Need help identifying a beverage photos of bottle inside

[patmahe]

Hi all, can anyone help me identify this stuff, my brother recieved a bottle of it as a gift years ago. All the writing on the bottle is in Russian I think. I've put whatever I can from the bottle into google but to no avail.

Any help appreciated.

[SC7]

I think it's something like Latvian Balsam.

The small black writing above the main bit says "Balsam" or "Balzam" and the part that seems like the name says "St-ros--vjanskiy". I can't suss out the three missing letters.

[E31Shrew]

One of my daughters speaks Russian so will ask her in the morning

[The Nur]

I can ask my girlfriend to have a look later, she's Estonian, so may be able to help

[Porkbrain]

Haven't seen that font before, it looks like STAROSLAVYANSKIJ balzam, so old slavic balsam???

The small label below has 'something' TOVARY BELARUSI 2005, don't have a Russian dictionary any more but I think tovary means 'goods, or produce'? So 'something' goods from Belarus?

Increasing the size of the photo makes it distort a lot, and I could be making this up, the circular citations appear to have the words Vodka and Competition of Drinks in English plus dates,

[Shay HTFC]

Looks like the competition stamps on the right say "Riga Food", so it looks like Latvia is half the answer.

edit: Although maybe not because I'm assuming the middle ones are for the "Minsk competition of drink"

edit2: and the ones on the left look to be stamps from Brussels

Edited by Shay HTFC on Sunday 8th January 13:11

[Shay HTFC]

Porkbrain said:

Haven't seen that font before, it looks like STAROSLAVYANSKIJ balzam, so old slavic balsam???

The small label below has 'something' TOVARY BELARUSI 2005, don't have a Russian dictionary any more but I think tovary means 'goods, or produce'? So 'something' goods from Belarus?

Increasing the size of the photo makes it distort a lot, and I could be making this up, the circular citations appear to have the words Vodka and Competition of Drinks in English plus dates,

I went all Sherlock Holmes with those competition stamps and found this..

"STAROSLAVIANSKY (KLIMOVICHSKY DISTILLERY, BELARUS) " ??

From http://www.unitedvodka.com/files/LIST_OF_WINNERS_2...

[Mobile Chicane]

The Nur said:

I can ask my girlfriend to have a look later, she's Estonian, so may be able to help

It isn't Estonian, or Latvian (ie. Riga Black Balsam).

I think Shay has it.

[Henry Hawthorne]

It says Staroslavyanski (apparently) which is "Old Russian".

[The Nur]

Mobile Chicane said:

It isn't Estonian, or Latvian (ie. Riga Black Balsam).

I think Shay has it.

I thought as much, but she speaks a fair few languages so may have been able to help

[Mastodon2]

This looks like something a friend gave me, who is from Belarus, without properly explaining what it was. It's a brown spirit, probably designed to be drunk straight from a freezer, he said it was a drink they drank back home like a medicine.

I imagine it probably tastes a bit like bronchial balsam, or Jagermeister.

[Mobile Chicane]

Mastodon2 said:

This looks like something a friend gave me, who is from Belarus, without properly explaining what it was. It's a brown spirit, probably designed to be drunk straight from a freezer, he said it was a drink they drank back home like a medicine.

I imagine it probably tastes a bit like bronchial balsam, or Jagermeister.

So have you tried it yet?

If it's anything like Riga Black Balsam it will be very bitter with a faint taste of herbs and treacle.

The stuff is beyond disgusting, BUT it is the best cold and flu remedy that I know of. A 50ml shot, down in one, and you'll feel almost immediately better.

Not just due to the alcohol content (it's 45% ABV) either. One of the components I can taste in it is oak moss, a component of northern European herbal cough mixtures for centuries.

[patmahe]

Thanks all for the help, haven't tasted it yet, I'm off out to get a cold first will report back if he decides he's opening it.

[TIGA84]

I've been reliably informed by my estonian colleague -

"It is liquor with sweet taste...with herbs and coffee…apparently it’s good for you! Can be added to tea…

40% alcohol!


This is a gift bottle and it is from Belarus:

http://food.nestorexpo.com/index.pl?act=STAND&...

Same drink but different bottle"

[The Nur]

The Nur said:

Mobile Chicane said:

It isn't Estonian, or Latvian (ie. Riga Black Balsam).

I think Shay has it.

I thought as much, but she speaks a fair few languages so may have been able to help

I got round to asking, she said pretty much the same thing as above