Vodka in the 20th Century

These days, the Smirnoff family destillery is considered one of the primary vodka producers around the world. It began in 1918 in Moscow and a year later it was producing one million bottles daily. All this came to a stop when Rudolph Kunitt bought the American rights to the Smirnoff name.  Kunitt opened a distillery in Bethel, Connecticut, but struggled for five years, at best only producing 20 cases a day. For that reason, he sold his business to the Heublein Company in 1939.

Heublein executive John C. Martin discovered that vodka became very popular in California and so he supplied these customers. In 1946, he met the owner of a Los Angeles restaurant called the Cock 'n' Bull, who wanted to try something differente with beverages. Since one of vodka's attributes is its ability to mix with almost anything, they experimented with a vodka and ginger beer concoction. They added a slice of lime and later on they called their invention the "Moscow Mule" .Of course it became to be a great success for the business.

By the 1950s, Vodka was famous in the States. By the end of the decade, a martini was prepared with vodka  rather than gin. At the close of the twentieth century, vodka accounted for 25% of the distilled spirits produced and marketed. From 40,000 cases sold in the United States in 1950, vodka sales jumped to over one million in 1954. The following year, 4.5 million cases were sold. By the mid-1960s, vodka outsold gin; by 1976, it outsold whiskey.