Did Polish people invent vodka?

[J]

[CAB]

Yep.

[Yarec]

NO
It was invented by Greek Zosimos from Panapolis 400 b.c.

[Gerry G]

Yes, Poland is given credit for the birthplace of vodka.

.

[orakle]

No. The Polish invented neither the raw materials of vodka (water, yeast, potatoes or grain), nor fermentation which produces alcohol out of those raw materials, nor distillation which concentrates the alcohol into a strong liquor/spirit.

I believe grain crops (wheat, barley, etc.) were first domesticated somewhere in the Middle East, North Africa (Egypt etc.), and places like that.

Potatoes of course come from the Americas.

Fermentation of grains into something resembling beer seems to have come out of places like ancient Egypt and/or Mesopotamia.

Distillation was probably developed somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean, possibly Egypt (although it may have been the Greeks who actually came up with it or at least first described it).

It is possible that the word 'vodka' is of Polish origin, although even that is difficult to say exactly as it is effectively based on the pan-Slavic word 'voda' (water).

Were the Polish the first to produce something that we would today recognise as vodka? I've no idea, back then (we're talking probably 500-600 years ago) people didn't update their Facebook page every ten minutes, so it's hard to say who was the first to do it and where this happened, and whether it was done in many places around the same time and in any case who learned it from whom.

But if it makes the Polish happy to be given credit for 'inventing' vodka, then go for it! I'm just happy to be drinking the stuff... :-)