What you must drink in Russia

Russian national drink is not vodka as many think, but kvass- delicious drink with small amount of alcohol, mildly sparkling and gold-brown colour. Unfortunately, industrially produced kvass almost doesn’t deserve this famous name, but the best is the one produced in Orthodox monastery.

Classical kvass has the dense and astringency cider with low part of alcohol, and it can be get by fermentation of black or rye bread, spring water or herbs, even though there are kinds of kvass made of berries, other kind of cereals and beet. Kvass is consumed separately as a drink, but it is used as main ingredient of cold summer soups like okroška. It is mild enough that even children can drink it, and it is healthier than non alcohol drinks on base of sweetened syrup.

At the beginning of summer on almost every corner the attention is drawn by small yellow-red tanks for kvass pouring, where thirsty people can refresh during whole day. Kvass is today commercially produced and sold in plastic bottles during the whole year, so in that profitable job participate companies like “Coca-Cola” and “Pepsi”. Many Russians consider that this trend of production and sale is little bit offensive commercialization of this national treasure and all  agree that kvass has much better taste than foreign non alcoholic drinks.