Lemonade "Buratino" has become one of the symbols of happiness for almost every Soviet child. Almost the same as the Olivier salad was. However, at that time it was served on children's birthdays along with the coveted bottles of a sweet drink. For Soviet children, who were not particularly familiar with various delicacies, it was a real holiday.
In Soviet times, the sweet drink, the label of which depicts the beloved hero from the tale of Alexei Tolstoy, was "driven" by many domestic factories. Next to Buratino, conditions and shelf life, GOST were indicated. And nothing more: not a list of ingredients, in which today almost every Russian will biasedly search for the names of harmful dyes and flavorings. The price of a drink without the cost of dishes was only 10 kopecks. Plus a bottle of 20 kopecks. But it didn’t count: zealous Soviet citizens handed in empty dishes, returning the money spent on it.
The Soviet Union was the real kingdom of lemonades. At that time, the usual thing was to go to the other end of Russia or to some Soviet republic and bring lemonade from there as a present for a sample. Georgia was considered the undeclared capital of the lemonade Soviet kingdom. In this region, the legendary Mitrofan Lagidze was born, who invented the Tarhun lemonade based on the Caucasian tarragon. By the way, the leaders of the Soviet country also adored lemonades, which were not necessarily made on the basis of lemons. For example, Khrushchev loved pear, Mikoyan loved tarragon, and Kalinin loved orange.
Mitrofan Lagidze, who became the author of 90% of the recipes for Soviet carbonated drinks, was even somehow invited to Stalin. Beria at that moment decided to curry favor with the "leader of the peoples" and expressed his suspicion that, they say, the cunning "lemonade" wants to poison the friend of all children and athletes. As a result, Lagidze had to prepare a sweet carbonated drink in front of Beria and Joseph Vissarionovich.
Soviet lemonades were very different from what we call lemonades today. Their shelf life was only seven days. They can now be stored for months because the preservative sodium benzoate is added to drinks. Also, no one today will forget the reminders on the labels about the "identical to natural" flavors.
The simple and cheap Buratino lemonade, made from water, sugar, lemon and orange juice, was a favorite on the Soviet lemonade market. Its sweet and simple taste, unlike, for example, the aroma of "Tarhun" (which is clearly not for everybody), was like for everyone. It is difficult to find someone who would not love "Buratino". By the way, in traditional lemonade, apple juice was added instead of orange juice.
Slightly different from "Buratino" and the drink "Golden Key", which was made at the Moscow non-alcoholic plant. The label showed the same nosed hero of the favorite fairy tale. Employees of the Novosibirsk plant produced something similar - simple and tasteful - called "Cheburashka". And in Lipetsk "Buratino" for some reason was called "Malvina". At the same time, the tastes of the favorite drink and its modifications differed from each other: somewhere sweeter, somewhere more carbonated, and somewhere a bitter note was present. No wonder: in the USSR they knew that the Leningrad ice cream, for example, is much tastier than the Kursk one … Only the names are the same.
When former Soviet citizens are asked what the drink "Buratino" was like in the USSR, they most often answer: "The most common." Yeah: it was sold not only in bottles, but also in the form of syrup, and in the buffet sections of grocery stores, where the syrup was diluted with water and poured into faceted glasses.
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Today this element of the Soviet children's holiday is also produced by some factories. Simple and sweet soda is well bought: the nostalgia of grandfathers and grandmothers for uncomplicated childish joys makes itself felt.
Olga SOKOLOVSKAYA