Straight to the Point with Straightaway Cocktails
Straightaway Cocktails Team at Fairwell Festival Central Oregon
When the dust from a three-day music festival needs to get washed down...take care of it Straightway!
Music Fan Magazine recently attended the 2024 Fairwell Festival in Central Oregon. In between the sets of talented artists playing over three stages, we stumbled upon Straightaway Cocktails out of Portland, Oregon. Let me tell you, sampling the premixed canned cocktails in the Straightaway tent was quite a surprise.
We didn't expect much, but then again, we weren't looking for much...we just wanted to wet our whistle between sets. But the crew at the Straightaway tent pulled us in with a challenge that we couldn't pass up. They asked us to tell the difference between their premade canned goods and a fancy Havana nightclub cocktail...didn't take much arm-twisting and Music Fan Magazine was up for the challenge.
The Straightaway Cocktails idea is to make high-quality premade cocktails and sell them for an affordable price to concertgoers, outdoor enthusiasts, and everyone in between. Concert-going folks want a high-quality cocktail without bellying up to the bar and paying $20+ bucks for the same thing that Straightaway Cocktails can deliver for less and with a better taste.
We sampled two cocktails: a White Tea Vodka Soda and a Margarita. They were poured out of cans into a standard plastic cup of ice. Again, it was hot, and we were about halfway through the second day of a high-energy music festival in Central Oregon. I was a little hesitant to partake, unsure if this would be a sugary mess of imitation flavors or the real deal.
What they poured out of that stubby little can was nothing short of a delightful and refreshing portable cocktail that immediately resonated with Music Fan Magazine as a high-quality product. I couldn't believe what I was tasting. One of the staffers was talking, and I rudely interrupted her, asking, "Did you just pour this out of a can?" She laughed. It was honestly better than any cocktail I've had in SF or NYC, and it was half the price. The refreshing bite of tequila and fruity notes was simply divine. From a can? Really? Yes...it was, and it was fantastic.
We met the co-founder, Cy Cain, who was adamant that Straightaway Cocktails is different because the raw ingredients are sourced carefully and with great concern for the farmers and local artisans. Apparently, these were all organic ingredients that were cultivated in-house, and you know what...sounds good...gimme another (by this time the margarita was taking hold so don't trust half the words going forward from here.)
They really did seem to care about the craft that went into the cocktail, and I was glad to hear it from the person who co-created Straightaway Cocktails and the team that was at the Farewell Festival sharing it with 40,000 rabid music fans.
We indulged in a few other flavor profiles and talked about how the company started... very interesting story. Find that elsewhere on the inter-web thingy because it wasn't a concern of Music Fan Magazine at the moment...we didn't care who, how, why, or when...all that mattered was absorbing how incredibly nice these folks at Straightaway Cocktails were, how delicious the drinks were and how many minutes we had until we had to race back to the stage before the next act started...(turned out, not long).
If you come across Straightaway Cocktails in your local grocery store or liquor outlet...buy it. Also, pick up a bag of fancy crackers and some artisan cheeses and stuff it all into your wicker picnic basket because Straightaway Cocktails is good enough to stand toe to toe against the best big-city bartender in America. They were that good. From a financial point of view, they are an easy choice. They tasted great and were one of the biggest surprises of the weekend (there was also a porta-potty door somebody didn't lock, but that was another kind of surprise). Music Fan Magazine has put a lot of drinks down the gullet over the years, take our word for it...Straightaway Cocktails is the real deal, and it's portable!
Thank you for the time at your booth, Straightaway Cocktails, and let me know if you find my sunglasses.