Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we primarily chronicle and evaluation beers, however gladly broaden that scope to any drink that sets well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough bourbon.
I’ve got a soft area for the Nordic nations. Maybe it’s duetothefactthat I grew up in a home where rattily identified VHS tapes of different Winter Olympics were abundant. Or perhaps it’s duetothefactthat, after living in Wisconsin for more than a years, I can value cultures where the winterseasons are invested inside drinking and the summertimes, nevertheless quick they might be, are invested outdoors… likewise drinking.
Despite this, and inspiteof a current journey to Denmark and Sweden (tremendous beef, top notch hot petdogs, would advise), I’d neverever had Finland’s “pride of 1952.” Long Drink hasactually been a golf bag staple for my pals back in Rhode Island, however I’d neverever gotten the opportunity to shot it till a PR associate reached out proclaiming the Finnish virtue of “getting pantsdrunk: intoxicated at home in your underclothing.” An simple offer, genuinely.
The beverage itself is a fundamental, classic dish. Gin and citrus is a slam dunk summerseason mix. Does Long Drink do it well enough to validate selecting up a 4 pack? Let’s run down all 5 alternatives and see what we’ve got.
Oh dang. Crack this can open and you’re instantly challenged with memories of making greyhounds for seniorcitizens. And that makes sense, giventhat Long Drink explains itself as gin with grapefruit and juniper berry tastes and, yep, that’s quite much precisely what a greyhound is (or it’s vodka).
The distinction here is the fizz, as a smooth, nearly velvety carbonation revitalizes that old timeless. The bubbles are largely loaded, developing a beverage that slides past your tongue rather than snapping off dramatically. The closest contrast I have for it is Topo Chico’s carbonation. It’s something that increases above to make this more than simply the components within.
But those activeingredients are excellent, too! It’s a easy mixeddrink made with tested components. The grapefruit is strong and the gin/juniper is neverever subduing. It’s tidy and simple to beverage; a crushable summertime mixeddrink if there ever was one.
Notably, that carbonation doesn’t hold up as well when put into a glass with ice. But keep it in the can and, holy crap, I might get through 9 of these in a round of golf, no issue. My brief videogame would mostlikely suffer and there’s no method in hell I’d be able to drive home, however I might have to provide it a attempt.
This is successfully the verysame as the standard Long Drink, just with Diet Coke components rather of the sugar. Which indicates we’re getting more grapefruit-inspired tastes than real grapefruit, however I’m fine with it. At 99 calories nad 5 percent alcohol, it clocks in approximately where you’d anticipate a tough seltzer.
It smells a little uninviting; grapefruit periodically has a small body smell odor to it and I’m getting whiffs of that here. The sugar-free variation is extremely more tart than the initial. The bubbles feel a little less thick and more crisp than velvety. This isn’t always a issue, it simply takes away that originality and makes it feel a lot more like a High Noon or White Claw.
This one appears to work muchbetter on ice than in the can, owing to that absence of thick carbonation. It’s still a quite excellent beverage. But, like most things dietplan, it’s simply not as great as the initial.
Wow, Long Drink is actually cornering the market on old folks fruit. I appearance forward to their prune offering in 2026.
It smells boozier than its forefathers, which might be a item of the additional 0.5 percent alcohol in this range. It tastes a little bit the verysame, though that’s more mostlikely due to the bitterness of the cranberry blending with the tart of the grapefruit to cast off a little tasty cruelty. That doesn’t mean the beverage itself is severe — it’s simply about precisely what you’d anticipate from gin, grapefruit and cranberry.
That works in performance with those securely loaded bubbles and