While I didn’t love drinking this soda, I enjoyed learning about kvass. If you don’t have the attention span to click that link and read up on Wikipedia I’ll give you the brief run down. Kvass is a somewhat ancient beverage made from one of the world’s most rare and prized ingredients. Just kidding, it’s made from bread crumbs. Seriously, rye bread crumbs.
I found this bottle of Kvass (kbac) at a Polish Deli in Seattle (George’s Sausage and Delicatessen). The label is printed in Russian. The brewery is from Lithuania. Are you confused? I’m confused. I recruited a Russian speaking friend to translate the label for me and determined that this particular kvass is described as “breadly”. There are no preservatives (except for citric acid?), no sweeteners (but the label actually says that there’s sugar?), and really not a whole lot other than water and bread crumbs.
This is the kind of thing that people drink in order to prove to others that they lived through hard times. Uphill both ways in the snow kind of thing. I’d describe the smell of the beverage as “off”. Or maybe it’s just “off-putting”. It’s a very yeasty smell that I associate more with your jacket the day after someone spilled their beer on you at a Mariner’s game.
The taste is sour. And yeast. And then some more sour. It’s not sweet, and it’s not refreshing. I drank a fair amount of it because it wasn’t disgusting and it actually made my perogies taste better (probably by comparison). A coworker took a sip and told me that it tastes like extremely weak beer, so there’s that. I suppose it tastes pretty much how it sounds…soggy old slightly fermented rye bread.
I’m not going to drink this again. Definitely not this brand, and possibly not this species of soda. In the off chance that I change my mind, click here to read more kvass reviews. I give this one a 3 out of 10 on my rating scale and don’t have a lot of hope for other brands.
One more point of trivia, the brewery that makes this soda is actually one of the world’s oldest existing companies. Gubernija was founded back in 1665.
Catalog:
Sampled on March 16, 2017. Purchased from George’s Sausage and Delicatessen in Seattle for about $2.50.
The Sodafry 
Hi there, I am a Seattlite myself and also speak Russian. I have to tell you that I have never liked bottled Kvass, fresh draft from the crate is better. It is the same difference basically as bottled vs. draft beer. The “draft” kvas has a smoother, less sour taste, that tastes like a nice bready, sweet, cold, smooth taste. Unfortunately I have only seen fresh barels of Kvas in Russia on the streets. Fresh Kvas though is just… delicious.
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This just tastes like soda to me. The bottle I bought (in an Asian market in Surprise, AZ) is not at all sour. no visible sediment. Not bad, but not at all what I expected. Ingredients are water, sugar, bread crumbs (mostly rye) and citric acid. I don’t think any fermenting at all was done.
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The sugar is to feed the fermentation, not (primarily) to sweeten. The longer something ferments, the less sweet and more sour it becomes. I’ve tried a couple different brands of bottled or canned rye kvass, including this one, and enjoyed them very much. I usually find the flavor to be bright and a little fruity, like raisins, slightly yeasty, and very refreshing. Perhaps you had a bottle from a bad batch? Or maybe it’s just not for you.
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I have tried kvass in many forms: straight from a street vendor, (two young women wheeling a barrel in Riga, best!), bottled from Montreal (meh), bottled from Russia-tsarsky is good, but I boycott russuan goods now due to the war. Gubernija from Lithyanua is superb. Most brands use concentrate, Gubernija uses actual bread. When one makes beer there is the choice of using malt concentrate in cans. Or using actual barley. Grain is felt to taste better than concentrate. I think the reviewer just dislikes kvass. Referring to it as soda is a mischaracterization. You wouldnt call Guinness stout ‘soda’, would you?
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