A phresh new ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktail is about to hit the cyber market. Phreshly is a new line of healthier craft cocktails that look as good as they taste.

Phreshly is the result of a partnership between Paul Owusu, Tai Applewhite, and Ama Marfo. Owusu and Applewhite connected after Paul’s tweet about a cocktail he was enjoying (Prosecco and vodka, in case you were wondering) went viral.

Born in June in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Phreshly will be sold online and shipped directly to consumers’ homes. Its better-for-you ingredients are meant to be enjoyed without leaving you feeling groggy the next morning.

As Paul described it, “if I want to have a cocktail at say 7 pm and go to sleep by 9 pm to 10 pm, what effects am I going to have when I wake up in the morning if I want to go to work or go work out and carry on in my day?”

“We’re really big into making sure that our cocktails make us feel good in general,” added Tai.

Phreshly advertises “clean flavors, inspired by nature” with a dash of classic cocktail. The co-founders predict that consumers will ultimately want hard drinks with fuller, more complex flavors.

Paul noted that it was important to him and Tai “to have something that was very much a restaurant-quality cocktail in a can,” which captures the popularity of RTDs in a nutshell. People are drinking at home more, as Paul and Tai were when they brainstormed Phreshly, and are looking for new ready-to-enjoy options.

With the effervescent and optimistic motto “cheers to life,” Phreshly is committed to doing good work through the business; they partner with minority-owned farms in order to source their ingredients. Paul grew up in Ghana, and saw firsthand how underserved minority-owned farms are globally.

“We want to tell a story about these farms,” Paul said. “Where these hibiscus flowers are coming from, or which farm the ginger is coming from. That way, people can know not just where we source the ingredients from, but also a story of each of those farmers that we’re working with. That part [of Phreshly] is something that I hold very near and dear.”

Phreshly tells a story with its beautiful packaging as well as with its ingredients. The cans feature beautifully painted pictures of the fruit and botanicals featured in each flavor, and have a solid color block on the bottom which matches the color of the beverage itself.

“We know pop culture,” Tai said, “and we know what people are doing during this pandemic. We’re staying in the house and being plant moms and dads, and we’re adopting being mixologists at home and creating things during this time. So when it came to design itself, between Paul and our other co-founder Ama, we wanted the cans to match whatever mood we’re in that moment.”

The RTDs come in cleverly-named flavors, such as Bay Lemonade, made from watermelon puree, cane sugar, and bourbon, or First Love, a rose’, gin, and campari. All but two of the flavors are vegan, but all are made from healthier, quality ingredients.

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