When Life Gives You Rhubarb

The World of Soviet Groceries, as recently linked on Boing Boing, is a treasure trove of quaint packaging, made even more nostalgia-inducing by the soft colors that resulted from the printing method and paper used.

I don't mean to say I am nostalgic for Soviet-era groceries (I never had the good fortune to stand in a line at Russian store of that era), but rather that the pictures make me think of our own outmoded packaging and the foods Americans used to eat.


Okay, we didn't actually eat most of the same foods. This image, translated simply as Rhubarb drink, is a case in point.


This picture combines cherry kissel (mousse), boiled buckwheat, and split pea soup for a trifecta of taste never seen in America.


Though this can of peas could have been found on any grocery shelf down the street (except for the Cyrillic, of course).

The World of Soviet Groceries