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. Americans might prefer to quaff them on a warmer occasion, but they are truly appealing and quite drinkable.
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. 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. The contents of each 12-ounce sky blue can felt refreshing, effervescent, easy to drink, not-too-sweet, mildly citrus-y. 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. 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.” Long drink is not something you ask the bartender to make. 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. 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. In Finland, long drink lives in its own category, completely separate from its well-known cousins the hard seltzer and the canned cocktail. 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 – bars, restaurants, weddings, after ski - or especially perfect after sauna.”
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