Vodka is typically a colorless liquid preparation meant for consumption containing ethanol purified by distillation from a fermented substance such as fruit, vegetables, or grain. The word is the diminutive of "water" in various Slavic languages (voda, woda, âîäà).It usually has an alcohol content ranging from 35% to 50% by volume. The classic Russian vodka is 40%.This can be attributed to the Russian standards for vodka production introduced in 1894 by Alexander III from research undertaken by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. According to the Vodka Museum in Moscow, Mendeleev found the perfect percentage to be 38, but since spirits in his time were taxed on their strength, the percentage was rounded up to 40 to simplify the tax computation.Some governments set a minimum alcohol content for a spirit to be called "vodka"; for example, the European Union sets a minimum of 37.5% alcohol by volume.