Masood Mortazavi's Weblog

Monday August 30, 2004

[ Personal ] Russian Beer on the Road to Tehran

I've noticed people posting stories of beer drinking or photos of beer cans on their weblogs. Often one has a feeling that without a beer can in the background (or a wine glass in the foreground), questions may be raised about one's manhood. Well, here's mine, accompanied with the story behind it.
Earlier, I'd written about a trip to Isfahan, this past July.
On the road back to Tehran, the children were quite thirsty and I was, too. I stopped in Saveh, the city of pomegranates, and we started looking for a store. It was Friday, when most shops are closed, but luckily a couple of grocery stores were still open.

After some meandering through the maze of separated lanes, we were able to get into a lane that led to some stops. My wife, a true-blooded American (whatever that means), got off the car and went into one of the stores and used her very good Persian (of which I should be much prouder than I am) to purchase some drinks and snaks for us. The kids got a couple of different types of juices.

My reward was a frosty Russian beer, of the non-alcoholic sort, but in a tall can. It must have been past 40 degrees (Centigrade) outside and the old BMW I was driving had a broken air-conditioning. Just holding that beer can made me feel better. I opened it and took a sip. It was one of the best non-alcoholic beers I'd ever drunk.

How often do you read any praise of non-alcoholic beer in English? How often do you read any praise of it, in any language at all? In any case, I had to post a photo of the empty can, and kudos to the producers.

I'd heard about Russian (non-alcoholic) beer exports to Iran in a BBC television report. (No trace of the report can be found on the BBC web site.) Now, with a bit of web searching, I also found the news item on Baltika's web site. In any case, it was a great beer, and if I had a chance, I'd buy it again, in America, too!

2004-08-30 21:39:21.0 -- Comments [3] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Comments:

Coincidently, I just had my first Baltika about a week ago. I bought it in the bay area at a BevMo (Beverages and More). It was a "dark beer", and I'm sad to say it was one of the worst beers I've had in recent memory. They did carry lighter lagers also, which probably closer resemble the one you've had- and may very well be tasty.

You are a bold man to travel to Iran- as much as I'd like to, I hear its still not totally safe.
Khodafez- Rama

Posted by rama on August 31, 2004 at 08:41 AM PDT #

Their non-alcoholic is worth a try if you're into it.

Travel to Iran is not as dangerous as some make it sound, particularly if you know the language or are guided by someone who does. Also, in major cities, there are enough English signs to guide you. Finally, Lonely Planet has a decent but slightly outdated guide on Iran, which we have used.

Posted by M. Mortazavi on September 02, 2004 at 11:40 AM PDT #

Travel to Iran is not safe at all. But not for the reasons people think. Oh man, people tend to lose their mentality behind very slowly. How many of westerners got killed in Iran in the last three decades... only in movies ..I gather...

However, Iran is not safe...for the way people drive. You should have been brave enough to drive there man. When I was in Iran last summer, I was riding in a car through Tafresh to Tehran. Man, the driver was virtually cruising through big trucks in 100+ km/hour and overtaking them while the oncomming traffic was comming at similar speeds.

I was told my driver was a safe one!!!

Posted by A Traveller on September 20, 2004 at 05:06 PM PDT #