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Russia is the only country where the average person consumes more vodka each year than people in Poland, which boasts over 130 distilleries that produce the spirit. It’s also home to one that recently received a sizeable shipment of potatoes that managed to disappear after a rumor led to locals flocking to the field where they were being stored.
Most people probably associate vodka with Russia more than any other country, and there isn’t a single one on the planet that has a higher consumption rate per capita. However, it’s also ingrained in the culture of Poland, which takes the silver medal in that particular category while pumping out 320 million liters on a yearly basis.
People in Poland have been making vodka since the 1400s Grains (specifically rye and wheat) tend to serve as the basis of popular brands including Belvedere, Sobieski, and Chopin, but there are a number of producers that opt to harness the potatoes that are purportedly responsible for a creamier mouthfeel.
Those spuds can also be used to produce denatured alcohol that can be harnessed for industrial purposes, and a distillery that specializes in that particular product found itself at the center of a strange heist that unfolded after hundreds of thousands of pounds were pilfered by people who were under the impression they were being given away for free.
A distillery in Dabrowica was robbed of 150 metric tons of potatoes worth over $17,000 thanks to a viral rumor
Last week, people in the vicinity of Dabrowica, a village located in the southeastern Polish province of Podkarpackie, began to flock to a field where around 150 metric tons (~330,750 pounds) of potatoes had been dumped after a rumor spread claiming they were free to take.
According to Fakt, enterprising locals began to arrive on October 11th with tractors and wheelbarrows that they used to transport as many potatoes as possible from the field where someone had purportedly deposited them after being unable to find anyone willing to pay to take them off their hands.
However, that same outlet eventually discovered that was not, in fact, the case after speaking with Piotr Gryta, the co-owner of Terpior, a distillery that specializes in the production of denatured (a.k.a. undrinkable) alcohol that clocks in at 96% ABV and can be used in the production of disinfectants.
Gryta said he had paid six farmers a total of €15,000 (~$17,000) to drop off the potatoes in the field where he planned to store them for the weekend before beginning production on a batch of alcohol this week. However, he discovered they were nowhere to be found after arriving at the distillery on Monday, saying:
“I have a public number, it’s on the distillery gate. And I’ve been here for 25 years, and everyone knows me. The phone rings nonstop today, and on the weekend? Nobody. No signal. It just started pouring in, and that’s it.
“If someone took the potatoes, let them come forward and return them. Otherwise, it will have to be reported to the prosecutor’s office. It was my merchandise. Legal, paid for. What happened is simply unbelievable.”
Bummer.