So if you travel a fair bit I’m sure you have googled or at the very least noticed the difference between American milk and European milk. Shelf stable is the norm in most of Europe and it is EXPENSIVE compared to American milk at least. Also, once it’s opened it only lasts for a few days, which drives me crazy. I’m a true blooded American who loves her chemicals ;).
In Russia it’s a lot of the same as the rest of Europe. You can buy shelf stable milk in Tetra Paks or you can buy fresh milk in bottles. The fresh tends to be a little bit more expensive, doesn’t last as long, and tastes… funky. More funky that other European countries’ fresh milks. I don’t know what it is. I don’t mind the boxed milks, but I haven’t been able to find a single brand of fresh milk here that I like at all. So I’m stuck with TetraPaks, which seem really bad for the environment because they’re not ~really recyclable. (Not that Russia has a recycling program anyways.) I feel really guilty using so many TetraPaks, but they’re so common here!
The biggest problem with the dairy industry here is that it’s completely government controlled- its a command market, not a free market. (I had to look up that term. The more you know! Lol) So all milk, and all dairy products are produced IN Russia. If you look for some specific cheese imports, you won’t find them because of sanctions and Russia’s counter sanctions. (I clearly do not know enough about this topic to explain literally anything about sanctions or how they work.) All I know is that you CANNOT buy real Italian or French cheeses here. That Parmesan is a LIE.
The milk, cheese, yogurts, sour creams here are definitely okay, but I wouldn’t say they’re great. And it is kind of sad that you have limited options, because all the brands are basically the same. The nice thing about government control though is that the prices are also controlled so that they stay reasonable. So you win some, you lose some.
In researching the dairy industry, I also found out that Russia has sanctions on all sorts of things- mainly things that are deemed necessities, like eggs, bread, flour, chicken, dairy, etc. The only ones that I have noticed really aren’t great are dairy and bread though.
All stores carry the same brands of bread, and none of them are great- they don’t taste amazing, and they mold really quickly, which makes me think the mold was there to begin with. You can go to bakeries, but it’s nice to just be able to buy your bread while you get the rest of your groceries. On the plus side it’s made me get really good at making homemade bread!
Finding Eden 