Thursday, February 15, 2007

Kvas from Coca-Cola

Russian business newspaper Kommersant reported that Coca-Cola plans in the nearest future to launch its own brand of kvas. Some information on kvas from wikipedia:

Kvass, bread drink (lit. "leaven"; Russian and Ukrainian: квас (kvas), Polish: kwas chlebowy (lit. "bread leaven"), Lithuanian: gira, Estonian: kali) is a fermented mildly alcoholic beverage popular in Russia, Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.
It is so low in alcohol that is considered acceptable for consumption by children. Though sometimes thought of as “children’s beer”, it is favored by all ages equally.
In strength kvass can be almost alcohol-free and at its strongest is only around 1-1.5%. It is often flavoured with fruits or herbs such as strawberries or mint.
Russians also use kvass for cooking a special summer cold soup, okroshka.

Snezhana Ravluk from Business Analytica believes that kvas market in Russia reached US$215 million and will be growing 10-15% over next few years. Traditionally people drink their own home brewed kvas but more and more often Russians prefer this drink bottled. The problem with bottled kvas is that it usually is nothing but carbonated kvas-like drink. The only real “living” kvas you can find on the market is Ochakovo (Очаково). Be warned – it contains up to 2% alcohol.

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