Legendary Soda Fountain · Lagidze Water
Lagidze Water (Tarkhuna Soda)
Photo: Leon Hart / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
This fizzy syrup soda was served to world leaders at both the Yalta and Tehran conferences during World War II — Tbilisi's beloved corner-shop drink once shared a table with Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin.
Lagidze water is a naturally flavored soda made by mixing carbonated water with handmade fruit and herb syrups, poured fresh from a soda fountain rather than bottled. The tarragon (tarkhuna) version, a bright neon-green, grassy-sweet syrup, is the most iconic flavor, alongside pear, quince, and chocolate cream.
Why it's made this way: Inventor Mitrofan Lagidze opened his flagship soda parlor on Tbilisi's Rustaveli Avenue in 1906, and the shop became such a fixture of the capital's social life that 'Lagidze water' is now inseparable from Tbilisi itself.
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