Almost as special as vodka is the Russian ice-cream – morozhenoye. Not only is it enjoyed in the middle of the winter, but it is distributed and enjoyed everywhere. On every train platform we stopped at, in every park, there was a babushka selling ice cream. Some good, some excellent. (And some molten and falling apart due to the unexpectedly hot days…)

Our absolute favourite so far is the Iceberry жемчужина россия – “Russian Pearl”. It seems like a modern Russian local ice cream company (You can find here a Youtube presentation about IceBerry by some students in Michigan.). They make delicious nutty ice cream with subtle flavours and a rich creamy fill. Crusty and succulant, with a well-balanced sweetness.

“Russian Pearl” Ice Cream – from the IceBerry company.

We were sad to see that some of the classic Russian ice creams were taken over by Nestle and Unilever, and the quality was average. Like the Eskimo and Plombir styles, now in the Unilever brand InMarko.

However, there seem to be plenty of new players, some who brag about exporting to Europe, so we look forward to an upcoming quality competition on the European ice-cream market!

Russian Chill – exporting to USA and Europe!

Unilever variant of Plombir.

Enjoying morozhenoye everywhere!

Enjoying everywhere!