I just went to the liquor store to buy a bottle of Żubrówka for my college-friend reunion this weekend. Sitting there on the shelf next to its clear vodka brothers and sisters, it looked more greeny/yellowy than I'd remembered it from a mere month ago. So I studied the label a little more closely and saw there is FD&C Yellow #5 added! Wha?!?! And the grass isn't really special Polish bison grass! I did some web-based research and am so sad to learn we'll be consuming a "reformulated" product for American import. I was sure being in Polish Chicago I'd be able to get my mits on the real stuff. I'll just have to meet a Pole who brought some over.
Drink an extra shot of the real stuff for me the next time you have a chance.
The story according to wikipedia.
2 comments:
I had made the same discovery this past week and was going to tell you about it when you returned from Lincoln - turns out the bison grass contains a chemical that the US classifies as toxic. Apparently there was a period when there was no Zubrowka in the US at all - until they figured out that they could process the iconic blade of grass to make it harmless(and tasteless) and then add safe chemicals to try to restore that which was removed in the processing. Who knew the bottle from Krakow was one more bit of Poland that could be remembered but not recreated until the next visit.
I was informed of this a while ago, and always made sure that I traveled back from Poland with the maximum amount of Zubrowka!
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