PROBABLY the oldest vodka in the world has just hit the North American market. Canadian Iceberg Vodka is made in Newfoundland from ingredients that include water from 12 000-year-old icebergs.
The ice is harvested in 鈥淚ceberg Alley鈥�, a region off St John鈥檚 where some 30 000 ice mountains a year float by. The company鈥檚 tugboat and crane seize chunks of ice called 鈥済rowlers鈥�, weighing about 10 000 tonnes each, which are then wrestled to shore.
Dredging equipment is used to take 鈥渂ites鈥� the size of washing machines out of the ice. The ice is then transported to the vodka factory, where it is melted to make up 60 per cent of the spirit.
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Analysis of the melted iceberg has turned up nothing amiss, says Ron Stamp, the man behind the idea. 鈥淭he water鈥檚 pure,鈥� he says, 鈥渆xcept for a bit of volcanic ash 鈥� and that鈥檚 filtered out.鈥� Most vodkas use ordinary tap water.
Tap water could be as new as last winter鈥檚 snowfall and is not likely to be older than your grandmother, according to Robert Mulvaney, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey. But iceberg water probably came from the last ice age. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been permanently locked up since the day it fell.鈥�