Honey is great stuff: it's smooth and soothing, but still a little less cloying than sugar. While it is undeniably sweet, it still has a little mystery, particularly if you venture away from the milder clover and mesquite flavors.

While Krupnik (the Polish version) or Krupnikas (the Lithuanian version) is a year-round beverage, I particularly enjoy it in the autumn, when the rich spices tickle the nose and the heavy dollop of alcohol helps clear away the winter chill. Most honey liqueurs that I've tried have tended to hide or overwhelm the taste of honey, but this one lightly accents it. Best of all, the honey is great for comforting sore throats!

As many of you already know, I'm a huge fan of strange snack foods of many lands. Fishy junk food is a particular favorite. But when I tell you that the long, crunchy sticks pictured here are among the wierdest junk food I've ever eaten, it's not because they have an especially pungent or intense flavor, rather it's the lack thereof.

I'm not even sure whether Paleczki Kukurydziane qualify as food. For one thing, there's no nutrition facts panel on the package. Their texture resembles biodegradable packing peanuts that dissolve in water. To be fair, this Polish take on corn curls that translates to "Sweet-corn fingers," does have flavor: a vague hint of low-fat popcorn.

Obviously I know that these mutant corn snacks aren't packing material, but they might work in a pinch. I couldn't help hoping that when I visited the manufacturer's web site, I'd find that Unopol's primary business was plastics or industrial foams. No such luck, they seem to be a junk-food concern.

So the question remains: Why on earth would anyone eat these things? The only reason I can think of is that they can't stand Flips, Polish corn curls that have a more pronounced flavor: strawberry. The light-pink morsels taste disturbingly like Crunchberries.

A few months ago, I posted about the debate that several vodka producing countries are having over what should and shouldn't be called vodka. An article in today's New York Times picks up the story. Basically, certain countries, including Finland, Sweden and Poland, contend that for something to be called vodka, it must be distilled from either potatoes or certain grains, not from things like grapes or maple syrup. These countries are seeking labeling restrictions for these "non-traditional" vodkas. BBC News reported that such restrictions could affect up to two thirds of all the vodka currently produced in non-Baltic EU countries. The NYT article also points out that vodka's history and original ingredients are up for debate, citing possible Russian, Polish, Italian and Arabian origins that may have included plums, apples or grapes.

Much like the recent battle over what can and can't be called feta cheese, several European countries are trying to restrict what can be called vodka. Finland, Poland and Sweden feel that only spirits distilled from certain grains and potatoes have the right to be called vodka, the Associated Press reported. The countries are opposed to products like Cîroc, distilled from grapes, being called vodka because they fear it will dilute the definition of their traditional versions. Others say it's simply a marketing tactic, designed to limit the number of new entrants into the vodka market.

[Via Fark]

We hear often of the European wine lake but here is a sightly different take on the theme - a vodka lake. This time however it is not one created by excessive production (the amount of vodka my Polish friends consume see to that!) but by a leakage form a nearby distillery.

The Mirror reports that Lake Brancholinskie in Wielkopolska was transformed from freshwater to 30% alcohol from the spillage. "Farmers and workers from Wielkopolska. in in Poland rushed to fill their boots with the brew - three times the strength of wine. A 71-year-old woman, who lives near Lake Bracholinskie, said: "If God doesn't help, everyone will be a drunkard with only a hole where the lake was."

 

At Luxist, Deidre mentioned that there is a vodka with a purpose beyond mere intoxication. Snow Leopard Vodka is an ultra-premium Polish vodka made with spelt grain that promises to be the "best vodka on the market," with a round, smooth taste. It is being sold to benefit the Snow Leopard Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to the protection of the endangered felines. A full 15% of the profits will be donated to the trust and the company hopes to be able to donate more than £543,000 ($1 million) each year. The vodka will be available at Harvey Nichols wine shops in the UK this month, where it will sell for £36. There will also be at least eight upscale restaurants and nightclubs that will be selling the vodka and specialty cocktails that feature it, so customers can drink with a conscience.

 

British supermarket chains, such as Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Waitrose, are rethinking their pork supplier. The Polish pig farms that produced much of the supermarket pork products have been condemned for "'appalling' animal welfare practices."

The farms in question are in Poland and have been run by Animex, a subsidiary of the American company Smithfield Foods, since 2002. An undercover investigation revealed industrial factory farms, conditions where hundreds of pigs were crammed into light-less barns with dead companions rotting underfoot. The investigation also found that "powerful cocktails of drugs," including a cocktail of antibiotics that is banned or considered to be a growth-promoter in other countries. One such drug is Tylbian 20%, a form of the growth promoting drug Tylosin, which was banned by the European Union in 1999. Local residents showed investigators large open-air cesspits of pig waste and farm detritus that included syringes and needles.

Waitrose has already pulled the products supplied by this producer. No wrong-doing has been shown on the part of Smithfield Foods and a Smithfield representative denied knowledge of such conditions, assuring the public that it would investigate thoroughly.