Russian Beverages, 1839
The extravagance of the Russians in regard to wines is also worthy of remark. Their own country produces wine, but it is a rule with a Russian to care for…
From: 1839 C.E. To: 1839 C.E.
Location: Russia; Crimea
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Excursions in the Interior of Russia by Robert Bremner, 1839.
The extravagance of the Russians in regard to wines is also worthy of remark. Their own country produces wine, but it is a rule with a Russian to care for nothing that can be got at home. You almost insult him to ask for a bottle of the wine of the Crimea, were it only to be able to say that you had drunk Russian wine in Russia. The government has been at great pains to encourage the culture of the vine in the South, but as yet with no decided success. Some of the wines of the Crimea are very tolerable, but the greater part of them are little better than red ink, with plenty of sugar in it.
In general they use nothing but French wines, and these of the most expensive quality; their predilection for champagne is well known. At home or abroad, the Russian is steady in his affection for this beverage; it is the only one which he seems to think fit for rational beings.
Of the whole quantity annually exported from the departments of the Marne, Ardennes, etc., the Russians take 400,000 bottles; which is only 6000 less than the quantity taken by England and her colonies, east and west. Yet, even after allowing Russia this fair proportion of the genuine wine, it remains a mystery where the rest can come from; a mystery which the wine-merchants alone can solve. As to its being genuine, the French song merrily settles the question, when it tells us that this precious wine has the power of multiplying itself; for, besides what is used in France and other parts of the world, there is much more of it drunk in Russia alone than ever grew in Champagne.
Nowhere are wines seen in greater perfection than at the house of a wealthy merchant. His rule when he gives a feast, especially if he live in the provinces, is to have part of every thing costly. Port, Sauterne, Champagne, gin, English porter, all follow each other in indiscriminating confusion, till the hospitable mistress of the feast puts an end to the dinner, by handing to each guest a glass of brandy, upon which you kiss her hand, and she salutes your cheek.
The wines of the Don still keep their ground against those of the Crimea: one kind, resembling Champagne, is excellent. Those called Stanitze and Zimlyanskoye come very near Burgundy, both in colour and flavour; but the greatest favourite of all is the Vinomarozka, or frozen wine, made by mixing wine and brandy with the juice of berries peculiar to the districts about the mouth of the Don. The cultivation of the vine began there as long ago as Peter the Great's time; but of late more attention has been paid to it than formerly, government having ordered experiments to be made in the south, on no less than several hundred kinds of vine-slips from all parts of the world. Russians are also sent to study the art of cultivating the vine, in the best wine districts of France.
With all their partiality, however, for imported luxuries, there is another home-made liquor for which nothing can shake their love; and that is their Kvass. In vain have the English tempted them by establishing breweries for ale. Excellent though the ale be, and it is the best we ever tasted out of England, the Russians still keep by their national drink.
The kvass is the thinnest, sourest, queerest kind of stuff ever concocted; yet the Russian could not live without it. It is patronized by all ranks and all denominations. There is a vessel of it in every peasant's hut, from which the family are sipping the whole day long; and you find it in bottles, on the same table with champagne. We met with it even in the public prisons; a large tin vessel full of it, with a jug beside, being placed in every common room, for the prisoners to drink of at pleasure. The keepers told us they might as well deprive them of air at once as rob them of their kvass. It is made from rye boiled in a large quantity of water, which being afterwards fermented, acquires a sourish taste, far from disagreeable, and most effectual in allaying thirst. It is of a yellowish colour, not unlike the barley-water of the sick-room. There is a dear kind of it, sold in bottles at 6f/. each, called white kvass, which is exceedingly good and brisk.
The Vodki, or brandy, in which the poor Russian indulges to such a debasing excess, is a light- coloured spirit, not unlike the corn-brandy of Sweden, but more harsh and fiery. It is distilled chiefly from rye; but oats and barley are also employed. None but the lower classes use this spirit freely; for neither in their native country, nor elsewhere, have we ever found reason to look on the better class of Russians as addicted to the use of ardent spirits. If not altogether entitled to be called abstemious in this respect, they are certainly not so bad as the French, who indulge more freely than is generally supposed; and they are infinitely superior to the better class of Swedes, Norwegians, or Scotch. It is a melancholy fact, that the three most highly-educated nations of Europe should, at the same time, be the hardest drinkers.
Another favourite beverage must not be forgotten; their tea. The Russians are the most inveterate tea-drinkers out of China; and with such excellent tea as they have, the passion is quite excusable.
Tea in Russia and tea in England are as different as peppermint-water and senna. With us it is a dull, flavourless dose; in Russia it is a fresh, invigorating draught. They account for the difference by stating that, as the sea-air injures tea, we get only the leaves, but none of the aroma of the plant, which left Canton; while they on the other hand, receiving all their tea overland, have it just as good as when it left the celestial empire. Be the cause what it may, there can be no doubt of the fact, that tea in Russia is infinitely superior to any ever found in other parts of Europe. Englishmen are taken by surprise on tasting it; even those who never cared for tea before, drink on during the whole of their stay in Russia.
Like everything else here, however, it is very expensive: the cheapest we saw even at Nishnei-Novgorod, which is the greatest mart in the empire, cost from 11 to 12 roubles (about ten shillings) a pound; and when a bearded Russian wants to give a feast, he will pay as high as 50 roubles (2Z.) for a pound of some high-flavoured kind of bohea. The difference between these and English prices arises from the same cause as the difference in the quality; the long land-carriage, which is tedious and very expensive, through regions where there are neither roads nor resting-places.
It should be stated, however, that, in travelling especially, no price will be thought too high for this, the only comfort of the wanderer in Russia. It banishes many a headache, and cheers under all the annoyances of a country which, by universal consent, is the most troublesome and fatiguing to travel in that can be visited. Tea may always be had at the inns in large towns, but being too dear an article for most of the country post-houses, everybody should carry a stock for himself; we once paid 6s. 8d. for the tea necessary to make breakfast for four; but such a charge is rare.
The Russian seldom eats with his tea; he never adds cream to it like the English; nor does he disgust people by making tea-drinking an excuse for tippling, like the Germans, who half fill their cup with brandy when they can get it. The only thing the Muscovite mingles with his tea is sugar, and sometimes a thin slice of lemon: and these being duly added, he sips the brown draught, not from a cup, but from a common drinking-glass, slowly and seriously, with all the solemnity of a libation.
Robert Bremner, Excursions in the Interior of Russia (London: H. Colburn, 1839), 237-243.
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