Russian soft-drinks explained: tastes like forests, rye bread, licorice, bubblegum

Russian soft drinks Part 1

On Metafilter, Deathalicious rounds up links to some of the more interesting drinks mentioned in two videos by YouTube user 513755, explaining the various uniquely regional Russian and ex-Soviet soft-drinks.


A few of the drinks mentioned, with tasting notes:

  • Kvass – a strong sweet/sour beverage, with a definite flavor of rye bread.
  • Tarkhun – very pronounced herbal flavor, delicately tart. Unmistakable tarragon flavor (close to anise/licorice but "greener").
  • Baikal – tastes like a forest. Really. Strong evergreen and pine sap notes.
  • Buratino [link goes to origin of the name] – golden bubblegum soda. [Bonus NSFW Buratino Weirdness]

Russian soft drinks Part 2

Russian Soft Drinks

(Image: Tapxyh.jpg, Wikimedia Commons/Yy-bo)