USA Today reports that "the governors of Texas, Ohio and New Hampshire on Saturday ordered state retailers to remove Russian spirits from their shelves, joining a trend of Americans targeting vodka, a quintessentially Russian liquor, to protest Russia's war in Ukraine.
"But data shows these protests should only affect a tiny fraction of all U.S. vodka imports. Only 1.2% of U.S. vodka imports which come from Russia, according to data from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States for the first half of 2021. Vodka is the only spirit listed as a Russian import in the report."
And the New York Times adds, "France - whose vodkas include Grey Goose, Cîroc, Gallant and MontBlanc - accounted for about 39 percent of total vodka import value, the most of any country … Sweden, with vodkas like Absolut and DQ, accounted for about 18 percent. The other top importers were the Netherlands (17 percent), Latvia (10 percent), Britain (5 percent) and Poland (5 percent)."
- KC's View:
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My daughter sent me a story about banning Russian vodka in the US, simultaneously approving the sentiment while noting that "it is a good thing we drink Tito's," which, of course, is from Texas.
