Good News from Fri, 12 February, 2010:

Koskenkorva rocks the American market

Lehtikuva/Heikki Saukkomaa Koskenkorva product family has expanded along the way. The traditional Finnish drink will soon be available also in the USA.
The month of May will see Koskenkorva’s grand entree on the American market. The famous Finnish clear spirit drink will be marketed as a pricey premium-product.

Koskenkorva has been sold in Finland since 1953, and the traditional label is embellished by an Ostrobothnian landscape sketched by artist Lasse Linnanmäki.

– At first Koskenkorva will be launched in the states, where there are many Finns. Later on we will get mixologists involved. They are bartenders who have made the mixing of drinks a work of art, the Leader of the Koskenkorva-project and the Global Marketing Manager at Atlantic Brands, Tom Venho said in an interview on Radio Nova (Finland).

Koskenkorva hasn’t been granted an import license before, since Vodka is defined in the US law as a drink with at least 40 percent alcohol content.
 
– The Director of Finance at Atlantic Brands Jukka Pylkkänen realised that if Koskenkorva fits into a category of its own, it will be granted the license. So, Koskenkorva was classified as spirits distilled from grain. As such it passed the import criterion of the US Food and Drug Administration FDA and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ATF, says Venho.
 
The first shipping container of Finnish Koskenkorva will arrive in Miami in April. The sales target for Koskenkorva’s first year on the American market is 40 000 bottles.

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Comments (1)

Aaron Pohjanen Sat 19 February 2011 at 1:10
I am a Finnish-American living in Koskenkorva Finland. I can see the factory from my yard. My father in law worked there for 35 years. I spent 2 months working at the factory as work practice in the Finnish language. Koskenkorva is a premium pure grain spirit made with spring water...not filtered tap water like many others. Cheers! Or as we say in Finland, Kippis!