It’s been an enormously successful few years for Miles Teller. Most of the world is well aware of his work on screen. In 2022, he starred in Top Gun: Maverick, which is now the 12th highest-grossing film of all time. He’s anchored a prestige miniseries, been featured in a Super Bowl commercial and even showed up in a Taylor Swift music video. But it might come as a surprise to some that he’s also quite the accomplished entrepreneur in the world of adult beverages.
In 2019 Teller announced his role as a shareholder in the Finnish Long Drink, an upstart brand of gin-based ready-to-drink cocktails. Shortly thereafter, the company secured investments from other high profile sorts including musician DJ Kygo and professional golfer Rickie Fowler. Together the group corralled $25 million worth of capital to boost distribution across the US. It paid off mighty dividends last year in the form of a 114%.2 growth rate.
That translates to 1.8 million in annual case sales for 2023, which means Teller is now helping steer the ship for the fourth largest RTD brand in the country. And he’s carved out a larger ownership stake along the way. Today, in an exclusive interview with Forbes, he announces the debut of Long Drink Peach—the first permanent addition to the portfolio in four years.
The following Q+A has been edited for length and clarity.
Hey Miles, what are you up to these days?
Miles Teller: “I’m in LA right now. I’ve got a couple weeks before I start filming. So I’m just hanging out watching some Phillies spring training and having some Long Drinks.”
I saw that you were at the Super Bowl with Taylor Swift and company. You weren’t rocking any Chiefs colors, though. Instead you were wearing a Grateful Dead tie-dye.
MT: “As a Philly sports fan, I can’t wear another team’s merch or apparel or anything. My shirt did have a little bit of red in it. But yeah, that was a lot of fun.”
So, tell us about the brand expansion. What was so special about Peach that it warranted being the first new flavor in four years?
MT: “Peach is really popular. The founders went over to Finland and crafted it and worked on it and I think the product came out great. Then we teased it as part of a variety park and people were really vocal about wanting full-on six packs of Peach. You gotta give the people what they want. Up in Michigan—because they drink the shit out of Long Drink—they actually had six-packs of Peach before everyone else. But we’re going nationwide pretty soon. It’s pretty exciting.”
So is Michigan your biggest market, then?
MT: “Michigan is huge. I mean, honestly, throughout the country we find these certain hotspots. We’re building a brand and it took us a little bit. Anytime you start up a company and scale it nationwide that takes a while, but you can only do it if the numbers are there. We’re just trying to match the interest with the sales and keep pumping it out there. It’s really cool for me when I get to go out on the road. Whenever I have downtime [from acting], people will see me popping up a little more behind bars across the country.”
And this is your first brand that you’ve actively been involved with?
MT: “Yes, other than Philadelphia sports teams.”
Are there significant similarities between promoting movies you star in versus promoting a brand that you’re actively invested in?
MT: “I think it’s similar in that people can smell phoniness. I’ve been fortunate enough where I’ve been able to work on movies that align with my own interests. And I’ve been able to tell stories that I really want to tell. I’ve never looked at it as a job. So that helps when I’m doing the junkets. I’m not going through the motions. I’m able to talk about things that I’m passionate about. And I’m not a salesperson. I don’t want to sell people something that I don’t care about it. So it’s seamless. I enjoy getting out there and talking to people about Long Drink.”
What has been the biggest challenge in talking to people about it?
MT: “We know it’s a really saturated market. Some people maybe aren’t even aware of Long Drink. But what we’ve found across the board is that when people try it, not only do they like it, they would recommend it to somebody. We had the same testing numbers as pizza. Everybody loves pizza and then they’re going to tell their friends, ‘Hey have you had pizza? It’s pretty damn good!’ That’s actually our next flavor [laughs]. But, yeah, it’s nice when the response is there and it’s something that you feel passionately about.”
How active of a role do you play in flavor development?:
MT: “I’m not in the kitchen, per se. I let the Finnish founders do their thing. To them, it’s the national beverage and they take a lot of pride—as anybody would—in the exports of their country. They take a lot of time with it. But it’s like being married to a chef; I’m not cooking it, but I get to try it and then they ask me what I think. I was one of the early triers of Peach, absolutely.”
Have you gotten to spend some time in Finland since becoming involved with the brand?
MT: “Yes. I did a lot of sauna and then jumped into the Baltic Sea in winter; smoked some reindeer. What a beautiful country.”
Helsinki is actually a global capital of karaoke. Do you have any go-to karaoke songs?
MT: “I personally hate karaoke. I like seeing people get out of their shells and sing when they don’t ever get to do that stuff. But personally I dont think it’s something I’ve ever suggested. I want musicians to play—with their 10,000 hours of practice and then I just want to listen…And dance.”
What’s next for the Long Drink?
MT: “We’re going to continue to evolve the sugar free aspect of it. Right now it’s only the original flavor that we also offer in sugar free. With every generation, drinking tendencies change, priorities change. For the people that are counting calories, counting the sugar, I want to continue to evolve that with the other flavors we have. Ideally, I’d love a sugar-free Cranberry and a sugar-free Peach. But we’re not going to put out anything that doesn’t taste right.”
