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This is a lightly carbonated, strongly flavored, slightly salty water, beloved in the former Soviet Union. The waters that spring from the ground in the Borjomi Gorge in the Caucasus Mountains where it’s collected have been touted for their therapeutic qualities since the early 19th century. I can’t vouch for them, but Mineral Waters of World rates Borjomi 13th among hundreds of rated waters for bicarbonate levels, which means it’s good for indigestion and hangovers, and likely the reason it has bit of Alka-Seltzer bitterness on the back end. It seems strange to say, but this water has body, substantial, but still refreshing. It isn’t something I’d guzzle every day, but it might be just the thing after powering down a pound of Bread ‘n’ Bowl’s buttery pelmeni, or after a schvitz.
The brand has an interesting recent political history. Mineral water, along with scrap metal and wine, is one of Georgia’s chief exports. Up until 2006 Borjomi was the top-selling mineral water in Russia, but that same year the Russian government embargoed imports as part of what Georgians viewed as a campaign of economic warfare against the Republic (and then of course, things got really bad). When I brought it up to B’n’B owner Arkady Kats, a native of Ukraine, he smirked and said, “So what they boycott it? People want it, so they get it.”
