Miles Teller caused a stir in Toronto this week as he celebrated the Ontario launch of his beverage company, The Finnish Long Drink.
An American actor launches a Finnish cocktail, that’s made in Canada, at the LCBO. It’s not a riddle, as much as it sounds like one, but the actual scene in Toronto yesterday, when Whiplash actor Miles Teller touched down to promote the launch of The Finnish Long Drink, a beverage company for which he’s a co-investor, in Ontario.
I, a long-time fan of Miles’ work dating back to the misunderstood 2012 masterpiece Project X, had the chance to sit down with the actor to discuss Long Drink, representing a company that manufactures in Canada, and pick his brain about all things Toronto.
To get to this moment, though, you have to go all the way back to 1952, as Finland, recovering from WWII, prepared to host the Olympic Summer Games, and commissioned a signature, refreshing gin-based drinks to please the crowds. Thus, Lonkero was born, and it’s remained a go-to in Finland ever since.
Fast forward to 2018, when Finnish entrepreneurs Ere Partanen, Sakari Manninen, and Mikael Taiple joined forces with Evan Burns, an American, to bring the long drink to North America.
Miles, who’s a partner in the company alongside DJ Kygo and pro golfer Rickie Fowler, tells me that he was ready to sign on as soon as he first sampled the drink in New York.
“It tasted like something I hadn’t tried before,” he says, so he reached out to the team to find out how he could get on board.
“I don’t really like selling people things. I don’t have Instagram. I try to just make movies and things, but if there’s a product I really believe in, like Long Drink, then I have no problem being front and center for it,” Miles tells me. “So that’s kind of how it went.”
After finding immediate popularity upon the brand’s launch south of the border, a northward expansion was imminent.
In 2024, when the brand finally did launch in Canada, where Miles was living while filming a project in Vancouver, the decision to manufacture the drink in Canada was an easy one.
“Canada deserves to have a product that is made in Canada,” Miles tells me. “That was really important for us. I think it just helps when people are drinking something or eating something, when it feels like it’s it’s made there.”
The fans in Toronto, Miles tells me, are one of his favourite things about the city.
It also seems like a stroke of good fortune that, just months after the company began manufacturing in Canada, tariff-related tensions between the U.S. and Canadian governments would prompt several provincial governments to pull U.S. alcohol brands off the shelves.
Lucky, sure, but, Miles tells me that he hopes that any political tensions — and their fallout — don’t stick around.
“I think it’s unfortunate anytime politics get in the way of what people want to eat or drink,” he tells me. “I don’t want tensions existing, you know, between any country, especially when it’s over, like, a beverage, so we’ll see […] but yeah, I just think politics should stay out of food and booze.”
His stance on letting politics get in the way of a good time made clear, I had to ask him about his take on Toronto — which he’s visited in the past for the premieres of Whiplash and Rabbit Hole at TIFF — more specifically, and he had some warm words, despite the Arctic-like winds whipping outside, to share.
“It’s always such a blur when I’m up here, but I guess more so than anything, when I’m up here for the festival, you just get a sense of the people and the crowds and just the appreciation that they have, not just for for film, but also when you take time for them, they’re really generous about it,” he tells me.
Yorkville, he adds, in true celebrity fashion, is a favourite neighbourhood to explore whenever he’s in town.
Miles isn’t the only member of the Teller family who’s in the beverage business, though. This past February, his French bulldog, Bugsy, made her television debut alongside Miles and his wife, Keleigh, in a Super Bowl Commercial for Bud Light.
For her part, Miles tells me, Bugsy might not have as warm feelings towards Toronto as he does.
“It’s a little cold for Bugsy, so she would have to be seasonal up here,” he tells me. “But I haven’t seen a ton of dogs, which is good for Bugsy, because she’s kind of a [jerk.]”
If the dogs approach politely, though, he notes, which they undoubtedly will, because this is Canada, after all, they should have no problem.
You can find The Finnish Long Drink on shelves at the LCBO and at bars across the city.
