NY Times · Jun 19, 2018
The Infamous Sochi Drug-Testing Lab Is Now a Gastro Pub
The Meldonium, an absinthe-based cocktail named after a performance-enhancing drug.SOCHI, Russia — The bartender at the restaurant here flipped a liquor bottle stylishly around his back and laid out the ingredients for a cerulean, absinthe-based cocktail that he garnished with a golden berry.
It was not so long ago that far different, far less palatable, concoctions — urine, coffee grounds, table salt, to name a few choice ingredients — were mixed inside this same building, mere steps from where he stood.