Hartwall Original Long Drink (stylised as oriGINal) is a brand of

lonkero In Finland, lonkero refers to a ready mixed drink made from gin and, most commonly, grapefruit soda, although other long drink flavours include cranberry and lime. In Finland, lonkero is available in stores and restaurants, where it can be on ...

produced by the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

brewery

Hartwall Hartwall Ltd is a beverage company based in Helsinki, Finland. It was founded in 1836. Its drinks range includes Jaffa, Pommac and Novelle waters. The company also owns the licence for manufacturing and selling PepsiCo's Pepsi, 7 Up and Mounta ...

. Hartwall first produced lonkero in 1952 when

Alko Alko Inc is the national alcoholic beverage retailing monopoly in Finland. It is the only store in the country which retails beer over 5.5% ABV, wine (except in vineyards) and spirits. Alcoholic beverages are also sold in licensed restaurant ...

ordered Gin Long Drink and Brandy Long Drink from the brewery. Hartwall has sold lonkero under the Original Long Drink brand since 1995 when production of the beverage was opened for everyone. From 1979 to 1994 Gin Long Drink was produced for Alko by the breweries Mallasjuoma and

Sinebrychoff The Sinebrychoff Brewery () is a Finnish brewery and soft drink company. It was founded in 1819 in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, by the Russian businessman Nikolai Sinebrychoff, and it is the largest brewery in Finland today. By the end of 19 ...

. The beverage is still produced under the original recipe from Finnish gin,

water Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...

and grapefruit juice. The gin is distilled specifically for the Hartwall Original Long Drink, and all its ingredients are picked by hand to ensure the best possible quality. The alcohol content of the beverage is 5.5% by volume, but there is also a lighter version with 2.6% alcohol, a Strong version with 7.5% alcohol and an alcohol-free version.

History

Hartwall Original Long Drink was originally developed for the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

, Finland to lighten the burden of the bar staff when Helsinki received visitors from all around the world. The original intent was to only produce the beverage during the Olympics, but as the beverage grew popular the customers demanded that its production should be continued even after the Olympics. At the same time a new beverage category for long drinks was born in Finland, colloquially called "lonkero" (from the words "long drink", literally meaning "

tentacle In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work ma ...

" in

). There originally were two flavours: ''Gin Long Drink'' made from gin and grapefruit lemonade and ''Brandy Long Drink'' made from brandy and

Pommac Pommac is the brand name for a carbonated soft drink made by Carlsberg Group, Carlsberg Sverige AB of fruits and berries and matured in oak aging barrel, barrels for three months. The name comes from "Pommery", referring to Champagne (wine), Cham ...

. Production of Brandy Long Drink ended in the 1970s but the beverage came back onto the market produced by Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas in 2009. Until 1995 grocery stores sold a lighter version with 2.6% alcohol, which was removed from the market when Finland joined the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

. In 2016 the product came back onto the market, as the requirement that only fermented alcoholic beverages could be sold in grocery stores did not apply to beverages of under 2.8% alcohol.Erehdys? 21 vuotta sitten myynnistä vedetty suosikki palaa markkinoille
'' Helsingin Uutiset'' 5 January 2016. Accessed on 18 March 2018.

References

External links

Official site
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180630000157/http://www.originallongdrink.com/fi/ , date=2018-06-30
Hartwall Original Long Drink
at

Hartwall Cool Long Drink
Finnish alcoholic drinks