Tarkhuna ( ka, ტარხუნა, ) or Tarkhun (; ) is a Georgian carbonated

soft drink A soft drink (see #Terminology, § Terminology for other names) is a class of non-alcoholic drink, usually (but not necessarily) Carbonated water, carbonated, and typically including added Sweetness, sweetener. Flavors used to be Natural flav ...

that is flavored with

tarragon Tarragon (''Artemisia dracunculus''), also known as estragon, is a species of perennial herbaceous plant, herb in the family Asteraceae. It is widespread in the wild across much of Eurasia and North America and is cultivated for culinary and medic ...

and/or woodruff. It was first created in 1887 in the city of

Kutaisi Kutaisi ( ; ka, ქუთაისი ) is a city in the Imereti region of the Georgia (country), Republic of Georgia. One of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, it is the List o ...

by a Georgian pharmacist named Mitrofan Lagidze. Mitrofan Lagidze began to add odorous chukhpuch containing extract of Caucasian tarragon to sparkling water with natural syrups of his own production. Before the First World War, Lagidze repeatedly received gold medals at international exhibitions for his water. In 1927, the Soviet authorities built a plant for the production of " Lagidze water" in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

, and Lagidze himself was appointed director.

Availability

As of 2019, tarkhuna is produced in Georgia under "Natakhtari", "Zedazeni", "Zandukeli", "Kazbegi", "Laghidze", "Laghi", "Khiliani", "Georgia" and "Martvili" brands; in Lithuania under "Selita Klasika" as "Tarchunas"; and in Russia, where one of the producers is OAO Narzan under the brand "Ледяная Жемчужина" as "Тархун". The drink became available on the general

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

market for the first time in 1981. The pilot batch was sold on the territory of the Main Botanical Garden of the USSR Academy of Sciences in standard 0.33 liter bottles. Subsequently, its recipe was transferred to food industry enterprises, and, since 1983, "Tarhun" began to be sold in many republics of the USSR and administrative regions of the

RSFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

in bottles of 0.33 and 0.5 liters.

Trademark status

In a trademark dispute between

OÜ Acerra A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include: the ''LLC'' in the United St ...

and AS Tallinna Karastusjoogid, the Estonian

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications () is a government ministry of Estonia. Its head office is in Tallinn.Home
" Ministry of Economic ...

determined that the word ''Tarhun'' is a descriptive term for the drink, and is thus not trademarkable under the laws of the

Republic of Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. In Estonia, it was possible to find both the Estonian-made and Russian-made Tarhun drinks from the same soft drinks aisle, as the soft drink is distilled and bottled in both countries, though by different companies and with slightly different recipes. In 2015, the Estonian soft drinks company AS Tallinna Karastusjoogid, who were the local producer and distributor of "Tarhun", ceased operations, and its owner AS Haljas put the producer on sale to a 'foreign investor', whose name and country of origin has remained unknown. As of 2019, stores in Estonia variously sell tarkhuna lemonades made in Georgia, Lithuania, and Russia; though none of these tarkhuna brands has reached universal distribution across most store chains.

References

{{reflist Soft drinks Georgian drinks Russian drinks 1887 introductions