Baikal

Baikal is a Soviet non-alcoholic soft drink with a dark brown colour and herbal flavour, developed as a homegrown alternative to Coca-Cola. It takes its name from Lake Baikal in Siberia, a symbol of purity and unusual nature.

History

Baikal went into production in 1969 in the Soviet Union, at a time when Western soft drink companies did not operate there. The project was planned with the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics in view, and the drink became the official beverage of those Games.

Its recipe was reworked after Pepsi-Cola entered the USSR in 1973. The original formula combined treated water and sugar with an herbal extract that included sage, wormwood, angelica, gentian, cardamom, hop, eucalyptus, bay leaf, apple and elderflower. In 1990s Moscow it was almost impossible to find, but in Saint Petersburg the Polustrovo factory kept producing it.

Today the rights to the formula belong to a Russian state institute that licenses production to several companies, including Pepsi, Dohler and Ost-Aqua. Generic drinks sold under the Baikal name exist both in Russia and abroad, among them the WOSTOK line, created in 2009 by a Dutch photographer inspired by the original. In 2019 Rospatent recognised the Baikal combined mark as well known in Russia.

Culture

For many people in the former Soviet republics, Baikal is tied to childhood, snacks and an earlier way of spending time together. Its spiced, herbal profile sets it apart from Western colas.

Versions vary by manufacturer. The Russian company Aqualife sells the 1977 original as «Baikal 1977» and a reformulated recipe as «Baikal», alongside variants such as vanilla and low calorie. In Ukraine the drink has been made under other names after de-Russification, and producers in Kazakhstan and Germany also make their own versions.

Trivia