Heat wave in Moscow expected for another week, Kvas sales up

Moscow - In the worst heat wave to hit Russia in forty years, sweltering heat is driving up the demand for a favourite national drink, known as Kvas, a fermented drink made from wheat, rye, barley or as some put it, “bread”.

Kvas is often flavoured with fruit or birch sap, and can be found on almost every street corner. Just look for the wheeled yellow tank. Making an appearance in a 16th century book of Housekeeping, it was considered to be essential knowledge for any woman who wanted to be a good wife. Later, the famous author Aleksandr Pushkin compared the importance of kvas to the “air that we breath”. From the humble beginnings, popular by peasants and low class citizens, it has now risen to become a multimillion dollar industry. Experience Kvas: First, the crack of the sparkling drink as you open the bottle. Then the smell of fresh bread waffling, followed by a sweet coolness flowing down that thirsty throat. Ahh…. Coca-Cola has also seen the marketing potential. Since the early 90’s, Coca-Cola hasfought to dominated the soft drink market in Russia, and Kvass was on top of their list. Local soft drink companies fought back, and offered the drink for a much lesser price, and Coca Cola suffered losses. Subsequently, Coca-Cola bought out many of the soft drink manufacturers. Still a predominant Russian company call Nikola, continues the battle. Nikola means “not cola”. In a comical commercial by Nikola, an American with a very bad Russian accent promotes Nikola. Short summers and cold temperatures are well known in Russia. A typical Russian summer:

A two-week stretch of blue skies in June, some thunderstorms in July, and by late August, days are growing shorter and jackets are coming back out.

The heatwave is expected to continue for another week.

Moscow is expected to break the absolute record of 36.8 C, set Aug. 7, 1920, when temperatures top out at about 40 C this week. For the next seven days starting Monday, temperatures will hover between 31 to 39 C, despite partly cloudy weather in the daytime and rainshowers at night, Metronovosti.ru reported. The worst trial is expected to come Wednesday and Thursday, when temperatures are forecast to reach 38 to 39 C.

Relief should come next week. On Aug. 3, the temperature will plummet 9 degrees to 24 C and stay at that level for several days.