Question by : How is Russian Beer and what is a regular alcoholic drink drunken in Russia?
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Answer by Mike
most russian beer is not great. especially the higher alcohol stuff. vodka is very popular (surprise) and is usually bought by the bottle in cafes and clubs and then drunk straight pouring and drinking a small shot at a time. but really you can find almost any beer, spirit or mixer that is popular in the west in russia.
also they love absinthe… try the one where the bar tender lights it on fire and you inhale the fumes, that will make you sweat
Answer by Liliya829
I like Russian beer…have a particular affinity for Yarpivo yantarnoe and Baltika klassicheskoe. Vodka is big, people also drink a rye based beer type drink called kvas. People also really like cognac. When I lived there back in 2002-03, there was only one place in my provincial city where you could get Western-style cocktails…but they were really good 🙂
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Gluay says
Knocked my socks off with knelwedgo!
Jotunn says
Russian beer is quite good if for a European taste, as a matter of fact. But you have to go looking for small breweries, not the huge exporting monsters like “Baltika”. In that sense, it is very similar to Czech – small breweries that only serve beer in local pubs. Try red beer called “Tolstiy Fraer” if you ever have a chance, for example.
Now as for the most common drink – it varies from region to region. If you take Moscow – it’s canned cocktails like the ones you get in “party zones” sections of liquor stores. Sometimes it’s a mixture of Red Bull and a strong drink like vodka or – which is prohibited in some countries. If you take other large cities e.g. St.Petersburg (former Leningrad) or Ekaterinburg – they drink a lot of beer. Leningrad is know for being “the beer capital of Eastern Europe” because of the volumes of beer annually produced in the city. But if you go to rural areas – boroughs, small towns and villages – you will see a lot of people passing time with vodka. Whiskey isn’t quite popular other than in cocktails, Wine and vermouth is lake ladies’ beer – casually consumed. Liquors like Baileys or Amaretto are mostly for dedicated lovers, who aren’t abundant.
Also notable, in the cities Russians drink Champagne quite often as a starter of an evening function or a party. Usually everyone has a glass “to warm up” before ladies switch to wines and men to vodka or cogniac.
Max says
Adding to the said above,
there is a recent hit in the alcohol market — the canned alcoholic cocktails. Made of cheap chemical ingredients, they are about 4,5–9% Vol, have a very strong effect and are sold really cheap. Especially popular with the lower middle class and schoolchildren.