Get To Know Straightaway Cocktails

Our friends at Straightaway Cocktails have been raising money for trees + community through the sale of the canned cocktail, Cascade Spritz. We’re so grateful to them for their partnership, their time volunteering at a Friends of Trees event, and for spreading the word about trees with a tasty beverage! We just took a moment with them to reflect on the partnership.

Why did Straightaway want to partner with Friends of Trees?

Our new cocktail, Cascade Spritz, that was released back in February was created in partnership with Wieden + Kennedy for their campaign ‘Portland Is What We Make It’. The campaign focuses on investing back into culture, community, and the city to celebrate all the things that make Portland so special. We saw a true connection between this campaign, our PNW wine spritz, and Friends of Trees. Friends of Trees not only works to plant trees in our communities but does so with a focus on equitable tree planting in neighborhoods that need it the most.

This mission was a perfect cohesion for this cocktail + our community to showcase the amazing work that Friends of Trees does in Portland. In tandem with the giveback program on the can, we were able to feature Friends of Trees as our quarterly Cocktails for a Cause campaign to further raise money and awareness of Friends of Trees!

How would you describe the success of the partnership?

Outside of the incredible feedback we’ve received from customers, our local retailers were very excited to feature Cascade Spritz on shelf. New Seasons featured Cascade Spritz in all Portland stores and invited us to do samplings at 8 locations to showcase the cocktail and our partnership with Friends of Trees and the “Portland Is What We Make It” campaign! This cocktail is special to us because it was a chance to take on a truly regional approach to our wine spritz line and utilize our incredible local terroir of lavender, chamomile, etc. in our cocktail.

What was it like to volunteer at a Friends of Trees event?

A chance to get out of the office and production facility to get our hands dirty and plant some trees?? Sign us up! Our volunteer day was so fun and collaborative for our team to be involved in! As part of our employee benefits program, our employees receive 2 paid-volunteer days per year. This was a special volunteer day because we were able to come together as a team and give back directly to our community while also supporting the release of our Cascade Spritz. We may have had a little too much fun digging up pretend holes filled with cans of Cascade Spritz but we had to have some fun with it!

Learn more about Straightaway Cocktails and purchase a Cascade Spritz!