Talk about a unique gift! The Chernobyl Spirit Company is offering vodka dubbed ATOMIK, distilled from grains grown in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The drink comes in essences of apples, pears, or plums, and it's not radioactive, or at least not any more radioactive than vodka produced elsewhere.
When the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, suffered the world's worst nuclear meltdown in 1986, we thought that entire area would never be habitable again. You still can't live there, officially, but nature has displayed an amazing recovery in the almost forty years since the disaster. Trees and other plants grow, and wildlife has moved in to the places people used to live and work. The boar on ATOMIK bottles is an example of a thriving population in the Exclusion Zone. The grains used in ATOMIK show some radioactivity, but once they are distilled, that radioactivity is gone.
The real story is the Chernobyl Spirit Company, whose goal is to show the area's recovery and to help support those affected by the meltdown and Ukrainians affected by the war. The company was founded by a group of unsalaried scientists. They designate 75% of their profits to such support, and have so far have donated more than $30,000. Read about ATOMIK and how it reveals the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone's recovery at Mental Floss.
(Image credit: Chernobyl Spirit CIC)