Billy <Hereiam@hotmaildotcom> wrote:
> (Victor Sack) wrote:
>
> >white pith would add bitterness.
>
> It's vodka....after a couple...who would care??....<VBG!>
Heh! Knock yourself out, in every sense of the word! :-)
Actually, if one were to get technical, it would no longer be vodka if
you steep something in it. In Russian quasi-official terminology, such
a concoction is called "gor'kaya nastoyka", "bitter infusion".
Indeed, a lot of such infusions do contain bitter components. The word,
as used in modern Russian in this context, does really mean "bitter",
but originally, it came from another Slavonic root, meaning "fire", as
in "fire wine" or "fire water", or, alternatively "burned" or "burnt",
as in "branntwein" or "brandy". The Ukrainian "gorilka" and the Polish
"gorzalka" stem from that root.
Victor