Baikal (drink)

A bottle and glass of Baikal

Baikal is a Russian non-alcoholic drink of dark-brown colour. The drink basis is water, the composition includes also sugar, citric acid, carbon dioxide and extracts of some natural medicinal herbs. It has been produced since 1969. It was developed as the Soviet counterpart of Coca Cola. After the beginning of Pepsi Сola production in the USSR in 1973 the formula was revised. From 1973 Baikal has had an original formula, which now closed to Russian company "OST-Aqua".

In the Moscow of the 1990s it had become nearly impossible to find; only in the provinces did BAIKAL continue an obscure existence, often of dubious quality.

In 2009, a Dutch photographer who spent nearly two decades in Moscow relaunched the drink in Germany. He changed the look and taste. The drink was renamed to WOSTOK (Russian: Восток = East).

You can still find generic drinks (carbonated soft drink with guarana extract containing caffeine) under the name Baikal made by various companies - for instance SLCO GmbH (Siberia Group) in Germany . Similarity to the original is unknown.

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