Friday, December 2, 2011

Russians love choco pies?

I've made several trips to Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union over the years, and I've never once seen a single choco pie. What is a choco pie, you ask? Here's your answer:
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I've been coming to Korea every few years since 2001.... and I swear, it never fails: the instant a Korean learns that I've been to Russia they either ask me, "Is it true that Russians love choco pies?" or they tell me this as a fact: "Russians love choco pies." And yet, I've never seen a choco pie in Russia. I'm not saying that your typical Russian wouldn't enjoy a choco pie now and then if he had the opportunity, I'm just saying that I've never seen one over there. Apparently somebody at Orion even got current Russian puppet President, Dmitri Medvedev to play into the stereotype:

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"Presidential Choco Pie"

This makes Medvedev the one and only Russian I've ever seen anywhere near a choco pie. I notice that he doesn't actually appear to be eating them. My coworkers are very strong proponents of the 'Russians love choco pies' theory. (One of them even sent me the above photo as proof.)

The other day someone brought in a box of choco pies for our department. I snagged one off the table, and happened to take a look at the wrapper before tearing into it - and I just about died laughing. Take a look:

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Yes, that's a choco pie wearing a шапка ушанка,
with the Russian flag painted on it's cheek.

Rather disappointingly, their entire marketing campaign is not based solely on the myth that Russians love choco pies. They've got an entire international lineup:

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(The one on the bottom had the choco pie etched with the continents to make a globe, but it's hard to see in this photo)

1 comment:

Christine said...

I found black sesame choco pies in Korea. Delicious and odd. :)