Sweet hits. Moscow Main Archive reveals desserts that used to be popular in different ages

Even in the old Rus days, people liked desserts. When sugar was too expensive, they found other sweets to have with their tea. A new age of confectionery started with introduction of beetroot sugar. Cookies, jams and hard candies appeared on store shelves, becoming veritable stress tests for anyone with a sweet tooth.

Mos.ru talked to Tatyana Perkina, an employee of Moscow Main Archive, about the history of confectionery industry in Moscow. Read on to learn if Muscovites could afford a piece of sugar with their coffee in the 18th century, when chocolate was a delicacy, which desserts that Russians love today were invented in 1913 to celebrate the 300 years of the Romanov dynasty, what the secret of the legendary Soviet ice cream is, and which desserts were hits in various ages.

Honey desserts and sugar as a colonial exotic

The first desserts were honey-based. According to Ms. Perkina, up to the earlier half of the 18th century, the choice of desserts was not as extensive as we are used to today.

Cane sugar first appeared in Rus around the 13th century, but for a long time only royal and wealthy noble families could afford it. Sugar remained an exotic treat. Legends say that Ivan the Terrible was once presented with a sugar-glazed model of the Kremlin: an insanely expensive, truly royal gift. Peter I changed the situation: having appreciated sugar during his travels abroad, he decided to import raw cane to Russia for processing (that was cheaper to do than buying finished goods). The first sugar factory opened in Saint Petersburg in 1720.

They used cane sugar to make hard candies, marzipan, fruit jams and cookies. But even domestically produced sugar and sugar-based goods were still too expensive for the general public. People at home used special pincers to break small pieces off a part of a big sugarloaf. Another expensive treat, coffee, also started its spread through the Russian Empire in the early 18th century. Back then, only wealthy people could afford something we now consider among the essentials: coffee with sugar. Those delicacies used to be served in coffee shops.

Beetroot sugar: defining product in the history of desserts

In the 18th century, the confectionery industry experienced a huge breakthrough: the invention of beetroot sugar which was way cheaper than cane sugar. That was when all sorts of hard candies, cookies, jams, and later, pastry and cream pies (the name they used for cakes) started appearing on the shelves. Street vendors offered cheap sweet buns, gingerbread, dry jams (dried and sugar-coated berries and pieces of fruit). Everyone could afford those. One of the vendors’ favorite places was Zaryadye.

“In addition to desserts, candy shops also offered hot chocolate. In the early 19th century, it also was an expensive treat. A chocolate bar for Christmas was a gift for the ages. People took chocolate assortments with them when paying visits; men gave them to their lady loves. Chocolate was mostly Russian-made and excellent quality. Chocolatiers selected and roasted cocoa beans personally, to make them into cocoa powder and cocoa butter, avoiding ready-made imported products,” says Ms. Perkina.

Large confectionery factories started to appear in the first half of the 19th century. By the 1880s, several large confectioneries were operating in Moscow, along with lots of smaller ones.

Legends of the 19th century: apricot leather, Yubileynoye and Chaynoye cookies

One of the first confectionery giants was the Abrikosov’s factory famous for its fruit leather. Stepan Abrikosov, a former serf, used to make apricot leather for his landlady Anna Levashova. Eventually, she allowed the talented confectioner to go to Moscow and pay her rent from there.  

Saving up some money, Stepan was able to buy freedom for himself and his family, and later opened a confectionery shop. He named himself after his most famous product (Abrikos, apricot). Later, developing his grandfather’s business, one of his grandsons founded a confectionery factory. Soon, the Abrikosovs’ desserts, including the much beloved fruit leather, became known throughout Moscow. It was cheaper then chocolate, but still delicious.

The S. Siou & Co. trade house also started as a small confectionery shop. Its founders were Adolphe and Eugénie Siou, a French couple. To celebrate 300 years of the Romanov dynasty in 1913, the company released the legendary Yubileynoye (Jubilee) shortbread cookies (still produced to this day). They became Muscovites’ favorite treat right away.

The Einem Company, launched by Theodor von Einem from Germany, marked the occasion by releasing Mishka Kosolapy (Clumsy Bear) chocolates that everyone likes even now. Another hit of Einem’s were airy and crunchy shortbread cookies that were served with tea. That was what they were called: Chaynoye (To Tea) cookies. The company was also famous for their chocolate bars and assortments.

At Einem’s, they went above and beyond to advertise their products. Their ornate chocolate boxes came with silver sugar pincers and lacy napkins. They also printed series of postcards that were put inside the boxes. One series, for instance, was about the future of Russia: the 21st and the 22nd centuries. On the postcards, the sky above Moscow was full of airplanes, hot air balloons and zeppelins. Lots of people collected Einem’s postcards.

Another major confectionery in Moscow was the Lenovs’ Merchant factory. Starting from boiled candy and sugar drops, the Lenovs gradually expanded their range, and by the late 19th century launched chocolates production. Confectioneries were making every product that was popular with their customers: fruit leathers, souffles, waffles, chocolates, chocolate bars, jellies, cookies, gingerbread.

“Recipes were proprietary, though, and each factory was guarding them jealously. Companies were competing for customers fiercely. For example, when advertising their hot chocolate, Einem’s recommended to add egg yolks to it to make it thicker. Immediately, S. Siou & Co. released their own advertisement saying you should never add egg yolks to hot chocolate, because that would be like adding sugar to a salad or pouring jam over meat,” says Ms. Perkina.

One of the most affordable desserts of the late 19th–early 20th century were fruit drops made of natural fruit juices, cheap and tasty. Many could also afford a portion of ice cream on a hot day. Vendors were coursing Moscow streets with ice-packed containers. Each customer was handed a bowl and a spoon. Later, for sanitary purposes, they replaced spoons with wooden sticks we use now.

Price regulation in the USSR and the legendary Soviet extra rich ice cream

After the Soviets came to power in 1917, confectionery factories were nationalized and their names changed. The Abrikosov’s factory got renamed after P. Babayev (now Babayevskaya), S. Siou & Co. became Bolshevik, Einem’s switched its name to Krasny Oktyabr and the Lenovs’ trade house – to Rot Front. In the 1920s, the Udarnitsa factory was established in place of a pre-revolutionary brewery.

“The state regulated prices, making them about the same for all similar products. Mostly, they were quite cheap. At long last, chocolate became widely accessible. It was already very popular in the late 19th century, but in the USSR after the war just about everyone could afford a chocolate bar. Furthermore, Soviet chocolate was of very high quality,” says the Archive researcher.

If confectioneries in the past used to make every product imaginable, the Soviet period brought in narrow specialization. The Babayev factory (ex-Abrikosov’s), for instance, focused on chocolate. Production of the famous Abrikosov’s fruit leathers had to be discontinued. The Udarnitsa factory took over light desserts like fruit leathers, marshmallows or jellies. Krasny Oktyabr was and still remains the key Moscow producer of chocolate and chocolate assortments. Rot Front supplied Muscovites with waffles, halwa and famous soy bars.

Another achievement for the Soviet confectioners was industrial ice cream production. It was jump-started by Anastas Mikoyan, People’s Commissar of the Food Industry. Thanks to him, Moscow factories started shipping tons of chocolate glazed ice cream cones, popsicles and waffle cones with cream flowers.

Many remember Soviet extra-rich ice cream as the taste of their childhood. Likely, its secret was in the quality of ingredients: high-fat cream and milk, fresh egg yolks, sugar. Nevertheless, ice cream was cheap, even cheaper than lemonade in summer. Soviet ice cream has become a cult food and one of the USSR symbols.