Every year 4 million tons of wine, 700 thousand tons of brandy, 18.8 million tons of vodka is consumed in Armenia.

Thus, vodka is a full-fledged favorite of Armenian consumers, despite the fact that the traditional Armenian drink is wine, and since 1887 has been brandy. When, during the opening of the aerial tramway in Tatev foreign visitors were treated to local cuisine, the only alcoholic beverage served, was wine. Armenia even has a national day of wine, which is celebrated on October 17. But we have never had a holiday of vodka or beer. The fondness for vodka, Armenians developed only in recent decades, mostly under the influence of Russian traditions.

Some of it has also been related with alcohol moratorium in 1980, which increased the production of counterfeit and cheap vodka.

Nevertheless, it appears that Armenians’ change in alcohol infatuation has a great impact on the economy.

The issue is that 13% of vodka is imported to Armenia, meanwhile 90% of the wine and brandy is produced in the country. Consequently, the consumption of wine and brandy benefits the domestic economy wile the consumption of vodka, profits the economies of other countries.

If you trust the statistics, in average Armenians annually consume 1.25 liters of wine, 220 grams of brandy and 5.8 liters of vodka per capita. By the way the picture in wine producing countries (Greece, Italy, France and Spain), is quite different, they mostly drink the beverage they produce.

For comparison, consumption of vodka in Russia is 5.5 liters per capita annually, but in Scandinavia, 15. Champions in this list are Singapore with 23.5 liters and the Philippines with 21.5 liters. The leaders of wine consumption are France, Italy and Portugal; these countries drink 50 liters of wine per capita annually. Even in Muslim Indonesia, 0.9 liters of wine, per capita is drunk annually, almost as much as in Armenia. So, gentlemen, if you give your preference to wine instead of vodka the economic growth in the country will increase.

But keep in mind that wine, as any other alcoholic beverage, you should drink in moder