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Stolichnaya - So Very Russian, Both In Spirit And In Name


DonRocks

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I just wanted to let everyone know that Stolichnaya, the very same label of the vodka that made Russia the world capital of "Big Water," is now making Ginger Beer in four-packs.

Yes, the same brand that Kolhozniki¸ - collective farmers - would take shots of while assembling in their courtyards, escaping the drudgery of their lives and their wives (ask any Russian over the age of 50 what a Sobutilnik is), is now making a Ginger Beer available for purchase at Amazon.com.

The cold war ... it is over.

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I just wanted to let everyone know that Stolichnaya, the very same label of the vodka that made Russia the world capital of "Big Water,"

It's been, um, decades since I took Russian class, so please correct me if I'm wrong (or if you're making a joke and I don't get it), but isn't the suffix "-ka" diminutive?  And therefore, isn't vodka "little water"?  (also, how do you get the Cyrillic alphabet here?)

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We just received it in the store today.  I haven't tried it yet, but I have some chilling for that very reason.  It comes in cans that make it look like Red Bull or even Sixpoint Brewery products.

Just a reminder: Stolichnaya is no longer "product of Russia"; it is "product of Latvia".

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We just received it in the store today.  I haven't tried it yet, but I have some chilling for that very reason.  It comes in cans that make it look like Red Bull or even Sixpoint Brewery products.

Just a reminder: Stolichnaya is no longer "product of Russia"; it is "product of Latvia".

Joe, it's fine - just ginger beer, made with cane sugar. I tried it with Bombay (a very neutral gin), and it didn't work very well until I adjusted the mix down to just a few drops. Did Latvia buy the name "Stolichnaya" or "Stoli?" I had no idea.

porcupine, -ka is a diminutive, so it is literally "little water" (for those who don't know any Cyrillic, "water" is Ð²Ð¾Ð´Ð°, "vodka" is Ð²Ð¾Ð´ÐºÐ°); I was making a lame quibble. As for Cyrillic, unfortunately you have to cut-and-paste.

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Okay - I've tried it (am trying it now, straight, chilled can poured into a cup).

It's very nice.  They do use pure cane sugar (no HFCS - yay!).  It's as clear as an unmuddied lake in summer, perhaps even more clear.

Will it replace Barritt's bottles (sugar cane) or Fever Tree (ditto) or Fentiman's (same) or Regatta (same) as my go-to ginger beers of choice?  No, but if it's the only one available, I certainly won't quibble.  The cans are quite handy, and obviously do chill faster than bottles.

As Clive Coates might say, "Very Good" ;)

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Okay, this explains so much, including the disappearance in the early '90s of the traditional Stolichnaya flavors (Pertsovka, Limonnaya, and Okhotnichya, plus the premium Cristall) and their subsequent replacement with fruit flavored vodkas with fake Russian names like 'Razberi', 'Ohranj', and the like.  The move to Latvia followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent acquisition of the brand by one billionaire oligarch named Yuri Shefler.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2018/01/22/stolichnaya-russia-wants-its-vodka-back-lon-orig-mkd.cnn

Although it sounds like the original Russian distillery has regained control of the brand in Russia and a few places, I am a bit sad to learn that Pertsovka has been out of production for about a decade.  I don't know about the others.

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On 1/25/2015 at 8:37 PM, DonRocks said:

I just wanted to let everyone know that Stolichnaya, the very same label of the vodka that made Russia the world capital of "Big Water," is now making Ginger Beer in four-packs.

Yes, the same brand that ÐºÐ¾Ð»Ñ…озники - collective farmers - would take shots of while assembling in their courtyards, escaping the drudgery of their lives and their wives (ask any Russian over the age of 50 what a Ñ�обутилник is), is now making a Ginger Beer available for purchase at Amazon.com.

The cold war ... it is over.

Guess both this and the title didn't survive a version upgrade. This is so bad, it's good.

(колхозник (collective farmer) and собултилник, if anyone cares - the latter transliterates to "comrade, with bottle." :))

These are колхозники gathered around the television, watching Sviatislov Richter:

 

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