How to choose a real Cuban cigar. Mineral water: how to choose real

Ecology of consumption: The worst thing is that in our country they are also gradually forgetting classic recipe. After all, natural sour cream is not just fermented milk product, obtained by fermenting cream with a starter from special microorganisms.

Sour cream gives our body protein, normalizes the intestinal microflora and restores strength. True, but only if...

Alas, this does not apply to many modern sour cream products. Often on the shelves you can find a jar, the contents of which consist of vegetable fats, milk powder, thickeners and stabilizers.

Sour cream is one of the few products to which the definition of “Russian” is added in the West and treated with great reverence. It is called both "Russian cream" and "the main lubricant in Russian cuisine" (from the book of Peter Weil and Alexander Genis). However, this is not surprising: in Europe and America the right sour cream are not able to do.

The worst thing is that in our country they are also gradually forgetting the classic recipe. After all, natural sour cream is not just a fermented milk product obtained by fermenting cream with sourdough from special microorganisms. After this stage of production, it should still ripen for at least a day at special conditions, acquiring its famous consistency and unique taste. True, the natural product is very capricious, moreover, it is “alive” and quickly deteriorates. That is why manufacturers in every possible way want to simplify and speed up technological process, reduce the cost of ingredients and ensure that sour cream lies “fresh” on store shelves for months. What are they doing for this? Instead of cream and sourdough add powdered milk, Palm oil or soy protein. Starch, carrageenan and other thickeners are used to compact the fermented product, and preservatives are used to preserve it. As a result, in stores among jars of natural sour cream her doppelgänger turns out to be.

100% natural

Before you buy a product, teach yourself to read the information that is written on its packaging. Only in this way will you be able to distinguish a natural product from its surrogate. So the quality creamy sour cream It's called "sour cream". This applies to both imported and domestic products. Well, if the latter also has GOST. Is it true, perfect sour cream it is considered the one in which only cream and sourdough appear. The addition of any other components, even just milk, and even more so dry, makes it of less quality (although this is permissible according to GOST). By the way, statements like “100% natural” or “Thick - worth a spoon” should be treated with healthy skepticism. Manufacturers like to use such phrases regardless of the essence of the product, because they are not regulated by law.

In addition, always pay attention to the expiration date of sour cream. It’s good if it can be stored for no more than 14 days, because such a product is the most “live” and classic.

Sour cream is not sour cream

If the label does not say "sour cream", but " sour cream product”, which means that there is an unnatural product in the bank - however, this phrase is usually written in small and in the most inconspicuous place, so you will have to look for it. Larger on the package indicate something diminutive like "sour cream" or "sour cream". Despite the fact that such names are generally prohibited, some manufacturers still continue to use them.

According to the production technology, the sour cream product is similar to the natural one - it also goes through the fermentation process, but its composition is completely different. There may be little or no cream in it. But everything else - cheap vegetable fats, various components from milk, thickeners and stabilizers - in bulk, so it is stored for several months. As you understand, the usefulness of different "sour cream" due to a large number chemical additives is under big question.

Is the spoon worth it? It is not important!

Good sour cream is the one in which there is a spoon, many housewives believe and are mistaken, because today this quality indicator is very outdated. Thickeners and stabilizers that modern manufacturers actively added to the product, bind water, so the spoon does not sink in it. Now it is better to use another folk quality control. If sour cream is poured from one jar to another, it should form a “hill”, from which “waves” slowly move away, and they gradually level out to a horizontal surface. But the product with thickeners, when transferred to another container, will lie down in lumps without spreading, or will immediately begin to spread - it depends on its fat content. But chemical sour cream will never make "slides" with "waves".

White, glossy, tasty

Its appearance can also tell about the quality of sour cream. Its color should be white light cream shade and uniform throughout the mass. No lumps or irregularities are allowed. Surface good product should be absolutely smooth, glossy and shiny. If you opened the jar and saw that the sour cream is faded matte, then most likely it is full of thickeners.

Taste u natural product pure sour milk. A sharp sourness indicates that sour cream is starting to deteriorate, and if it is made from recombined cream or with the addition of powdered milk, a taste of melted butter may appear. However, a more important characteristic of a natural product is not even a taste, but a feeling on the tongue - sour cream should, as it were, envelop it. If it lies in a lump or spreads, this is not the best product.

Almost healthy fat

Sour cream can be of different fat content - from 10 to 58%. Therefore, it is divided into the following types: low-fat (10, 12 and 14%), low-fat (15, 17, 19%), classic (20, 22, 25, 28, 30, 32, 34%), fatty (35, 37 , 40, 42, 45, 48%) and high fat (50, 52, 55, 58%). If you want to buy hearty sour cream for salad or cream in a cake - choose a high-calorie copy, do not want to get fat or are afraid of cholesterol - buy a product with a low percentage. However, in recent years, the attitude of scientists to milk fats has changed. They are not yet called completely “healthy”, but they have already found useful material- conjugated linoleic acids, or CLA. Physicians have scientific evidence to think that they can prevent the development of obesity, promote weight loss while dieting, reduce the risk of developing vascular diseases and strengthen the immune system.

Expert opinion

Konstantin Spakhov, gastroenterologist, candidate of medical sciences:

Sour cream not the most dietary product, because it contains saturated fats that help the development of atherosclerosis. But to demonize her because of this is not worth it. Sour cream is one of the products that we consume in small quantities- one or two spoons in a salad and the same amount in a soup. If you take 20%, then you will eat a little more than 3 g of fat with it. It's less than 5% daily allowance fat intake for a woman.

Perfect sour cream

1. It is called "sour cream".

2. Has GOST, is made only from cream and sourdough.

3. The packaging says: "The number of lactic acid microorganisms at the end of the product's shelf life is at least 1x107 CFU / g."

4. Shelf life - no more than 2 weeks.

5. Color - white with a slight creamy tint, uniform throughout the mass, without lumps.

6. The surface is shiny.

7. Taste - pure sour milk.

8. When pouring, it forms a “hill”, from which “waves” slowly move away. published

Sour cream is a specific product. It doesn't do much without it. traditional dishes, it is satisfying, tasty, healthy. It contains many proteins, fats and minerals. And even its fat content, which is considered by many as a disadvantage, actually makes it really high-calorie and very useful for athletes and those who are engaged in hard physical labor.

But the big problem today is that they learned how to make sour cream without natural milk. Not at all. , vegetable fats, thickeners, soy protein, preservatives. The product is obtained appearance very similar to natural sour cream, but in fact useful properties not having one. But the shortcomings of such a complex of substitutes are more than enough.

What to do in order to choose sour cream made from real milk even in the store? recognize quality goods not easy, but it will be useful to know a few tricks and hallmarks of real sour cream. So, how to choose sour cream correctly? First you need to carefully study what it is sold in - its packaging.

What should be called sour cream

Choose a package with the name "Sour Cream", and not "Smetanka", "Smetanovna" or "Sour Cream Product". Under all these verbal delights lies not at all the desire of the manufacturer to attract the attention of the buyer or create an original brand. Everything is easier here.

It is much easier to determine whether sour cream is natural in another way: pour from one vessel to another. At the same time, a good product will spread in peculiar waves, layers overlapping each other. But synthetic will form lumps, which may not even merge into a homogeneous mass.

Sour cream flavor

How to choose good sour cream to taste? Of course, it is impossible to do this in a supermarket, but when buying on the market, it is quite possible. Yes, and once you buy sour cream in the store, you can simply determine how natural it is by taste, and whether it is worth choosing it next time.

What flavor should sour cream have? It should not be sweet or neutral. This is a fermented milk product, and it should give off sourness. Sour cream should not lie on the tongue in one piece. It is not for nothing that in Europe and America it is called a cream - choose one that will spread over the tongue and envelop it, no matter how thick it is.

And, of course, color. How to determine high-quality sour cream by color? It should be flat white with a slight creamy tint. A variety of spots, blurs, matte color - all this is evidence of the presence of many thickeners and additives.

lactic acid bacteria

And further important component- lactic acid bacteria, with the help of which, in fact, sour cream is produced. It is clear that choosing high-quality sour cream with the right amount bacteria without a microscope. But a conscientious manufacturer usually indicates the density of these organisms in the product. If there is this indication, and the indicator is at least 1 * 10 7 CFU / g, then this is an additional good sign of the quality of sour cream.

Cuban cigars, if not the best in the world, still remain a reference point for manufacturers from other countries. Russia is lucky. We have a lot of Cuban cigars, a lot, a variety of brands, formats, and sometimes they cost (especially in the regions) several times cheaper than Dominican or Honduran cigars. And several times cheaper than in England or Spain.
What explains such a rare success? That's right: cheap Cuban cigars are mostly fakes. Their number in the capital of our country is good if half of the total market, and in the provinces it reaches 100%.
The bulk of pleasantly cheap counterfeit cigars are illegal imports, bypassing licensed dealers. Weekly flights from Havana carry huge bales—private luggage—laden with tens of thousands of smoking units that quickly disperse across Russia's vast expanses.
Factory-made cigars fall into these batches if the reseller has a “channel” at the factory. But you can’t carry much through the checkpoint (or through the eternal hole in the fence), so it’s much easier to buy them on the street. Of the hundred percent of "left" cigars, 20 percent are normal factory ones, maybe even the brand is the same. At the factory, a box of, say, real Partagas Lusitania costs under $300. And on the street, 10 meters from the factory, you can buy "almost the same" box of dollars for 20 - less than a dollar apiece.
These cigars are made in nearby houses, in makeshift handicraft workshops, in the kitchen, “on the knee”. The qualification of the twister is on his conscience. Tobacco, of course, in these cigars is really Cuban - but what kind? It’s good if you manage to “fish” the finished one (dried, fermented, aged). But this rarely happens, and factory "carriers" deliver what they get - borrowed at any stage of processing. They spin out of it.
Another option. Quite officially, any factory roller can take 2 cigars per day (working) for personal use from the factory, for a total of -10 per week. Few people smoke them at home by the fire, most sell them occasionally or rent them out to a reseller they know on a regular basis. Such - the most real - cigars will also later end up in a "scorched" batch and may well get caught by a lucky Russian buyer. It is a pity that their number is scanty. But everything happens
It is difficult to pull the boxes at the factory, so they are sawn and glued at home. With the material - it's tight, especially considering that according to the rules and standards, each brand of cigars is supposed to have a box made of a certain type of wood. For example, Cohiba should rest on a bed of cedar wood. In a handicraft workshop, such pedantry is impossible, just as high-quality dressing is impossible. It is not necessary that the plywood, burred, container contains 25 units of a fuming nightmare, but it is very, very likely. However, there are craftsmen in Havana who value their reputation: they select the material and try to complete the inscriptions “to zero”. But this is difficult, since factories, as a rule, use press printing, and the inscriptions on the "native" boxes are embossed. So the box is our ally in exposing fakes. But more on that later.
The life of an underground manufacturer is difficult, but half the city lives in a cigar business, which, given the official salaries of the citizens of Liberty Island, is for them the only source more or less reasonable income. So the chains are well worked out: carriers-getters-amateur twisters-boxers and labelers-repurchase-transportation. Whist labels are easier, they are almost always real: it is not so difficult to carry a pack of paper labels under the shirt from your own enterprise. Ribbons have to be photocopied: you can’t put on every cigar. All is ready. The party of the left Montecristo or Cohiba is ready. Then - to the merchant, and on the plane. Actually, these are the most real of fake Cuban cigars. After all, tobacco, rolling, packaging, labeling - all Hecho en Cuba.
The Cubans themselves also bring them. A person who decides to leave his homeland in search of a better life will take the maximum load of cigars out of Cuba (just as our emigrants tried to grab a few jars of caviar, a dozen "commander's" watches and a load of nesting dolls). And it will not be spent on "native" Romeo y Julieta or Trinidad. Burnt cigars are more profitable, they will be bought anyway. Cuba is cigars. A transit emigrant in Moscow has little time, and he will hand over the goods quickly and cheaply. $30 for a box (25 pieces) of any brand.
Huge consignments, however, enter our country in bulk - without ribbons, without labels, without boxes. Boxes and bags. It's OK. And in Russia there are craftsmen, they will cut everything, paste it, draw it. It's even more convenient - call it whatever you want.
An extreme case of underground business is locally bottled Cuban cigars. There are very few of them. Even in the fields near Moscow, tobacco - inferior, pungent - still grows. And our craftsmen “twist Cuba”: it looks like a cigar, especially from a distance, but inside - it’s generally unknown what. These products cannot be found in the capitals, everything goes to the provinces.
Do merchants and restaurateurs know the origins of their cheap harbors? Certainly. But they can not always resist the price of fakes.
There are shops and restaurants in Moscow that protect their reputation and do not get involved with possible fakes. Of course, you can not resort to the services of dubious suppliers, since there is an official Habanos S.A. But even very strange specimens and whole boxes often come across in legal batches of cigars. Whether the tested batch is diluted with left-handed goods in Cuba, in other countries, in the warehouses of Habanos S.A., or already in Russia, it is not known, maybe not, just quality control is very lame. So many restaurants and shops prefer to completely abandon Cuban cigars - so as not to risk it. Offer a wide selection of Dominican.
What to do? Until the situation in Cuba changes, there will be no escape from fake cigars. The minimum percentage of fakes is in the UK, but the British managed to fix everything this way. In the meantime, let's try to give some tips.
How to tell a fake Cuban cigar from a real one
1. We look at the price tag. For example, Montecristo No.2 for 34 rubles 50 kopecks is a misunderstanding. But, on the other hand, serious numbers on the price tag also do not guarantee anything, on the contrary: what if they want to make a very big deal on us?
2. We examine the box (if it is not there at all, then the examination ends here, and the visit to the store comes to an end). Even if we don’t know that the box of Cohiba Esplendidos is cedar, with brown lacquer, and not plywood, poisonous lemon, it’s all the same: poor workmanship, clumsy seams, flat, lurid inscriptions, a label crookedly and in a hurry. If everything is more or less good, then:
we make sure that there is a warranty label (green with black, it kind of seals the box). Its design has not changed since 1931;
we look to see if the box, in the upper corner of the lid, has a diagonal sticker with a stylized tobacco leaf and (since 1994) the name of the company: Habanos S. A .;
check the labels. “Hecho en Cuba” is not enough, all officially exported havanas are marked like that. We need - "Totalmente a mano" (only hand-made);
we find the code of this batch (we wrote about the codes of Cuban cigars in the last issue).
By these checks, we are, of course, not guaranteed against fakes, but at least weeded out the most outspoken of them. So, if everything is in order, then open the box, and
3. We look at the cigars with a picky look: they must be the same in color and length.
4. We pick up a cigar. Let's see how she looks. We rely on the aesthetic feeling - bad work is always visible. Flat, xeroxed tape (factory - slightly embossed) - goodbye. It does not always make sense to pedantically compare tapes, since the Cubans themselves, who are completely uninterested in the competition of fakes, can slightly vary the design. Trying to evaluate the flavor of a cigar. Like - dislike - this is also a criterion. In the end, if we were going to buy a box, then we will sacrifice the price of one cigar - we will buy it and try it.
5. The most important thing. We bring benefits to humanity. If we already ran into a fake, then we will never buy cigars in this place again. If we all act in this way, the future will be much better.
6. Or a postscript. We are not offended by Cuban cigars in general - there are still amazing ones among them.

Sour cream gives our body protein, normalizes the intestinal microflora and restores strength. True, but only if...

Alas, this does not apply to many modern sour cream products. Often on the shelves you can find a jar, the contents of which consist of vegetable fats, milk powder, thickeners and stabilizers.

Sour cream is one of the few products to which the definition of “Russian” is added in the West and treated with great reverence. It is called both "Russian cream" and "the main lubricant in Russian cuisine" (from the book of Peter Weil and Alexander Genis). However, this is not surprising: in Europe and America, they do not know how to make the right sour cream.

The worst thing is that in our country they are also gradually forgetting the classic recipe. After all, natural sour cream is not just a fermented milk product obtained by fermenting cream with sourdough from special microorganisms. After this stage of production, it still has to ripen for at least a day under special conditions, acquiring its famous texture and unique taste. True, the natural product is very capricious, moreover, it is “alive” and quickly deteriorates. That is why manufacturers in every possible way want to simplify and speed up the technological process, reduce the cost of ingredients and ensure that sour cream lies “fresh” on store shelves for months. What are they doing for this? Instead of cream and sourdough, milk powder, palm oil or soy protein are added. Starch, carrageenan and other thickeners are used to compact the fermented product, and preservatives are used to preserve it. As a result, in stores among the jars of natural sour cream are its counterparts.

100% natural

Before you buy a product, teach yourself to read the information that is written on its packaging. Only in this way will you be able to distinguish a natural product from its surrogate. So, high-quality creamy sour cream is called “sour cream”. This applies to both imported and domestic products. Well, if the latter also has GOST. True, the ideal sour cream is the one that contains only cream and sourdough. The addition of any other components, even just milk, and even more so dry, makes it of less quality (although this is permissible according to GOST). By the way, statements like “100% natural” or “Thick - worth a spoon” should be treated with healthy skepticism. Manufacturers like to use such phrases regardless of the essence of the product, because they are not regulated by law.

In addition, always pay attention to the expiration date of sour cream. It’s good if it can be stored for no more than 14 days, because such a product is the most “live” and classic.

Sour cream is not sour cream

If the label does not say “sour cream”, but “sour cream product”, then the jar contains an unnatural product - however, this phrase is usually written in small and in the most inconspicuous place, so you will have to look for it. Larger on the package indicate something diminutive like "sour cream" or "sour cream". Despite the fact that such names are generally prohibited, some manufacturers still continue to use them.

According to the production technology, the sour cream product is similar to the natural one - it also goes through the fermentation process, but its composition is completely different. There may be little or no cream in it. But everything else - cheap vegetable fats, various components from milk, thickeners and stabilizers - in bulk, so it is stored for several months. As you understand, the usefulness of different “sour creams” due to the large number of chemical additives is a big question.

Is the spoon worth it? It is not important!

Good sour cream is the one in which there is a spoon, many housewives believe and are mistaken, because today this quality indicator is very outdated. Thickeners and stabilizers, which modern manufacturers actively add to the product, bind water, so the spoon does not sink in it. Now it is better to use another folk quality control. If sour cream is poured from one jar to another, it should form a “hill”, from which “waves” slowly move away, and they gradually level out to a horizontal surface. But the product with thickeners, when transferred to another container, will lie down in lumps without spreading, or will immediately begin to spread - it depends on its fat content. But chemical sour cream will never make "slides" with "waves".

White, glossy, tasty

Its appearance can also tell about the quality of sour cream. Its color should be white with a slight creamy tint and uniform throughout the mass. No lumps or irregularities are allowed. The surface of a good product should be absolutely smooth, glossy and shiny. If you opened the jar and saw that the sour cream is faded matte, then most likely it is full of thickeners.

The taste of the natural product is pure sour milk. A sharp sourness indicates that sour cream is starting to deteriorate, and if it is made from recombined cream or with the addition of powdered milk, a taste of melted butter may appear. However, a more important characteristic of a natural product is not even a taste, but a feeling on the tongue - sour cream should, as it were, envelop it. If it lies in a lump or spreads, this is not the best product.

Almost healthy fat

Sour cream can be of different fat content - from 10 to 58%. Therefore, it is divided into the following types: low-fat (10, 12 and 14%), low-fat (15, 17, 19%), classic (20, 22, 25, 28, 30, 32, 34%), fatty (35, 37 , 40, 42, 45, 48%) and high fat (50, 52, 55, 58%). If you want to buy hearty sour cream for salad or cream in a cake - choose a high-calorie copy, do not want to get fat or are afraid of cholesterol - buy a product with a low percentage. However, in recent years, the attitude of scientists to milk fats has changed. They are not yet called completely “healthy”, but useful substances have already been found in them - conjugated linoleic acids, or CLA. Physicians have scientific evidence to think that they can prevent the development of obesity, promote weight loss while dieting, reduce the risk of developing vascular diseases and strengthen the immune system.

Expert opinion

Konstantin Spakhov, gastroenterologist, candidate of medical sciences:

Sour cream not the most dietary product, because it contains saturated fats that help the development of atherosclerosis. But to demonize her because of this is not worth it. Sour cream is one of those products that we consume in small quantities - one or two tablespoons in a salad and the same amount in a soup. If you take 20%, then you will eat a little more than 3 g of fat with it. This is less than 5% of a woman's daily fat intake.

Perfect sour cream

1. It is called "sour cream".

2. Has GOST, is made only from cream and sourdough.

3. The packaging says: "The number of lactic acid microorganisms at the end of the product's shelf life is at least 1 × 107 CFU / g."

4. Shelf life - no more than 2 weeks.

5. Color - white with a slight creamy tint, uniform throughout the mass, without lumps.

6. The surface is shiny.

7. Taste - pure sour milk.

8. When pouring, it forms a “hill”, from which “waves” slowly move away.

How to choose a real stew according to GOST? You will find the answer to this and other questions in this article.

In an era of various crises and not only, people are in a hurry to stock up on food. And what could be more satisfying and tastier than a good stew? Stew made according to all the requirements of GOST is stored for five years in tin can and up to three years - in glass. However, there is quite reasonable question: "Is it possible to find stew made according to GOST on the shelves of modern supermarkets?". Yes, it is quite possible. Oddly enough, but bona fide manufacturers the stews are still there. This article will tell you how to choose stew according to GOST.

So, what should you pay attention to when buying:

The first is the name of the product

If the stew is made according to GOST, then it is called "stewed pork" or "stewed beef". The rest of the names are just attempts to pass off as stew, it’s not clear what. By the way, it is worth noting that even the very word "stew" on the packaging of the product also gives reason to doubt its quality.

Second - who produces and where produces

Pork stew from a Russian manufacturer

The larger the meat processing plant that produces stew, the less profitable it is for him to sacrifice his reputation. Another thing is little-known manufacturers. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Also, if the meat processing plant is located in an area where animal husbandry is traditionally developed, then it is simply not profitable for him to replace cheap meat with surrogates at the same price. Even more than that, sometimes stew made from meat is more profitable.

The areas with developed animal husbandry include: the Republic of Buryatia, the Orenburg region and some other regions.

Third - label

The label on the stew can tell a lot. On a normal product, it is glued along the entire length. But dubious manufacturers prefer to save on everything, including glue, adding a couple of drops of it along the edges of the label. In some cases, tinplate printing is used instead of a paper label. It's pretty sophisticated technology, remaining only large enterprises, so this stew can be trusted (of course, subject to other conditions).

If the stew is made according to GOST, then it is called "stewed pork" or "stewed beef". The rest of the names are attempts to pass off as stew, it’s not clear what.

Fourth - according to GOST or according to TU

In general, in theory, products manufactured according to TU can be no worse than GOST. Unfortunately, this is practically not observed in practice. In addition, the requirements of GOST are available to any consumer on the Internet, but the conditions of TU are a secret with seven seals, sometimes a very terrible secret.

Fifth - stew packaging

It is better to give preference to products in a tin can, and not in a glass one. At least for safety reasons during storage and transportation. In this case, the jar should not be dented, and even more so be swollen or have traces of rust. All this indicates non-compliance with storage conditions. And if a dent is nothing, then rust has every chance to penetrate the meat.

By the way, the presence of swollen cans on store shelves is a reason to contact Rospotrebnadzor. After all, such a product is clearly spoiled, which means that it should not be on sale.

Real stew: what is it?

Authentic Beef Stew top grade”, as well as “First Grade Beef Stew” contains pieces of meat, about 30 grams each, and all this is in the broth. If you touch the pieces with a fork, they are easily separated from each other. If there is something monolithic in the jar, then the manufacturing technology is clearly violated, according to which all the ingredients in the jar are added separately, and not total weight. It may not affect the taste of the product.

Many are sure that the real stew is Belarusian stew!

When the stew is heated, the color of the broth should be from slightly yellowish to light brown. The presence of suspended protein substances in the form of flakes is allowed, as well as a slight turbidity of the broth. But most importantly, when cooled, the stew broth should not turn into jelly. If this happens, then the conclusion is simple - an unscrupulous manufacturer added thickeners, and this is no longer according to GOST.