Why Russians consume so many lemons?
After delivering hundreds of cross-cultural sessions in the past years to people from all over the world, I realized, in our age of information, readily available about everything, people still have very little knowledge about the world outside their countries. The article recently published in Forbes titled “Are Lemons A Sign Of Upward Mobility Around The World?” just proves it — the lack of global cultural awareness on the example of using lemons.
The article attempts to analyze underlying reasons of the trend of higher lemon consumption in some countries, claiming consumption of lemons as an “indicator of upward mobility”. Russia was named one of those countries. The article has been edited after publication, following, as I understand, a flow of well deserved criticism, so Russia is not mentioned much after the edits.
The author wonders, what’s that special in those lemons for Russians? Lemons must be expensive and luxury food as they don’t grow in Russia and have to be brought from far away. In its original, before edits, version, the article concluded, due to the “upward mobility” phenomenon, some Russians get richer, and those who have spare cash are buying very expensive lemons, as luxury items, affordable to only reach people and increasing consumption of lemons indicates growing rich class in Russia. As article URL still says: “Want to find a rich person in Russia look for the lemons”. The conclusion is paraphrased, as original article is no longer available, but this was the idea behind higher lemon consumption, presented in the article.
The article caused quite a reaction in Russian segment of the internet, simply because what it said about Russia was so bizarrely untrue. Russians are used to “bears walking on Moscow streets” type of tales and other silly made up cliches about Russia. We just roll our eyes and sigh when hearing another one of those stories, but claiming lemons in Russia are just for the reach people is nonsense of its own kind.
Let’s make something positive out of this little cross-cultural misunderstanding and explain, why Russians use so much lemons?
From everyday life experience, I can confirm very positively — Russians do consume lots of lemons.
Let me delight you, people of the world, lemons are not luxury in Russia. Lemons in Russia is an everyday food sold everywhere and anyone can afford it. Price for 1 kilo (2.2 lbs) of lemons in any Moscow grocery store is somewhere between 65 and 105 Russian Rubles (US$1 — US$1.5). A friend from Vladivostok mentioned their stores sell lemons at almost 160 Rubles (approx. US$2) per kilo. I guess that’s because of transportation costs, but it does not make it food for the reach.
Anyway, why Russians consume so many lemons?
Russians love to have their tea with lemon. Like the article suggests, Russians drink lots of tea. Historically, compared to coffee, tea has always been more popular in Russia. Before revolution in 1917 drinking tea was a big part of everyday lifestyle in Russia. Tea was not cheap, and having a cup of tea used to be not exactly luxury, but something not everyone and every time could afford. Later, in USSR (CCCP) times tea drinking tradition continued. In USSR, coffee (like almost everything else) was in shortage and extremely expensive. Teas however, were produced locally, in some soviet republics and imported from friendly countries, primarily India. Tea in ussr was more accessible, very affordable and more popular. Thus, traditionally, many people in Russia prefer tea over coffee.
Wherever you order a cup of tea anywhere in Russia, you will be offered a slice of lemon. When good portion of 147 million country population drinks their tea with lemon, you need lots of lemons to satisfy the demand.
Lemons in Russia are popular as a source of vitamin C and consumed as a remedy. Russians are very keen about using natural products to treat minor illnesses such as colds and flues. Russian winter is almost five months long and catching something during the season is almost inevitable. It is known that vitamin C, helps in fighting colds and protecting against various illnesses.
Instead of rushing to doctors and gobbling up tons of synthesized vitamins and pills of all sorts, many Russians go the natural way. This is when lemons, reach in vitamin C become real useful along with garlic and many other natural remedy foods. Some people just eat whole lemon, some add lemon juice to water, some make infusions, mix lemons with honey and ginger, some add extra slice of lemon to their tea.
Lemons go with alcohol in Russia, but not in a way the article suggested (before edits). Drinking vodka with lemon in Russia is not very common. Lemons in Russia considered a perfect compliment to cognac, but not vodka. In fact, lots of people in Russia do not drink vodka at all, as we have a choice of almost any kind of alcohol to satisfy all tastes.
Lemons go as ingredient to cocktails in bars, night clubs and wherever alcohol drinks are served. Moscow, Saint Petersburg and all other places across the country have hundreds of thousands of bars, night clubs, restaurants. All eating and drinking places serve millions of drinks that include lemons or lemon juice as ingredient — daily.
Few years ago there was explosion of mojito popularity, which require half lime as ingredient. Not sure if limes contribute to lemon consumption statistics, but when many thousands of bars and restaurants start serving mojitos to their guests, you gotta have a real good supply of limes.
I started this lemon discussion on my Facebook page and one of friends mentioned he makes his own Limoncello. Alcohol, sugar, few kilos of fresh lemons and organic infusion is ready. No need to buy expensive imported alcohol made of sweeteners, chemical colorants and artificial lemon flavor.
Lemons go as food ingredient. Home cooking is very popular in Russia and lemons often go as ingredient to cakes and pastry and many other dishes. Restaurant food also requires tons of lemons. Restaurants and cafes are affordable and popular in Russia, they serve millions of meals with lemon daily — as a spice or ingredient.
Lemons are used in Russia in variety of other ways, for example, as decorations. In one of Moscow restaurants I’ve spotted a large glass jars filled up with lemons and it looked very cool and stylish.
Winters in Russia are long, lemons and other citrus kinds of fruits are popular as a supply of vitamins off season. Lemons can be stored for a long time, in any season bringing the taste and feel of summer, bits of color to a bleak, all grey and white winters in Russia.
Where lemons come from to Russia? First of all, lemons do grow in Russia. There are areas in the South of Russia, where climate is suitable for cultivating lemons in an open soil. For a number of reasons, domestic production volumes are very small and do not satisfy demand. Russia imports lemons, but there is no need to ship them from far away. Many neighboring countries grow lemons and supply them to Russia. Turkey, for example, gets over 60% of all lemons to Russian market. Other countries like South Africa, China, Morocco, Argentina also export lemons to Russia.
In Russian villages many people have lemon tree in their house, planted in a barrel. My grandfather had such lemon tree in his house. It scents and cleans the air naturally and produces fresh, organic lemons.
Last thing about lemons in Russia. In Russian language, when talking about money, the word “lemon” is a slang word (in Russian — “limon”, stress on the last syllable), meaning “million”. This could confuse someone who does not speak Russian and make them believe lemons have to do with luxury.
Is there any relationship between the upward mobility and consumption of lemons? Simple logic suggests it certainly can be, but dependency is not that obvious here. More economy growth means more consumption of food of all kinds, including lemons.
It can be just the opposite, when more economy growth results from more hard work and less time to drink tea, mojitos in bars and home cooking. Who knows? If anyone bothers to find out, looking at statistics and economical data on a macro level will never get any trustworthy results. It will require deeper study of lifestyle to understand cultural forces that drive statistical and economical data.
One thing is certain for sure — a lemon, ones it gets to Russia, is not what it seems from prospectives of any other culture.
