another unexpected drink..

This is Baikal, which really confused me when I first tasted it, since it tastes just like Coca Cola (well not just like, but quite close). Then I found out that that is what it is, a deliberate Soviet version, first made here in the 1960s, and named after the famous lake. It even gets its own page on Wikipedia, telling you exactly what is in it.

Meanwhile Baikal lake, which was famously pure and healthy (Pearl of Siberia, the Sacred Lake etc.,) is currently at the centre of a big environmental campaign to do with the local paper mill....