Interview with the Owners of The Finnish Long Drink

An Interview with Miles Teller and Finnish Long Drink

Last month, Edible Indy® sat down with the owners of the Finnish Long Drink during an event in the Upstairs Bar in Bloomington. Long Drink Founder Evan Burns is originally from Jasper, Indiana, and he’s come back to his home state alongside Finnish co-owner Sakari Manninen to promote their rapidly growing Ready-to-Drink [R2D] cocktail brand under his belt. Long Drink co-owner and actor Miles Teller first fell in love with the canned version of Finland’s national cocktail in 2018, and has been one of the company’s biggest cheerleaders as it’s risen to one of the fastest-growing drink brands in the world.

EDIBLE INDY: Miles, is this your first time in Indiana?

MILES TELLER: Other than being in Indianapolis for the 500 this is my first time, yea. It’s really pretty. And they said it was pushing 45 degrees, but it doesn’t feel like it, Toronto got down to, like, 20; it was crazy.

EI: What was your experience at the 500 like?

TELLER: So I started the race, I leaned over in the front, which was very cool. When the engines start revving up, that’s pretty exciting. And then they took me up to the crow’s nest where the snipers were, to see the whole track and then I went down in the snake pit for a little bit. People don’t even know, they don’t even know a race is going on there.

EI: No, and they don’t care.

TELLER: Then we went to St. Elmo’s, got that friggin’ cocktail sauce. I like horseradish, so I was good.

EI: So why Long Drink?

TELLER: Honestly, it was really organic for me. I tried it, then I got back to California and I couldn’t get it out there. We had a mutual acquaintance, me and a guy on the Long Drink team, so after I had them sending me shipments every couple weeks, they were, like, ‘Hey, Miles is a big fan of this, obviously, maybe we could try establishing an actual pairing of it.’ So it began as that, and then I started offering it to my friends, which is how we were able to get, like, Rickie Fowler and Kygo. There are a bunch of other golf guys who are investors, actually. I just, I don’t really drink seltzers, or anything like that. I just thought the taste was really complex, but it was really refreshing too. I honestly think it’s really refreshing. And the buzz is good, too, because it’s gin. So gin is, like, a really clean, upper, buzz, so that’s good.

EI: Evan, how did this product come to you?

EVAN BURNS: The two things that caught my attention, and I have to thank my Finnish co-founders for this, is when they took me to Finland, one, they helped me understand that Long Drink was everywhere. Karaoke, dive bar, fancy restaurant, you name it. Everyone in Finland is drinking Long Drink. In America, you know how you go out and everybody’s drinking Coca-Cola? When you go to Finland, it’s like that. Then they told me this story, right? The government commissioned the creation of Long Drink for the Olympics in 1952, to be a “taste of the world above.” But what was really interesting, that I didn’t really understand at the beginning, was that nobody owned that story. It was the story of a whole category. Just like tequila has this story of being made in Mexico, distilled from agave, or champagne in the Champagne region of France, et cetera, what if we made a brand ourselves, and called it Finnish Long Drink, and brought it to America? Because it’s got this great story, that’s the story of a whole area.

EI: How’d you meet your co-founders?

BURNS: They walked into a party I was hosting in New York. The whole story behind this has been fate driven. I wish I could tell you we had some big architected strategy, but it’s been like, interesting ideas that we pursued, problems that we talked about, we overcame.

EI: Miles, is this your first foray into the beverage industry?

TELLER: It’s my first time really putting my face in front of something and investing my own money. I really don’t do social media, I don’t have an Instagram. So a lot of companies, when they want to partner with you, it’s pretty important for you to have an Instagram. And I’ve turned it down every time, because I was like, it’s not for me personally, it’s not worth it. You know, so I’ve turned down a lot of stuff, too. I try to be pretty authentic in everything that I do. I just didn’t feel like people can sense when celebrities are just selling shit to try and make money or something, you know? I’ve been involved in this company for six years now. The growth has been incredible, so it’s been all very seamless.

EI: There’s a sense though that in this space specifically, in the R2D [Ready to Drink] space, it’s so convoluted, there’s so many drinks, there’s so many brands, the Long Drink has stood up above all of those, and not just because you, or the other celebrities, but the product itself.

TELLER: (gesturing to the zero-sugar version of Long Drink) I call these skinny Finnies, by the way. EI: You guys are hitting the whole country in a way that seems very genuine. What’s been the strategy there?

SAKARI MANNINEN: We try to keep it localized, we have salespeople in probably 30 states or so by now. I think that that’s a big part of the success as well, you need to be there where you want to be. Evan lives in the U.S. I recently moved back to Finland, but me and my two other Finnish co-founders, we come here, like, once or twice a week, just to be with the team and meet my clients and my bars and stores and everything.

EI: When you’re out and about, and these people are talking about this drink, what are they saying? And what do you feel is in the next couple years of Long Drink?

TELLER: Well, I feel like our fan base is pretty loyal. In certain parts of the country, entire states, we outsell everything. There’s certain pockets where this is absolutely their favorite drink, like, Michigan, we outsell everything, High Noon, everything. I think also people do appreciate the history of it. That’s something that we promote, and they feel like they’re getting something that feels kind of global. I also think there’s a bit of a refinement to it? There’s a lot of companies that have come and gone in the R2D space, those companies are no longer here, obviously, but even in times when the entire market is down, we’re still continuing to see a lot of growth. So yeah, they love it. I wear this hat, I think, 90% of my life. When our house burned down in the Palisades and it was one of the few things I grabbed, I was like, ‘I need that hat.’

EI: You guys don’t utilize your investors in the same way that some drinks do and that’s just a testament to your actual product itself.

TELLER: Well, I told them, I was like, ‘guys, put me on the road.’ We shot a commercial. But a big thing, you know, before we started hitting the marketing really hard, we wanted to make sure that it was readily available across the country. And obviously now up in Canada. Now we are truly nationwide. But I’m not the face of the company. I’m a very valuable add-on. If somebody feels passionate about it, if it works in my kind of vibe, in my career, I’m all in. I’ll absolutely do it. But, like you said, people just love the drink. And if they see my face and they like me and want to try it, cool. If they could give two shits about me and still like the drink, that’s obviously equally as good.

So do people talk to you about Whiplash, Maverick or others? What’s the number one thing that you hear in this crowd?

TELLER: Last night it was a lot of Footloose and I had a cameo in Project X, but it’s a fucking party movie. That’s literally the movie. Top Gun. Yeah, a lot of Top Gun stuff. Yeah, a lot of Footloose. There was a lot of that, for sure. Yeah, some people handed me some friendship bracelets last night. A lot of people asked about my dog. People love my wife, so I get a lot of questions about my wife. She’s, like, a girl’s girl. She’s awesome. I tried to bring her out, but she didn’t want to leave the dog.

[someone hands Teller a Guinness with a perfectly poured foam cap]

TELLER: What is that? I was hanging with an Irish guy in Toronto the last two days, so Guinness has just been on my mind. That was great.

EI: Well, Miles, it’s nice to meet you. Congratulations on all the success of not just your career but this drink specificall