Discover Long Drink, a Finnish Cocktail that Dates Back to the 1952 Olympics
Editor’s note: If you haven’t yet heard of Long Drink, you will soon. In addition to the version from Hartwall, Boston Beer has announced plans to introduce Bevy Long Drink. Bevy Long Drink will hit shelves in early November in two flavors: Sparkling Citrus Refresher and Sparkling Berry Refresher.
In a moment we’re going to learn about a fun canned 5.5% alcohol beverage that originated in Finland.
Facts About Finland
Finland has 187,888 lakes.
The video game series Angry Birds was created in Finland.
Finland has more heavy metal bands and Olympic medals per capita than any other country.
In Finland, there are more saunas (3 million) than cars. (In fact, the word ‘sauna’ is the only commonly used word of Finnish origin in the English language.)
Finland is also the source of the word ‘kalsarikannit,’ defined as "the feeling when you are going to get drunk home alone in your underwear with no intention of going out."
Long Drink
What do Finns drink for fun? Many Finns drink long drink (‘lonkero’ in Finnish), a refreshing, ready-made bottled or canned mix of Finnish gin and grapefruit soda. In 1952, the Summer Olympics were held in Helsinki, Finland’s capital city. In anticipation of thirsty crowds, a government commissioned an alcohol company to invent a cool pre-mixed beverage, and the long drink was born. The tradition stuck after the athletes went home.
According to Ere Partanen and Mikael Taipale, two of the Co-Founders of Long Drink, a US brand founded in 2018, “In Finland…we see long drinks being drunk by all ages and genders, in bottles, cans, and on draught, and people really drink it year-round on many occasions –[in] bars, restaurants, weddings, after ski - or especially perfect after sauna.”
In Finland, long drink lives in its own category, completely separate from its well-known cousins the hard seltzer and the canned cocktail. We asked Partanen and Taipale to explain the difference and they continued via email: “Hard seltzers are flavored water with a hint of fruitiness and a malt alcohol base. Canned cocktails are replicas of the typical cocktail items you see people asking the bartenders to make such as gin & tonic, vodka soda, or a margarita. Long drink is not something you ask the bartender to make. It’s a concept like “beer” or “soda” - you don’t ask the bartender to make those…The long drink category consists of drinks that are normally around 5.5% alc/vol., have a real liquor base, and are not made based on a cocktail recipe.”
Taste Test
Interesting--but how do they taste? We tried their domestically produced Long Drink alongside the Finnish import, Hartwall Original Long Drink, which is now also available in the US market. The contents of each 12-ounce sky blue can felt refreshing, effervescent, easy to drink, not-too-sweet, mildly citrus-y. The Hartwall tastes a bit more sugary and the Long Drink skews a little more dry but neither has the juniper-y punch we expected from a gin drink. Hartwall created a national holiday around the grapefruit gray-colored drink (“concrete water” as it’s sometimes referred to by Finns on Instagram) declaring the third Saturday in November “The Greyest Day of the Year” in Finland, meant to be toasted with an ice-cold long drink, of course. Americans might prefer to quaff them on a warmer occasion, but they are truly appealing and quite drinkable.
The money is on that appeal. Partanen and Taipale, along with their Long Drink Company co-founders Evan Burns and Sakari Manninen, secured $25 million funding in July 2021, reported The Spirits Business, and plan to scale up production and distribution of their four core SKUS (the drink also comes in cranberry, strong, and zero sugar varieties) adjacent to the hot hard seltzer and canned cocktail markets. It seems safe to bet on the national drink from a country of sauna-loving folks who invented a word for drinking at home in your underwear.