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This made me wonder what alcoholic beverages the vodka belt countries drank before the arrival of the potato from South America in the late 1500's.

Seems it was mostly beer and mead:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2e1rav/what_...

Interesting that the introduction of a single plant could have such an impact on cultural norms.

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This is exactly the question that came to my mind (and that comes to my mind whenever I hear ‘potatoes’, ‘tomatoes’, or other New World imports mentioned as ‘tradition’ of some European country).

For example: I come from Italy. The number of times I’ve heard/read stuff about the supposed benefits of the “Mediterranean diet” being “recognised as far back as the Ancient Romans” and featuring some photograph of a platter involving fish and tomatoes... it just makes me want to flip.

When I saw sliced tomatoes on the table in the film The Gladiator it made me want to walk out of the cinema.

I think most Russians, when they get traditional, would scoff at the idea of potato vodka, equating it with something made from wood pulp. Distilling grain spirits was quite possible before potatoes were introduced.

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