The Ouk-rra-i-nah Story by Warren Metzler Table of Contents
1. Discovering vodka
The story begins in November, 2004, when I traveled to visit the Ukraine, a country in Eastern Europe. I had never previously visited that region. I went to a number of cities in the Ukraine, one of which was Zhitomir. And while there I met Alla. Just before I left Zhitomir, Alla gave me a gift: a ceramic bottle decorated with two large red pepper pods. I assumed it was vodka, thanked her, put it in my suitcase, and once back in Los Angeles placed it —still unopened— among my liquor stock.
I had consumed little vodka up to that point in my life. This was primarily because every vodka I had tried, even those considered premium vodkas, had a strong bite —sting— to their taste. And I like smooth beverages, alcoholic or nonalcoholic. I once encountered a critic’s description of French champagne, which quite nicely describes this taste preference of mine: “it glides across the palate.” This is why Alla’s gift remained unopened for so long.
During that same trip in 2004 I also visited Russia. Just before leaving Los Angeles, a friend encouraged me to have some caviar while in Russia, claiming that is where one can find the best caviar in the world. So while I was staying in St. Petersburg, I asked my guide to take me to a place that served excellent caviar. And he took me to “The Caviar Museum”. In the Museum was a tasting room; where, across an entire wall was shelf after shelf of vodka. This is probably why, as I stood at the bar to place my caviar order, I heard an internal voice ask, “How can I have caviar in Russian without having some vodka?” I asked the bartender for the best vodka and he placed in front of me a very futuristic looking bottle, with Kauffman etched into the glass. Hence I added a small carafe of Kauffman vodka to my order.
I sat down and began to eat the caviar, which was very good. And then I took small sip of the vodka. What a pleasant surprise! It tasted very smooth, with no bite at all, and had a full body (which is another of my taste preferences for alcoholic beverages). “Hmm”, I thought. “This is really good.” I decided to purchase a bottle and take it back to the US with me, so my friends could try it. Of course, I also purchased a container of caviar.
Back in Los Angeles, I served the caviar and Kauffman to my friends, and they each liked both. However, I had not yet made vodka one of my primary drinks, so the Kauffman went into my liquor stock and remained untouched for a while.