Finding the Best Morozhenoye

Like Americans, Russians love ice cream (in Russian, morozhenoye). If you walk down any major street in Moscow on a warm summer day, ice cream seems to be in every fourth hand. Then there are the ice cream devotees who continue to buy ice cream throughout the coldest months of winter. Never mind that it’s the middle of January and the snow is two feet deep. Indeed, it has been shown that even a slight rise in temperature, say from -10 to -5 degrees Celsius, leads to an increase in ice cream sales in the capital.

Statistically, Russians are far from world leaders in ice cream consumption. While the average American eats a whopping 22 liters of ice cream in one year, Russian per capita consumption is only about 4 liters. Yet the recent expansion in the ice cream market has coincided with an equivalent boom in the popularity of the product. Last year alone, consumption of morozhenoye in Russia increased by 18 percent, while in Moscow it rose 30 percent.

The Russian word for ice cream, morozhenoye, (derived from the root moroz or frost), refers to all manner of ice cream and other frozen treats, like sherbert and sorbet. In recent years, the variety of ice creams available in Russia has greatly expanded. Morozhenoye devotees can now find buckets of Baskin Robbins or Edy’s ice cream in fancy grocery stores. But by far the most popular Russian morozhenoye is sold either in small stores or in sidewalk kiosks.

Russian ice cream tends to be more straight-laced than what is sold in the US – nothing of the American “flavor-fanaticism” here (though certain brands are beginning to try new twists). You’d be hard put to find things like Cherry Garcia or double-fudge-chocolate-brownie cookie-dough ice cream in Moscow. Yet some of the more ritzy foreign supermarkets do tend to have impressive selections of imported brands. And Baskin Robbins is always waiting for the homesick traveler.

Ice cream seems to be sold everywhere – in grocery stores, at train stations, at kiosks not more than 10 meters apart on busy city streets. It is waiting for you when you get off the metro, in the cafeterias of institutes and universities, and at electrichka stops in the country. And, with a little effort and a lot of tasting, just about any ice cream lover is sure to find a place in his heart for the cool pleasures of Russian morozhenoye.

According to a poll taken by Gallup Media in 1997, 41% of Russians said their most favorite ice cream was the eskimo. Sold in soviet times for 11 kopeks, the eskimo, like the American Eskimo Pie, traditionally consists of vanilla ice cream on a stick, covered in a layer of chocolate. However there are now varieties made with chocolate ice cream, caramel, berry, or sprinkled with nuts. The average eskimo sells for around 3 rubles, or about 50 cents.

Close behind the eskimo in popularity (35% named it as their favorite) is the stakanchik – a simple waffle “cup” pre-filled with either vanilla or chocolate ice cream. Some are more fancy than others, with whipped cream rosettes or chocolate centers. In soviet days, school children could run out to the local ice cream kiosk during breaks between classes and buy stakanchiki for 19-20 kopeks. Today they cost around two rubles (about 30 cents). Most are still sold without wrappers and a small piece of paper or cardboard on the top. For many Russians, the stakanchik has a certain degree of nostalgia attached to it – but it is also extremely satisfying and refreshing in its simplicity.

Rozhki, which took third place in the poll, are pre-packaged ice-cream cones, in a variety of types and flavors – with nuts, caramel, chocolate, berry, etc. Like both eskimos and stakanchiki, they are produced by a number of firms and the prices vary widely, from around 3 rubles to as much as 11 or 12 rubles. Foreign incarnations are of course more expensive, though not necessarily any tastier.

The briket, a simple block of ice cream between two thin wafers, plain and substantial, is the potato of Russian ice cream. It is perfect for those who have a big appetite, but who shy away from the fancy and expensive. The wafers work surprisingly well as insulation. Brikets are usually available in vanilla, chocolate, and creme-brulet. Large brikets or plombir are sold wrapped in foil without wafers and can be brought home to share. Formerly, a large brick cost only 48 kopeks, and one Moscow company continues to sell plombir with the old price stamped on the foil.

At various kiosks and grocery stores, consumers can find special sorts of Russian ice cream. Morozhenoye made with black currants or raspberries, sherbert in a cup or ice cream bars covered in frozen fruit juice are all popular. Also available are long, cylindrical sticks of ice cream wrapped in a waffle and sold in several flavors. Yubilei, or anniversary, named in honor of Moscow’s 850th birthday, is a bar of ice cream covered in dark chocolate. Fili is made like a candy bar: ice cream with a layer of butterscotch on top, covered in chocolate. One rumor holds that Fili was available in Soviet times, but only to elite party members. Finally, ice cream tortes, sold in most grocery stores, are practically guaranteed successes at birthday parties or when visiting friends. Said one morozhenoye devotee, “It used to be we always brought candy when we went visiting. But now candy just isn’t as good as it used to be, and people always seem to bring ice cream – you’re in trouble if you forget it.”

The most common complaint foreigners have about Russian ice cream is that it is “too rich.” Most Russian ice cream is slivochnoye, or “made with cream,” as opposed to “molochnoye,” made with milk. Some “slivochnoye morozhenoye,” usually sold as plombir, can have as high as 25% milkfat. It is less sweet than regular ice cream and very filling, though it does not usually cool you off as well as regular, milk-based ice cream. By and large, the only low-fat, low-calorie ice cream substitutes available in Russia are imported from abroad. However, most Russian ice cream sold on the street is roughly equivalent in nutritional content to the foreign ice creams sold here and it has the advantage of being both locally made and often quite a bit less expensive.

The ice cream industry in Russia has been around for a long time. A cookbook published in the fifties, endorsed in the forward by Comrade Stalin, reluctantly gave recipes for ice cream, urging consumers instead to go out and buy soviet morozhenoye: “The ice cream produced by our industry ... in quality and taste, exceeds ice cream produced at home.” Though the ice cream industry was big in soviet times, it was hit hard by the introduction of the free market several years ago and suffered sharp production drops. At that time, foreign brands like Baskin Robbins, Mars, Nestlé, and Haagen-Dazs (and Vermont’s own Ben & Jerry’s) quickly jumped into the market. Some foreign firms, like Nestlé and Baskin Robbins, set up joint ventures with local Russian businesses, while others simply sold their products to distributors.

But hot foreign products have not had a permanent chilling effect on Russian ice cream producers. Experts hold that the foreign ice cream invastion inspired Russian producers to set their freezers working again. In the past few years, morozhenoye has been making a comeback, both in production volume and in the level of consumer demand. Currently, some 150 Russian firms produce ice cream sold by over 5000 distributors. Last year, while more than 60 percent of Russian producers increased their production, the volume of imported ice cream in the capital actually fell.

On May 24, just after this issue was to go to press, hundreds of thousands of Muscovites and visitors to the capital were set to celebrate the second annual Prazdnik Stolichnovo Morozhenovo – “Festival of the Capital’s Ice Cream” – at Luzhniki sports stadium. The festival was to include games and prizes for children, singers and other performers, fireworks, a special visit from Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, and of course plenty of ice cream. The slogan for the festival would be: “Morozhenoye stolichnoye – Samoye otlichnoye!” (The capital’s ice cream is the very best!)

The battle lines are drawn. Foreign ice cream, with its low-fat content and fancy packaging, faces off against the richer, low-frills Russian morozhenoye. While the outcome of this “cold war” is yet unknown, most observers and ice cream afficionados are placing their bets with Russian producers. After all, they have decades of nostalgia for stakanchiks and plombirs on their side. And lower prices. Anyone can print up a fancy package, but only eskimos were there on that hot summer day in ‘73...  RL

– Lisa Butenhoff