Yes! Romania has its own version of that classic deliciousness of Kool-Aid we all know and love. It comes in familiarly-sized little packets at most magazines, alimentars, and grocery stores.

For today’s segue: You are not alone, my friends. I, too, once thought with amusement, “Why are these people calling that kiosk a magazine?” And for a short while I thought it was because the kiosk sold magazines. Eventually, I figured out that some magazines don’t sell magazines, but are still called magazines even if their sales focus is on soft drinks, beer, chips, candy, cookies, fruit, water, bread, and such.

Easy enough, eh? Well, then what’s an alimentara? Aham. Clearly you are a foreigner! The alimentars are distinguished from their magazine cousins because an alimentar sells food while a magazine does not.

Ce sa zici? Well, it’s true that I just told you above that magazines sell milk, fruit juice, and other food. But trust me, there’s a difference. The alimentar sells the same products plus eggs, powered soups, canned tomatoe paste, pasta, and so forth. Also, the alimentara is not usually in a kiosk, but an actual shop whereas a magazine is generally a kiosk, but sometimes a shop.

The alimentara may also sell cigarettes, beer, candy, cookies, and such, but generally doesn’t have magazines for sale. Magazines, the periodical in this case. Now some magazines (the store) sell magazines (the periodical), but usually do not. Except in the case of certain magazines (stores) which specialize in magazines (periodicals) and cigarettes, but then they don’t sell cookies, beer, or chips. Then there are other magazines that only sell ice cream and milk.

Are you confused yet? Good, I won’t bother will trying to help you understand how a magazin alimentar differs from a magazine and an alimentara. That’s a third thing altogether. And I won’t bother explaining why you cannot buy laundry soap, feminine products, or toothpaste outside of the pharmacy — except for certain “large” stores (like Hard Discount in Braşov) or megamarts like Carrefour, Selgros, and Metro.

Now, I know you’re confused. I’ve been working on understanding this for two years now. My suggestion is to call everything an alimentar and just let the natives smile at your status as nebun straine.

The “Kool-Aid of Romania” is actually Frutti made by a Bulgarian company called Kendy. Our neighbors in Bulgaria seem to be making progress in the regional export market just like our neighbors in Hungary. I think it’s great that some nations have the foresight to get out and start competing in foreign markets. In Romania, you can buy countless products manufacturered by companies in regional countries.

However, in those countries, you almost never find Romanian products because most companies in Romania seem very afraid to compete in international markets. Or certainly non-aggressive. For the most part, they seem quite content with competing for a small share of the local market instead of instigating extranational battles in the home countries of those who market here. Maybe their only strategy is an exit strategy: sell out to foreign investors. I see a lot of that happening here, too. More on this topic another time as we’re in danger of another long and lengthy segue.

Frutti is a flavored, powdered soft drink mix very much like Kool-Aid (tragically unavailable here) but not quite as perfect. Still, it’s pretty good. You tear off the top and add it to water. While the package looks the same size as our Kool-Aid No Sugar Added, with Frutti you don’t need to add sugar because it already has an artificial sweetner in it.

Here’s the secret, kids!

You can see on the package it says that one packet makes two liters of drink. Bzzzt, wrong! Granted, the mixing directions are adequate for what most Romanians seem to be used to. You can go to the magazines and buy bottles of “fruit drink” that don’t really taste like fruit, but more like a bottle of colored water that had fruit touching the outside of the packaging at some point in the last decade. Those drinks are not very good. And Frutti will be just as tasteless if you follow the directions.

Nossir, if you want to approximate that gloriously divine palate-dance of Kool-Aid brand Kool-Aid then you must listen to your Romerican. Deviously and surreptitiously disregard the packet instructions. Blaze a new trail, pioneer. Cut the water in half. That’s right! One packet per liter. So, you’re two liter bottle gets double the powder. Only then, will you have a kick in the tastebuds reminiscent of Kool-Aid. It’s delicious.

Warning: Frutti is not sweetened with sugar, but with some kind of chemically derived rat poison based sweetner substance. It tastes good, but you might notice that diety phenylalanine-like twinge in case that bothers some drinkers.

In Romania, I’ve seen Frutti available in Orange, Tropic, Cola, Kiwi, Lemon and Peach. And blueberry. I love the blueberry. What’s your favorite flavor?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 25th, 2006 at 10:01 am and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.