Vodka is a strong clear alcoholic drink. It has no colour at all — it looks exactly like water in the glass — and it has very little smell or taste of its own. It is made from grain or potatoes. It comes originally from Russia and Poland, and both countries will tell you firmly that it came from THEM.

The word works two ways. It can mean the drink in general ('Vodka is stronger than wine'), and it can mean one serving of it ('Two vodkas, please' / 'a vodka and orange'). English does this with many drinks: the uncountable substance, and the countable glass of it.

Because vodka tastes of so little, it is the base of a huge number of mixed drinks — vodka and orange, vodka tonic, Bloody Mary, Screwdriver. That is exactly why bars love it: it makes a drink strong without changing the flavour. And that is also why people warn each other about it. A drink that does not taste of alcohol is easy to drink too fast.

In Taiwan you will see it written on menus as 伏特加 — the sound of the English word, written in Chinese characters, and the characters were chosen mostly for sound, not meaning.