Long Drinks

 Long drinks have strong historical traditions in Finland. The long drink was developed expressly to brush up Finland's image during the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. It was suspected that the games' foreign visitors might wonder about the Finns' favourite drinks, so a peek was taken of the guests' drinking habits. Thus the long drink - a pre-blended drink mix that was quick and easy to make - was invented. Gin and grapefruit were mixed in 5.5% bottles with tear-off caps, and that solved the problem of matching the rest of the world's drinking habits.

A long drink has to taste like a long drink, in other words it should taste like grapefruit and gin, and it should have a "bite". The flavour has to be brisk, refreshing and tangy. A cloudy colour is also part of the long drink's mystique.

In 2003 Sinebrychoff launched Kurko - a 4.7% vol. long drink manufactured by fermentation - for grocery stores. The following year we also renewed the Sinebrychoff Gin product family and made it entirely gin-based. This also gave us a strong long drink alternative worthy of consideration in restaurants and Alko shops.

The basic long drink mentality is closely associated with Finnishness, honesty, authenticity and straightforwardness. The older long drink consumers tend to favour the traditional long drinks, while the younger generation of long drink consumers are eager to try new flavours. Despite the many flavoured alternatives launched on the market in recent years, the popularity of the traditional grapefruit long drink remains undiminished.