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Long drink (lonkero)

A 330 ml serving of long drink (lonkero) carries about 14.3 g of pure ethanol — 1.8 UK units, 1.0 US standard drinks, 1.2 Estonian/Finnish units — and roughly 100 kcal.

Never use this page to decide whether to drive. Clearance is an estimate from a simplified model and varies with your liver, your genetics, your medicines, food, sleep and illness — real elimination rates differ between people by a factor of two, and the model does not know which end you are at. The only safe level of alcohol for driving is none, and a legal limit is not a safety threshold. If you have been drinking, do not drive.

14.3 gethanol
1.8UK units
100 kcalcalories
330 mlserving

Mixed drinks5.5% (4.5-7.5%)No reference row

The long drink — lonkero in Finland — is a pre-mixed gin and grapefruit soda that has been sold in cans since the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, and it is one of the defining drinks of the Nordic off-licence. Its relevance to this page is structural rather than cultural: it is a spirit-based drink packaged and priced like a beer, at beer-like strength, in a beer-like can.

That format is exactly what makes the arithmetic worth doing. A 330 ml can at 5.5% carries slightly more ethanol than a 330 ml bottle of ordinary lager, and a half-litre can carries considerably more. Because the can looks like a soft drink and drinks like one, the count at the end of an evening is often higher than it would be with the same alcohol in glasses.

This page cannot give you a carbohydrate figure for it. The reference database used across this site has no row for a pre-mixed long drink, and the sugar content differs enormously between the standard and the sugar-free versions of the same brand. Rather than print a number it cannot support, the page reports the ethanol energy — which is exact, because the strength and the volume are both on the can — and tells you that the mixer sugar sits on top of it. The label on the can is the only reliable source for the rest.

By serving size

Long drink (lonkero) at 5.5% (4.5-7.5%). Ethanol = ml × ABV% ÷ 100 × 0.789.
ServingEthanol (g)UK units (8 g)US drinks (14 g)EE/FI units (12 g)kcal
330 ml14.31.81.01.2100
500 ml21.72.71.51.8152

What the strength range does

The same 330 ml serving across the strength range this category actually spans. Ethanol energy only — anything in the mixer is on top.
StrengthEthanol (g)UK unitskcal from ethanol
4.5% ABV11.71.582
5.3% ABV13.71.796
6.0% ABV15.62.0109
6.8% ABV17.62.2123
7.5% ABV19.52.4137

Where the calories come from

The reference database has no row for a pre-mixed long drink, so this page reports the ethanol energy only and says explicitly that any sugar in the mixer is on top of it.

So the figure this page gives is the ethanol energy alone: 14.3 g of ethanol × 7 kcal/g = 100 kcal for a 330 ml serving. Whatever sugar the mixer carries is on top of that, and the label on the container is the only reliable source for it.

Source: Computed on this page from the serving volume and the labelled ABV; no reference row exists for this drink · checked 2026-09-02

What it costs in walking

Minutes of brisk walking (5.5 km/h, MET 4.3) with the same energy cost as 100 kcal, using the ACSM equation kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200.
Body weightOne serving (min)Two servingsThree servings
55 kg244873
65 kg204161
75 kg183653
85 kg163147
95 kg142842

This is an energy comparison and nothing more. Walking does not undo a drink: the ethanol still has to be metabolised, it is still prioritised over other fuels while it is in the system, and the effect it has on sleep that night is not cancelled by exercise the following morning. The number is here because it makes an abstract quantity concrete, not because it is a plan.

See brisk walking for where the MET value comes from, or the whole exercise library for other movements.

Source: 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al.) — MET value for brisk walking · checked 2026-09-02

How many reach a weekly guideline

A 330 ml serving of long drink (lonkero) carries 14.3 g of ethanol, so this is division rather than advice.
Weekly ethanolUK unitsServings of this drinkkcal a week from them
70 g of ethanol a week8.84.9490
100 g of ethanol a week12.57.0700
112 g of ethanol a week14.07.8784
140 g of ethanol a week17.59.8980

The 112 g line is the UK Chief Medical Officers' 14 units a week, quoted here because it is the guideline most often referenced in English. It is not the only one and it is not necessarily the one that applies to you: national low-risk guidance differs between countries, is written in different unit sizes, and has been revised downward in several places in recent years. Look up the guideline where you live and convert it with the table above.

Source: UK Chief Medical Officers' low risk drinking guidelines — named example only · checked 2026-09-02

Clearance estimate

Widmark estimate at an elimination rate of 0.15 ‰ an hour, ignoring absorption time. ‰ is grams per litre of blood; 1 ‰ is 0.1% BAC in the American notation.
BodyPeak ‰ (1 serving)Hours to zeroPeak ‰ (3 servings)Hours to zero
Women, 60 kg0.432.91.308.7
Women, 75 kg0.352.31.046.9
Men, 75 kg0.281.90.845.6
Men, 90 kg0.231.60.704.7

Read those hours as the earliest plausible figure under a set of assumptions that will not all hold for you. Absorption is treated as instantaneous, so the model starts the clock too early. Elimination is treated as a fixed 0.15 ‰ an hour, when published individual rates run from roughly 0.10 to 0.20 — at the slow end, the last column takes a third longer than it says. And the whole calculation is for one dose taken at one moment, not for three drinks spread across an evening, which is the situation that actually produces a morning-after problem.

Never use this page to decide whether to drive. Clearance is an estimate from a simplified model and varies with your liver, your genetics, your medicines, food, sleep and illness — real elimination rates differ between people by a factor of two, and the model does not know which end you are at. The only safe level of alcohol for driving is none, and a legal limit is not a safety threshold. If you have been drinking, do not drive.

The thing people get wrong

The format. It is packaged like a soft drink and is not one — and the sugar-free version changes the calories but not the alcohol.

Frequently asked questions

How many units is a 330 ml long drink (lonkero)?

About 1.8 UK units, 1.0 US standard drinks or 1.2 Estonian/Finnish units — the same 14.3 g of ethanol counted three ways.

How many calories are in long drink (lonkero)?

About 100 kcal in a 330 ml serving, essentially all of it from the ethanol.

How long until it clears?

The table on this page gives a Widmark estimate for a range of body weights. It is an estimate from a simplified model and must never be used to decide whether to drive.

Other drinks

Lager or pilsner beer

The default half-litre. Low strength, large volume — the volume is what does the work.

17.8 g ethanol · 196 kcal

Strong beer, IPA or stout

Craft strength changes the arithmetic completely: a small glass with a large number in it.

19.5 g ethanol · 141 kcal

Cider

Beer-like strength with far more residual sugar — the one drink where the sugar column is not a rounding error.

18.5 g ethanol · 248 kcal

White wine

The measure that varies most between a restaurant, a bar and a kitchen.

14.2 g ethanol · 115 kcal

Red wine

Slightly stronger than white on average, and carrying more health folklore than any other drink here.

15.4 g ethanol · 123 kcal

Sparkling wine and champagne

Smaller glass, same strength as still wine, and a faster start because of the bubbles.

11.8 g ethanol · 96 kcal

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