baltvyžių giria; pl, Puszcza Białowieska ; russian: Беловежская пуща, Belovezhskaya Pushcha is a forest on the border between Belarus and Poland. It is one of the last and largest remaining pa ...

, hand-picked and dried under natural conditions. Żubrówka ranks as the third or fourth best-selling vodka brand in the world (after

Smirnoff Smirnoff (; ) is a brand of vodka owned and produced by the British company Diageo. The Smirnoff brand began with a vodka distillery founded in Moscow by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831–1898). It is distributed in 130 countries. Smirnoff prod ...

Absolut Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, in southern Sweden. Absolut is a part of the French group Pernod Ricard. Pernod Ricard bought Absolut for €5.63 billion in 2008 from the Swedish state. Absolut is one of the largest brands ...

, and occasionally

Khortytsia Khortytsia ( uk, Хортиця, Hortycja, translit-std=ISO, ) is the largest island in the Dnieper river, and is long and up to wide. The island forms part of the Khortytsia National Park. This historic site is located within the city limi ...

). Żubrówka is available in more than 80 markets worldwide. Żubrówka is manufactured at the

Polmos Białystok Polmos Białystok is one of the largest producers of alcoholic beverages in Poland. As of 2010, the firm's president was Henryk Wnorowski. Between 2005 and 2007 the company's stock was traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The firm was founde ...

distillery. While it is claimed that the recipe dates back as far as the 14th century, commercial production of Bison Grass Vodka first began at the distillery in 1928. The brand is owned by Central European Distribution Corporation International, which was acquired by Roust International in 2013. Since 2022, it has been owned by the Maspex Group.

Etymology and brand

In Polish, the word is officially used for bison grass, while the name ''żubrówka'' has been used in folk terminology and colloquially. The name comes from the term ''zubr'' ( pl, żubr, ), the word for the

European bison The European bison (''Bison bonasus'') or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent ( or ), the zubr (), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, along ...

in many

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...

and

Baltic languages The Baltic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 4.5 million people mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. Together with the Slavic lan ...

. The brands ''Zubrovka'' and ''Żubrówka'' are registered by Sojuzplodoimport in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

and Roust International in Poland.

United States variant

Before 2010 Żubrówka was illegal in the United States because the grass it is made from contains

coumarin Coumarin () or 2''H''-chromen-2-one is an aromatic organic chemical compound with formula . Its molecule can be described as a benzene molecule with two adjacent hydrogen atoms replaced by a lactone-like chain , forming a second six-membered h ...

which the FDA classifies as a "substances generally prohibited from direct addition or use as human food." Since 2011 the manufacturers have made a version of Żubrówka from rye grain which aims to have a flavor similar to the original.

In popular culture

*Żubrówka is mentioned in ''

Moscow-Petushki ''Moscow-Petushki'', also published as ''Moscow to the End of the Line'', ''Moscow Stations'', and ''Moscow Circles'', is a pseudo-autobiographical postmodernist prose poem by Russian writer and satirist Venedikt Yerofeyev. Written between 1969 ...

'', a pseudo-autobiographical postmodernist prose poem by Russian writer and satirist

Venedikt Yerofeyev Venedikt Vasilyevich Yerofeyev, also Benedict Erofeev or Erofeyev (russian: Венеди́кт Васи́льевич Ерофе́ев; 24 October 1938 in Niva-3 settlement, suburb of Kandalaksha – 11 May 1990 in Moscow) was a Russian writer a ...

. *The bison emblem (, "roaring bull") of Fighter Squadron 11,

Lapland Air Command The Lapland Air Command ( fi, Lapin Lennosto, abbr. ''LapLsto''; sv, Lapplands flygflottilj) is the peace-time Finnish Air Force unit responsible for the protection of the airspace of northern Finland. The headquarters of the air command is loca ...

Finnish Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment = 159 , equipment_label ...

, originated from the label of Polmos Żubrówka. It was introduced in 1941 as the emblem of PLeLv 46, on its

Dornier 17 The Dornier Do 17 is a twin-engined light bomber produced by Dornier Flugzeugwerke for the German Luftwaffe during World War II. Designed in the early 1930s as a ''Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") intended to be fast enough to outrun opposing ai ...

bombers, and later adopted by Fighter Squadron 11. Pilots of PLeLv 46 had seen the Żubrówka label while picking up Do 17 bombers from Warsaw. *Żubrówka figures prominently in the movie '' Suzhou River''. *Żubrówka is featured in

W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

's novel ''

The Razor's Edge ''The Razor's Edge'' is a 1944 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It tells the story of Larry Darrell, an American pilot traumatized by his experiences in World War I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life. The story b ...

'' (and in the 1984 film adaptation). *The name of the country Żubrówka in the movie ''

The Grand Budapest Hotel ''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' is a 2014 comedy-drama film written and directed by Wes Anderson. Ralph Fiennes leads a seventeen-actor ensemble cast as Monsieur Gustave H., famed concierge of a twentieth-century mountainside resort in the fiction ...

'' is named after this style of vodka. *Navy SEAL Chris Kyle mentions it in his book ''

American Sniper ''American Sniper'' is a 2014 American biographical war drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Hall. It is loosely based on the memoir '' American Sniper'' (2012) by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. The film ...

'' while working with the Polish GROM. *Żubrówka is shown on a table in the '' Magic City'' episode "Angels of Death" during a scene involving a conversation between Sy Berman (

James Caan James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972) – a performance which earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Suppo ...

) and Ben Diamond (

Danny Huston Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an Italian-born American actor and film director. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and the half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston. He is known for h ...

Methods of consumption

Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka is usually served chilled on its own. An alternative is mixing it with

apple juice Apple juice is a fruit juice made by the maceration and pressing of an apple. The resulting expelled juice may be further treated by enzymatic and centrifugal clarification to remove the starch and pectin, which holds fine particulate in suspe ...

, a drink known in Polish as ''tatanka'' or ''szarlotka'' (Polish for "

apple cake Apple cakes are cakes in which apples feature as a main flavour and ingredient. Such cakes incorporate apples in a variety of forms, including diced, pureed, or stewed, and can include common additions like raisins, nuts, and 'sweet' spices suc ...

"); known in the UK as a ''Frisky Bison'', and in the US as a ''Polish Kiss''. It is sometimes served over

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus '' Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla ('' V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the plants produce the fruit from whic ...

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

, and another common mixer is

ginger ale Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with ginger. It is consumed on its own or used as a mixer, often with spirit-based drinks. There are two main types of ginger ale. The golden style is credited to the Irish doctor Thomas Joseph ...

. A ''Black Bison'' is żubrówka mixed with

blackcurrant The blackcurrant (''Ribes nigrum''), also known as black currant or cassis, is a deciduous shrub in the family Grossulariaceae grown for its edible berries. It is native to temperate parts of central and northern Europe and northern Asia, whe ...

juice.

References

External links

Roust International
Official site
CEDC Official Site

Zubrowka
at

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