[00:00:00] Cy Kane: BevNET Live, the premier event for beverage industry executives, is coming up fast on June 10th and 11th in New York City. Hundreds of beverage founders, investors, and retailers are already confirmed. Don't miss your chance to build momentum mid-year and set yourself up for a strong finish. Early registration pricing ends Friday, April 24th. Register now and save $100 at BevNetLive.com.
[00:00:39] Ray Latif: Hey folks, I'm Ray Latif and you're listening to the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry, Taste Radio. This episode features an interview with Cy Cain, the co-founder and CEO of Straight Straightway Cocktails, an award-winning brand of super premium bottled and canned cocktails. Trendy food and beverage categories often elicit a gold rush. The nascent market for ready-to-drink cocktails, in which new entrants are launched seemingly every day, is the latest one. But as we've seen in other segments such as cold-pressed juice, keto snacks, hard seltzer, and plant-based meat, many entrepreneurs seeking to capitalize on a hot business opportunity typically fall short and often lose their shirts. The ones that found success and sustainable consumer demand were linked by a common thread, an encompassing emphasis on quality. While Cy Kane, the co-founder and CEO of Portland, Oregon-based Straightway Cocktails, praises growing interest and demand for bottled and canned cocktails, he believes that, quote, there will always be a flight to quality. Indeed, the brand's prioritization of premium continues to pay off. Launched in 2018, Straightaway produces a range of RTD cocktails made with thoughtfully sourced ingredients and crafted to replicate bar quality libations. The company also markets a company, Straightaway's sister brand of liqueurs, Amari and Vermouth. The award-winning products are available in 48 states through its e-commerce platform, Whole Foods Markets, and select locations of regional chains, New Seasons and Market of choice. In the following interview, I spoke with Sy about how years of preparation prior to launching Straightaway gave the brand a strong foundation on which to build, why equal parts of passion and opportunity are driving the business forward, and how he assesses a broader opportunity to reach consumers in other beverage alcohol categories. Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I'm honored to be sitting down with Cy Kane, who is the co-founder and CEO of Straightway Cocktails. Cy, great to see you. Hi, Ray. How are you doing? I'm doing very well. I wish I were there with you in person in Portland. Such an amazing city. I've only been there once, but I, I feel like when people say, you know, I left my heart in San Francisco, I feel like I left my heart in Portland. It's such a great city. The food, the cocktail, the wine, beer scene. It's just really amazing. And it just, I just felt welcomed when I visited there.
[00:03:21] Straightway Cocktails: That's awesome to hear. Yeah, we would gladly have you back in a heartbeat. The city's open for business and people care a ton about food and beverage here and they care a ton about getting it right. And we love hosting and we would count the days until your return.
[00:03:36] Ray Latif: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And the company's based right in Portland, yes?
[00:03:41] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah, I'm sitting right here on the corner of 9th and Hawthorne in the central industrial east side of Portland, just nine blocks from the river just right across from downtown.
[00:03:49] Ray Latif: Nice, nice. Do you get many visitors coming?
[00:03:52] Straightway Cocktails: We do. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, in the summer, you know, tourism is a big thing here in Portland and we'll have folks come in and check it out the city for a lot of the reasons that you just mentioned. They're on a food pilgrimage or a beverage pilgrimage or just want to see this, the sites when the weather's great out here. And so we'll get a bunch of visitors for sure. And we're kind of sitting in this really cool little part of Portland where there's so many upstart makers like We're within 10 blocks of Salt and Straw, of Smith Tee, of Jacobsen Salt. Stumptown Coffee is a half block down the road. It's where we get all of our cold brew as soon as they make it. They're just a half block down the road. And so we just have this incredible maker scene just right happening right around here. It's a really fun part of town.
[00:04:36] Ray Latif: It's a dynamic city in that it feels like all the early stage trends, or at least a lot of the early stage trends are originating in Portland with an emphasis on premium. Premium seems to be the through line.
[00:04:50] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah, Portland isn't really a town that's, we don't, you have to kind of come strong in the food and beverage scene. If you're not coming with transparency and authenticity and honoring the craft of what you're after, it doesn't really work well here. We have a pretty good sniffer for stuff that is inauthentic. It's a really interesting town in that everybody's leveling each other up, but it's not competitive. There's a real collaborative spirit here. Distillers, we have a couple of distillers just down the block and we're always trading ideas and trade secrets and trying to make each other better. So it's this really interesting thing where the bar is set super high in food and beverage here, but it's not competitive. We're not tearing each other down. There's a lot of lifting each other up here, which is just, it feels kind of uniquely special here.
[00:05:33] Ray Latif: And for folks in the Boston area, I believe you can fly nonstop from Boston to Portland via Alaska Airlines. And I mentioned Alaska specifically, and I hope this doesn't come across as sort of like an ad kind of thing, but on that flight, you can drink an Oregon old fashioned cocktail, which comes in the, is it a hundred milliliter steel can?
[00:05:55] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah. A little 100 mil tin can right here.
[00:05:57] Ray Latif: No question. And I know I'm going to offend some people, but no question. The best cocktail that you can get on any domestic flights in the United States is fantastic. I actually got one on my flight from Boston to San Diego a couple of weeks ago. And I was just like, Oh man, I needed this.
[00:06:12] Straightway Cocktails: Thank you, Ray. That is amazing to hear. Yeah. We are so honored to be a part of that program. Like it just obviously made our whole year to get the yes from Alaska and in partnering with them and have cocktails, two cocktails, be sitting there on a flight or margarita and our old fashioned that you don't have to be a mixologist at 30,000 feet trying to figure out how to get things from a little bottle into a cup and stir it all in. It's just, it's been so fun to be a part of that program and, and to be there for cross country flights for someone needs a proper old fashioned.
[00:06:44] Ray Latif: I don't know if I should admit this, but maybe I'll admit this. I maybe we'll cut this who knows, but I did get a, I did get two cans. And, uh, they didn't open them. I think they're supposed to open them. And the second one I got, I didn't want to open it. I didn't want a second cocktail. So I stashed it and I brought it back to my hotel. I hope I don't get anyone from Alaska in trouble for doing that. So anyway.
[00:07:04] Straightway Cocktails: I doubt you will. No, I think that's the beauty of what the era that we're in is like, you can have a cocktail that's portable and you can have it when you're ready for it. Versus like we all love being at a bar. It's my favorite place in the world to be is in a great stool right in the you know, in the hands of a great master mixologist. But man, having a cocktail ready when you're ready for it, that's of that same ilk and craft and quality is, it's kind of a fun game changer. You can just open that old-fashioned when you're ready for it.
[00:07:33] Ray Latif: It certainly is. And I think this is sort of an interesting segue because you, in your professional career, started out in coffee and with a brand and a company that everyone knows, Starbucks. And I think it took a while before Starbucks got into RTD, gotten ready to drink beverages. I'm sure people wanted that Starbucks experience and that quality in a bottle at some point, but it took some time to get there in the same way that I think it took some time for premium cocktails to end up in a bottle and more specifically for straight away to end up in bottles and cans. Talk about your early experience in coffee and how it sort of built up into or how it got into or evolved into cocktails.
[00:08:13] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah, yeah, I did a startup out of college for three years and great experience. And we didn't make it, which was super formative for me. It was a school of hard knocks. I had to get a real job and there was this upcoming coffee company. I wasn't even a coffee drinker at the time. But there was this up-and-coming coffee company that people were talking about. And one had just started opening in my college town. And it was Starbucks, and it was the mid-90s. And jumping aboard, I was there for 11 years. It was an amazing experience to be a part of that brand and that company and help build what got built. Over that period of time, I was there for 11 years and started off in stores as a store manager. And throughout my entire career there, everything we did revolved around coffee and then obviously later tea as well, but we would start every meeting with a coffee cup in and we would sit down and sip through the differences between an Ethiopian Herar and an Ethiopian Sadamo and tease apart the differences of terroir and altitude and elevation and humidity and all the different things that were playing a factor and a role in how that coffee cups and tasted and the nuance of it. And I think, you know, after 11 years of that, and then later, we were so lucky to have Steven Smith here, founding Tazo after he'd founded Stash. And we had the ability to go down and spend time in Tazo as well. And I made a point of taking my teams as frequently as I could down to hang out with Steve and Tony Tellen. and the amazing, talented folks they had there, and just doing tea cuppings and teasing out all the nuance and differences that came from tea. And so it was just incredibly formative for so many different reasons. But it's one of those things when you look back in your rear view mirror and realize, oh, I was doing all those coffee and tea cuppings for cocktails. And it wasn't what I was thinking at the time, for sure. But it really helped inform, for me, my cocktail spirit, how it came from that side of the fence.
[00:10:13] Ray Latif: Well, the last time we chatted, you talked about a book that gave you a lot of inspiration, and it seems like it's a pretty popular book within the mixology community. What was that book and how did it inspire you?
[00:10:27] Straightway Cocktails: We were getting so down the rabbit hole as at-home mixologists, my co-founder Casey Richwine and I, that his wife, Allison, bought this book for him 11 years ago, and it transformed our lives. It was authored by Charles Baker. He was kind of the O.G. Anthony Bourdain. He was a writer for the New Yorker and some other publications in Manhattan in the 20s. Bon Vivant, covered food and wine, amazing prose, and super passionate about what he was covering. Prohibition hits and he's like, what a heck of this, I need a drink, I'm out of here. And he starts floating the world for the next 13 years. And he catalogs his favorite food recipes, that chefs would share with them. He catalogs his favorite cocktail recipes that bartenders would share with them. And honestly, that's what I have been doing in case they've been doing. My work took me all across the country eventually. And I was asking bartenders about what decisions they were making with this vermouth and this gin and why. And Casey was doing the same thing. And so Casey was reading through a Jones companion volume two, and he comes across this moment where Charles Baker had spent a month in the Hotel Manila in 1932. And there's this recipe for this cocktail called lintic that Charles Baker had never seen before. He orders it. It's technically a classic punch. It's gin aged over lemon peel, lemon zest, bitters, simple syrups. And Charles Baker orders it, and he writes in his station notes, dishonorable but electrifying. I think we thought that was the best thing ever. And we're like, oh, that drink, we need to try it. And so 11 years ago, we batched the cocktails that we painstakingly been making one at a time. If it was Martinez or Hanky Panky, I remember the main, you know, we were making that for guests, but we were getting up and making those drinks one at a time. It takes a lot of time to do that. And you're not spending as much time with your guests. And so batching that Lintic for the first time 11 years ago, really for me was the double light bulb moment of, whoa, Lintic's incredible, people should know about it, but B, Why have we not been batching these before wines batched, beers batched, cocktails should be batched? And that's how we got going.
[00:12:35] Cy Kane: That book put us on a whole different path in life. Vibrant Ingredients is the natural ingredient partner powering food and beverage innovation, delivering flavor, function, and protection through a science-backed portfolio. Vibrant delivers purpose-driven solutions that help brands create extraordinary experiences. Discover what's possible with Vibrant today. Visit VibrantIngredients.com.
[00:13:06] Ray Latif: Did you ever consider working for a bar or restaurant to sort of learn the business of cocktailing? Because at the time, it didn't seem like there were a lot of ready to drink or bottled cocktail options out there. The ones that were, were on the bottom shelf of some, you know, dusty grocery store. So there really wasn't a category for it. But did you think about, you know, getting into the hospitality scene with what you learned and what you wanted to do?
[00:13:31] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah, you know, in college, I worked at restaurants, and I've always kind of been around food and beverage, probably would have been smart to go in and, you know, barista and coffee language in Italian is you are bartending, you're just doing it with coffee and different ingredients. So I had a pretty good sense of, you know, how to put things together and how to think about beverage. But yeah, on some levels, it would have been probably good to test the waters and learn some more things. But also, you know, if you If you're aware of a lot of the obstacles and you just don't go charging headlong through them, not knowing that there are obstacles. And I think there's a certain amount of not knowing that probably fueled our ability to do what we did.
[00:14:12] Ray Latif: I hear that a lot from entrepreneurs, but it's a little different when you're building your own manufacturing facility or production facility and learning how to actually distill alcohol. I mean, talk about obstacles to building a business that might be the biggest one. You essentially had to be like a George Costanza from Seinfeld. You had to be a bootlegger, you know, for some time before you actually started the business. I mean, I think this is an important point in that you really learned how to make great liquid before you launched the brand.
[00:14:47] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah, I think for us, job one was, well, A, we weren't trying to be all things to all people. We were trying to honor the craft of cocktail at its highest level. So we really wanted to come to the table, understand what made mixologists at the highest level tick, like how they were thinking about building cocktails and, you know, What was the framework and structure that was getting, you know, it was a commonality or a thread, whether you're drinking in New York or Miami or, you know, Dallas. How are mixologists coming to the table thinking about it? I think understanding that really gave us our true North Star, which is balance is everything like you have no cocktail, you know, should be a singular note. It should be a symphony and you shouldn't have one ingredient really standing out over the other. And so we really approached it from that lens from the get-go. It's like, we want to make really complex, nuanced cocktails that are geared towards folks who really love cocktails. And we set out to honor that craft. And 11 years ago, we really jumped in both feet and we were kind of bootlegging for five years, we had an underground distribution list for the holidays that we put out. It was about 12 drinks on a standard menu that we would build. And we'd make product and batch bottles in our living rooms and our kitchens and a little black electrical tape on that bottle and then drive it around in the trunk of our car and deliver it to folks for the holidays. And that kind of just took a life of its own. People were asking for more of it. Every year it kind of went a little further than the year before, and it really gave us an opportunity to test and learn. And this was not a move that my wife loves, but I just remember we were bachelorentic and I put it up in my window in my kitchen. where we had southern exposure and just expose it to light. I would leave those bottles up there sometimes for two to three years just to see what would happen. And, you know, we had so much tests and learn like this works, this doesn't work. We want to use the best ingredients. We want to use fresh juice. How do we make that happen? And so we had five years of really learning what can work and what doesn't work. We also had help along the way. This was not You know, just Casey and I figuring this out, we have some amazing food scientists here in Portland, Oregon State University has an amazing program, the Food Innovation Center, they call it, that's right here in Portland. And they work with so many huge brands and food and beverage is their specialty. And we were able to work with them on some of the science for years before we ever put it in a bottle or a can as straight away properly.
[00:17:19] Ray Latif: Was there ever any concern that, you know, if you gave some of your product to someone, they might go blind? I guess that is the old, you know, myth about, well, it's not really a myth, but I mean, moonshine is really what would make some folks go blind, but that's really, really high tests, poorly produced moonshine.
[00:17:39] Straightway Cocktails: I mean, most of our bootlegging days, people could get their eyesight back in 24 hours, like fleeting. Our proof levels are so high, you know, the way we're honoring kind of the craft cocktail and how a bartender is gonna make it, that there isn't really much room for anything to go wrong, which is super comforting on that level. But yeah, we have a lot of science supporters. In Casey's background, you know, we spoke about mine, but he started off in a winery out of college and he came out of Oregon State. He was making beer in his dorm room in college. And so he's been a consummate maker his whole life of liquid too. And so we had some acumen coming into it. But yeah, it was a lot of exploration and this category is, Restarted, right? Pre-prohibition, bars doubled as distilleries and batch cocktails. When you were getting your drink, you often were taking drinks home with you, and prohibition shut it all down, partially because people weren't making or distilling correctly, and people were having issues or going blind, and partially just because of prohibition being what it was, shut everything down, and innovation just stopped forever. And now we're back, and this idea deserves to exist. Batch cocktails should be here, and they're here to stay. That's been a really fun part of being a part of that narrative arc.
[00:18:48] Ray Latif: When did you realize that this could be a viable category? Because at the time, I believe you still had a day job, you know, and to get to a point where you could quit that day job and launch a brand and have a sustainable business, like anything in entrepreneurship, it's a risk. But if you have data, if you have market research, if you have clarity in the path forward, I think there's some mitigation of that risk.
[00:19:19] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah, I think for me, you know, the aha moment for me was honestly 11 years ago when we batched those cocktails for the first time and we tried them and I was like, oh, this deserves to be a thing. This is a neat state. People, how many of us are trained mixologists? Like 0.005% of the population. And yet we all want to have a great drink at home and what's expected of us to know how to make a great drink at home and have the acumen and the time and the ingredients all there and ready when we're I just was looking at behavior at that moment, and 11 years ago, we just come to the party with a bottle of red wine, we fork it, and people can pour it at their own leisure. When they're done with their glass, they pour more, you put another bottle out, we put a 12-pack or a six-pack of great beer out, people just get up and help themselves. Why can't we do that with cocktails? Why is that answer not there yet? And it was instantaneous for me. And I think part of my background just seeing like standardization at a really high level, really craft meticulously made products. It can be a huge unlock for people. And it just felt like this is going to be a thing. I couldn't tell you 11 years ago, it was going to be as big as fast as has unfolded. The pandemic had something to do with that for sure. But it just felt, it just felt crystal clear the moment we had bottled those and tasted them. We're like, in my mind, I was like, well, there's a train coming down the tracks and we want to be in front of it. And so to your point, like we had to test and learn, like, do people want what we were making? And we got the opportunity to learn that over five years before we ever launched five years ago. We were gaining more information every year, learning more about what might be happening every year. And we were learning more about our customer because we were working directly with them about what they liked, what they didn't like, and what they wanted from us. So we just had a lot of time, a lot of runway to kind of get everything vetted and done correctly before we move forward.
[00:21:12] Ray Latif: I think when people talk about ready to drink cocktails and bottled cocktails, a lot of the conversation is about portability. But I don't feel like portability is as, I guess, as much as part of the needs state as I thought it might be. Because as I mentioned, you know, when I brought that can off the plane and I just put it in my hotel fridge, I was just so happy to have a great cocktail ready for me, ready and waiting at home without me having to do anything. So what is driving greater interest in this space?
[00:21:51] Straightway Cocktails: You know, I do liken this category to beer and wine. Like we have just not really considered the fact that those are also RTDs. Like, unless you, you probably do host differently than I do, right? And you might be stomping grapes and making Merlot when someone asks. for a merlot at your house, that might be happening. You might be milling and roasting hops and making something really beautiful, a hazy IPA. But for the most part, that's all made, and we just carte blanche accept that, that it's already put together for us, and we're just pouring and enjoying. There's no acumen required to make wine at home. There's no acumen to make a great beer at home. It's just created for you. And there's RTD throughout our lives, juice and milk and you just name it, it's already been there. So I think the idea that you could have a cocktail that you could take anywhere is really transformative. It is novel. And I think to your earlier point, the act of craft hadn't really entered into this category until the last five or six years. And now there's a really compelling reason to look at this category if you're a consumer. And we don't always have the ability to go into a bar or a restaurant. We're not always near one. Maybe we're watching our pocketbooks for a second or whatever may be happening. It doesn't mean we don't want a great old fashioned or it doesn't mean we don't want a great margarita. And having that at our fingertips is really like, I still think culturally, we're still getting our arms around this as a concept. We are in early days of adoption of this concept and idea. And I think you and I, we live, you know, we're in this bubble. We see it every day. We understand it. But most of America, like most of us are just coming to the table of like, oh, wait, I can have an old fashioned habit anywhere. Just the occasion idea of like, where can I have this is starting to unlock in people's brains. How do I host? I can bring this to a party. I'm taking this to a holiday event that I'm going to, and I'm gonna show up with a bottle of, you know, 12 old fashions in this bottle versus a bottle of four glasses of wine. And I think people, it's very early days of adoption, and the runway is, it's going to keep getting bigger and broader as we go.
[00:23:52] Ray Latif: Yeah, you mentioned to me a stat last time we spoke that was pretty mind-blowing in that you said by 2026, and I'm assuming you're quoting some market research, the United States or U.S. consumers will drink more liquor than beer. And that is pretty mind-blowing. And, you know, if you continue that conversation, if you go a little bit further, you would think that it's not just beer that's going to be affected, it's wine as well. So given that opportunity, how do you think about trying to reach consumers in a different kind of way? Or is it just saying, you know what, we can target the occasions where they're drinking beer, say watching football, or, you know, instead of having wine with your dinner, maybe you'd have a cocktail. I guess it feels like there's so much opportunity. How do you narrow your focus to the most poignant opportunities for the brand?
[00:24:48] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah, that's a great question. And I think occasion is a big driver, folks. I think they're landing on those ideas of like, okay, I'm hosting a Super Bowl party, I normally would have a half rack of beer, and that's great. And now they're starting to think, well, maybe if I had, I like Palomas, and now I can have a half rack of canned Palomas. before people have been getting up and squeezing grapefruit and making that all happen or pouring awesome grapefruit juice and it's more laborious. And so I think that is working its way culturally into our society. People's behavior and habits are starting to change around. It's why you see the ascendance of this category. Beer and wine, it's been flapped down for the last few years. Still plenty of amazing liquid in that category. I still drink both of those things, but people are exploring spirits. It's kind of a the permutations and some of the things that excite me about this category is what you see with mixologists and bars and what you see distillers doing is it's really endless. Like what you can do is botanicals and spirits and how you bring those life and flavor profiles and then add to that how you mix those with juice or modifiers, syrups, bitters. It's so endless. And I think there's a curiosity factor that people have of one, to explore new flavor profiles and try new things. It's really a major tailwind driving this category, too. People are in an exploratory type of mindset, I think, right now around spirits and cocktails, and it's helping drive this moment.
[00:26:09] Cy Cain: Do you want more repeat buyers on Amazon? Well, this free resource in collaboration with Straight Up Growth will help your brand turn first-time buyers into long-term subscribers. Download Winning the Repeat Purchase Game on Amazon now at Taste Radio slash SUG. That's Taste Radio slash S-U-G to start building retention-driven growth for your brand on Amazon. Scaling a beverage brand into major retail comes down to operational readiness. From packaging lead times to co-manufacturing strategy, the details can make or break a launch. In a new e-book in collaboration with Octopi and Asahi Beer USA, industry leaders share what they've learned in helping brands scale. Download it now at Taste Radio slash octopi.
[00:26:59] Ray Latif: One of the other ways that you can reach consumers is just to have a lot of products, pretty wide variety of products, and Straightaway makes a ton of stuff. I mean, you have bottled cocktails, you have canned cocktails, you have canned sort of refreshment cocktails. The ones that I've talked about, like the Margarita and the Old Fashioned are both in 100 milliliter cans, but you do have a Paloma, a Nitrogen Fizz, and a Negroni Spritz. They're all in, I want to say 10 ounce cans, is that right?
[00:27:26] Straightway Cocktails: Eight and a half, yeah, 250 milliliters.
[00:27:28] Ray Latif: You also market a liqueurs in Vermouth, but does variety help you to get the brand out to more places? Because it feels like in so many ways, it does add a level of complexity that might make your business a little bit more challenging.
[00:27:45] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah, I think that there is added challenge on certain fronts for sure. I also think for this category, it's pretty unique. You're going to have a winery or a brewery that makes a lot of different styles because people enjoy a lot of different types of beer. People enjoy a lot of different profiles in wine. cocktail mixology is pretty much endless, like what you can come up with. And I think we tend to look ourselves through the lens of being a great bar on the corner that you want to go to. And there's so many different palates. There's a huge group that loves tequila. There's a huge group that loves whiskey. There's a huge group that's a vodka fan and gin. And then there's Amaro and Liqueur fans out there too. And I think we think about ourselves as a cocktail company first and foremost versus a pack format company. We're thinking about the liquid and we're thinking about the cocktail first. And our consumer is drinking across the spectrum of spirits. If we're addressing cocktail culture at its highest level and what the best bars in the country do, their menu is 12 cocktails deep, and then they have a Rolodex behind that of whatever they want to make for you, whatever you might ask for. And we approach it through that lens. And in a lot of ways, it's a longer road to hoe, but it's also what our consumer needs in this category. We're not focused around one specific product. We're not just an old-fashioned company. We're not just a margarita company. We're a cocktail company. And I think we strive to honor that. And I think that's how this consumer is Shopping categories are shopping across spirit and flavor profile and we need to be there for that consumer.
[00:29:16] Ray Latif: Straightaway launched in 2018. So you're a bit ahead of the curve as it relates to the interest in RTD cocktails. Obviously there's a lot of folks getting into this business now. You know, entrepreneurs, strategic companies, there's everyone seems to be jumping into the pool. And as you and I chatted about before we hopped in the mics, it feels like there's a new brand coming out literally every week. And it's the big boys playing in this space now as well. How do you stay ahead? of all of the interest, all of the innovation that's coming into this space, especially when some of the companies that are launching, some of the brands that are coming into the category have pretty deep pockets.
[00:30:01] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah, well, first of all, we kind of need that to happen. You know, creating a retail set that didn't exist three years ago, you're starting to see that when you shop now. And so we need those bigger players coming in and helping set the category. And I think if you look at any mature category, any category that has the big guys playing in it, there's always room. for an authentic little guy story, coming in and making products differently and building products differently than what the standards are in the category. So I think the education piece of what the big guys are doing is helping lift up this category and ensure its stability and getting retailers to start committing more and more shelf space every year. We really kind of come at this from the approach of we're a vertical company, like we're making this ourselves, we're building our own tomorrow, the poor and removed to suit our cocktails. And that's a pretty distinctly different proposition than just figuring out how to get something in a can or a bottle. And I think this category, you know, predominantly, there's a lot of this category that's been built in flavor houses. And you know, you have the opportunity to buy lime number 45, or lime number 32, and work that into your margarita or your beverage. And That's a way to do it. We explored that seven years ago. We're like, we just can't make it taste the way we want it to taste. And so we just went through the painstaking process of sourcing fresh, fresh juice and making our own spirits and liqueur to suit. And I think that that's the generations coming through are favoring transparency and authenticity. And I think for us, that's We might have been a first wave brand into this category, but we have something happening where I feel like we're also a third wave brand into this category too, where people are like, cool, this idea is amazing. I love cocktails as a consumer, and I'm going to the store to try to find something that suits my flavor profile. And you may or may not have your needs met right now with kind of standardized products that are more homogeneously made. And there's a lot of folks who show up to you know, teardrop here in Portland, or Rum Club here in Portland, or Please Don't Tell in New York, or Raised by Wolves, or Pilot Hour, the great bars across the country, and they are not represented at shelf yet. And that's who we're reaching out to, and that's who we're building our product suit. And I think that's, in the end, there's going to be plenty of space for a brand like ours to exist in this new ecosphere that's being built.
[00:32:30] Ray Latif: For sure, I feel like there are tiers of quality that you're seeing develop, even in this nascent category. If we call straight away, say, an ultra premium or at least a super plus premium brand in the space, It might take some time for the consumer to get there. Yes, you are catering to the consumers who may be frequenting those bars that you mentioned. But when I think about someone who's, say, drinking a high noon, obviously, well, maybe not obviously, but I would think that's probably not your consumer at this point. But can you teach that consumer that there is a more premium option? Is it even worth your time?
[00:33:07] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah, 100%. I think, you know, a lot of us go through this with our palates. Like we start in a place, whether it was beer, and we start with something that's maybe a little simpler from a labor profile because we're younger and our palates, that's what works. And then we get into more complexity, we get into more nuance. Americans are favoring more kind of botanical bitter now. We've been kind of had a sweet tooth as a society and I think balance and nuance is coming into the fold. And I mean, I'm not above any of those other things at all. I remember distinctly going out on a date with my now wife and we had Zimas and we're putting Jolly Ranchers in the Zimas and drinking those in the movie theater. I'm here for all of it. And it's just a different approach. And I think People are exploring the category and their palates are getting trained at first, wherever they start. And I think that's great. Like people should be starting, can start with a high noon and they can progress. And I think they are progressing. I think that's why we're seeing cocktail culture. as ascendant as it is, is people are starting now in a different mindset and a different space. And as their palette evolves, they're getting to more complexity or more nuance. And I think that's a pretty natural evolution. And we're kind of sitting at the end of that exploration for folks, for a lot of people. For a lot of people, they're like, great, this is what I want right now. I don't need any exploring. This is my jam. But I think that that's what has to happen in a lot of ways.
[00:34:37] Ray Latif: You know, Sai, with all the great things happening with StraightAway, all the, you know, the success that you're seeing, I imagine you are having some inbound interest among partners who want to get involved with the brand in one way or the other. How are you vetting potential partners as you continue to scale?
[00:34:56] Straightway Cocktails: Yeah, I mean, I had a really supportive group of friends and family, investors and some professional support along the way as well. And I think for us, you know, we look at folks who can add value for us as well. They've been in the industry for a while. They understand crafts and what we're trying to do and uplift that versus really modify it in some significant way. And I think we're really careful about partnering with people that, you know, I mean, cocktails, And the other day cocktails to be fun and we want to work with people we want to work with and no amount of money to us is worth working with folks that aren't aligned with our vision or our values. And so we're pretty careful about how to make sure it's a cultural fit. It's folks who want to answer the phone. If we run into an issue or an obstacle, and we want their opinion, and we're looking forward to getting it, and we're looking forward to them challenging us in our thinking too. So we're looking for collaboration on that front, and we're looking for folks who are seeing around the corner about how far this category has to run, and seeing it the same way we do, that this is a prologue. We're not, I don't think we're even in chapter one necessarily of the story of batch cocktails. It's just getting going.
[00:36:03] Ray Latif: Well, can't wait to read chapters two and three, because I like where this category is going for sure. Sai, so great speaking with you. You and I have known each other for at least two or three years, and I feel like I just love everything you're doing. I always say things like that, and I always say I should be more objective about how I talk about brands, but I think anyone that's encountered your brand probably feels the same way. You make some outstanding, high-quality products that everyone can be happy drinking, and I think that is the epitome of being an entrepreneur, right? Is doing something that people will love to eat and drink.
[00:36:39] Straightway Cocktails: Ray, you just literally gave me goosebumps. Thank all the Ray Latif love we can get. And we really appreciate that. And you guys have been amazing partners to us and kept an eye on us and kept in touch with us throughout the whole process. And we're so grateful for that and so grateful for the opportunity to connect today and talk about what we're all doing together and Yeah, man, would love to keep these conversations continuing as we go.
[00:37:04] Ray Latif: Absolutely. Once again, Cy, thanks so much for being on Taste Radio and let's catch up again soon.
[00:37:09] Straightway Cocktails: Right on, Ray. Take care. Cheers.
[00:37:14] Ray Latif: That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNET.com, Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cracci. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski, and our designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And, of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is bevnettasteradio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
