If the Edmonton Eskimos go on to win the Grey Cup this year, Gary and Susan Snow will be justified in claiming some of the credit.
The Erickson couple left early on Tuesday morning to deliver 1,000 four-ounce bottles of Tabletree black cherry juice to Commonwealth Stadium, where it will be available to members of the Eskimos.
Winners of the 2012 World Juice award for best pure juice, the Snows have become used to accolades for their products, but a telephone call in July had them doubting its veracity.
“This fellow with a southern accent called about our cherry juice but I was suspicious so I got his number and called him back, thinking it was a prank,” Susan said on Monday while she was busy labelling bottles destined for Edmonton.
The caller identified himself as Chris Jones and a little research showed he was the new head coach of the Eskimos after spending more than a decade coaching with the Calgary Stampeders, Montreal Alouettes and Toronto Argonauts. His accent was easily explained — he was a graduate of Tennessee Technological University.
“He said he knew that cherry juice had good health properties and was looking for a Canadian source on the Internet,” Gary said.
After a series of phone calls and emails, the order still hadn’t been placed and the Snows thought it might have been lost in the busy football season. But another call from Jones confirmed that he wanted the juice as soon as possible and the producers had to scramble to get four-ounce bottles, lids and labels shipped as quickly as possible.
“Our suppliers were amazing,” Susan said. “They bent over backwards to help us get to this point.”
Jones wanted the juice in smaller bottles than Tabletree has been using so that his players can open and consume the juice in one or two swigs. He was impressed with the juice’s nutritional value and also that testimonials and lab tests indicate it has anti-inflammatory properties.
Very appealing for athletes. And potentially a new and highly public opportunity to promote juice for a business that needs an injection of capital to expand its production capabilities.
“We know we have something special here, but we simply don’t have the capacity to fill large orders,” Susan said.
Some inquiries about enormous orders have come from as far away as China.
“We are quite unique as a small business, because we don’t just have an idea or a product that is easily reproduced,” she said.
She and her husband developed a proprietary juicing process and designed the equipment themselves. They have resisted offers to sell or move the business to another location, including one from South Africa.
Instead, their first preference is to find a partner who will inject capital and keep the business in the Creston Valley, where high quality cherries are grown, and where Susan was born and raised.
“It’s been such a joy talking to Chris on the phone,” Gary said. “He’s always saying, ‘Yes, sir,’ or, ‘Yes, ma’am,’ and we are really looking forward to meeting him.”
Meeting Jones is why the Snows are delivering the first shipment of bottles — several weeks’ worth — to Jones in person. They have produced enough juice and have enough bottles, lids and labels to carry the Eskimo players right through a run to the Grey Cup, and right through the first half of the 2015 season, when the next cherry crop ripens.
And they are hoping that Tabletree black cherry juice gives the team the boost Jones is looking for.
“One U.S. producer supplies many sports teams, including the Edmonton Oilers,” Susan said. “But it uses sour cherries, apples and other ingredients, and it has melatonin, which makes you sleepy.”
“I wonder if they know that?” Gary laughed.
“ ‘I know you all are the best in the world,’ Chris told us,” Gary added. “It’s pretty exciting to see where this could lead.”