Thank You! We've received your email address, and soon you will start getting exclusive offers and news from Wine Enthusiast. “This process continued for years up until Finland joined the European Union in 1995.” “The Finnish government owned the rights for all of long drinks manufacturing until 1995,” says Ere Partanen, co-founder of The Finnish Long Drink. Image Courtesy of The Finnish Long DrinkĪt the time, Finland had strict controls on the sale of alcohol, so the Finnish government created Alko, the national alcohol retail chain of Finland, to control the sale of alcohol products. And so, the first long drinks were commissioned.įrom the 1950s on, the popularity of Hartwall’s long drinks grew, becoming a Finnish bar tap staple with the government permitting production contracts to one beverage company at a time, allowing them to own the manufacturing rights for three years, and then the government passed them along to another company. The Finnish government wanted to create something that was quick to make with easy-drinking appeal, so Hartwall, a beverage company that’s also based in Helsinki, invented the recipe to help local bartenders serve the influx of tourists and spectators with ease. The history of long drinks dates to the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, when the country was still recovering from the effects of World War II. At the time of origin, lonkero was pre-mixed in bottles and refreshing, not too sweet with just a hint of alcohol. Traditionally, long drinks were made with gin, distilled from Finland’s Juniper berries, and grapefruit soda. One way to celebrate is by saying “kippis” and raising a glass of Finland’s national beverage, lonkero, also known as long drink. Right now, we’re just traveling all around the U.S., trying to build the national drink of Finland into a household name in America.In 2022, for the fifth consecutive year, Finland was named the happiest country on Earth by the World Happiness Report. “It’s something that gets their attention, and then they are intrigued to give Finland a try. “I think the biggest catch phrase we use in marketing it is ‘taste of Finland,’” Partanen says. The new flavors should be unveiled within the next six months or so. Their most recent flavor is Long Drink Zero, which is a low calorie version of the original Long Drink. In the United States, however, most people relate to the Long Drink as a canned cocktail, and the folks at the Long Drink are adding different flavors. It’s got the same percentage of alcohol as beer, but it’s made with liquor so it tastes lighter, and it doesn’t give you that bloated feeling.” And Long Drinks are not considered cocktails. “Having liquor in the can is the norm in Finland,” he says. In fact, some long drinks are served in boxes – like boxed wine in the United States – but right now, the company doesn’t have plans to expand out of cans, as liquor packaging laws in the United States are quite different from those of Finland. In Finland, Partanen explains, the long drink is its own category, and liquor stores devote whole aisles to it, right along side of beer, wine and spirits. It doesn’t really matter what the weather is – you can always go into a sauna and crack open a Long Drink.” “The first reaction we have with new customers is that this is the perfect summer drink, but to us, it’s not only a summer drink, it’s also the official drink of winter,” Partanen says. “We just thought we had this amazing product.” “It’s definitely true, we’ve got the wind at our backs, and we didn’t even realize these trends about Finland were happening,” Partanen says. The partners decided to bring the Long Drink to the states simply because it’s a great drink, it’s been around Finland since 1952 (when it was served at the Olympics), and they thought that others might like it. Now, they have almost 2,000 accounts, and they are now distributed with some large distributors in Nevada, Connecticut, Georgia, and New Jersey, and, of course, New York. When the four partners decided to export the national drink of Finland to the United States, they started with maybe 100 accounts, and they were self-distributed only in New York.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |