Wednesday 24 November 2010

Reasons to love (and hate) Finland

The Good:

1. Karpalo Lonkero (Cranberry mixed drink which I believe contains gin)
2. Lämmin Kuppi (Cup-a-soup, but better)
3. Watching the snow fall from inside my cosy home
4. Cigarettes are dirt cheap
5. Lots of coffee
6. Lots of good music
7. Pretty countryside
8. Moomins



The Bad:

1. Finland doesn't understand decent cheese
2. Finland doesn't understand decent crisps
3. The climate
4. Expensive food and alcohol
5. Pretty shoes with heels aren't practical here, and I had to leave them in England



The Ugly:

An insane blizzard has been going on outside for well over an hour now and it's a bit intimidating for little English people who have never seen such things. Going out is really not an option today.

1 comment:

  1. Lonkero is an interesting drink. It was invented for the 1952 Olympics and the original "Gin Long Drink" is just gin and grapefruit soda.

    However, it couldn't be sold on grocery stores. Basically it had too much alcohol (5,5% vol) and was a mixed drink. Grocery stores are only allowed to sell drinks with 4,7% or less alcohol and an alcoholic drink has to be fermented, distilled mixes aren't allowed. So, they created new drinks which fit these specifications.

    So, lonkero drinks of the newer kind do not contain any gin and whereas the 5,5% ones probably do.
    In addition to those, some bars mix their own "house lonkero", but I haven't heard of them mixing cranberry flavoured ones.

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