July 3, 2009
Balzam: elixir or liquer?

On my first visit to Moscow in a February in the 90’s I picked up a nasty cold on the flight in that manifested itself shortly after my arrival. This combined with the arctic like weather and jet lag must have made me look like a man on his last legs. My local hosts offered me a “certain cure”, Balzam. I was feeling bad enough to try anything and the immediate sensation of alcohol on my palate had me assuming I was ingesting a Russian version of Nyquil. I slept like the dead that night, and did feel better the next day. My improvement was attributed to the dose of Balzam, and i saw no reason to argue if it was good sleep, the elixir or both. During the visit some of my hosts routinely added a teaspoon of this medicinal wonder to their tea to ward off illness.
In the following article, you’ll see that at in the writers eyes, Balzam is considered to be a Liqueur.
If Russia is admired worldwide for its sophistication in some circles — epic literature, classical music, advanced rocketry — its drinking habits, critics say, have never been hailed for their subtlety. Russian drinking, these critics say, is about as subtle as a Russian circus, and Russian circuses dote on costumed bears riding tiny motorcycles.
But these critics have never heard of balzam. And they surely have never heard of Ms. Savostyanova’s balzam — Ussuriyskiy Balzam, the one with the contented Siberian tiger gazing languidly from the label. Ussuriyskiy Balzam is not just alcohol, though it is certainly that.
It is a tonic for life’s ills, Siberian Prozac, a nostrum whose uses are, a brochure says, ”as broad as your fantasy: juices, jellies, added to ice cream, tea, coffee.” It is a booster of low blood pressure, a lift for sufferers of chronic fatigue, a recommended medicine (the brochure says) for rescue workers, emergency physicians and anyone else ”in extreme situations.”
All that, and it tastes, well, subtle. Somewhere between a finely aged bourbon and a domestic burgundy with no breeding, but amusing pretensions.
For those who know nothing about balzam — which includes most everyone outside Russia and the Baltics — the premise can be summed up in an old Russian saying, ”I’m not drinking; I’m healing myself.” (New York Times)


In what appears to be some deliberate saber rattling, Russia is doing maneuvers in plain sight of the Georgian state. After invading Georgia only a few months ago, Russia’s government seems to be telling the world that this is its turf.
It never ceases to amaze me how little time the US news media devotes to reporting when net filtering happens in Russian republics. They go crazy when China blocks access to porn and Iran blocks news, but when bloggers in Bashkortostan get blocked the silence is deafening.
















