Drink crystal update #1

Last year I blogged about how my drink crystals were disappearing from store shelves. After writing that blog, I decided to contact Crosby's directly and see if they could shed any light as to what was going on. Here's what they said:

Thank you for your e-mail regarding our Crosby Drink Crystals. We are still producing the drink crystals, however, in March Sobeys de-listed our drink crystals all together and Superstore has been gradually removing one flavour at a time from their shelves. Name brand products, such as ours, are slowly being replaced by no-name brand or "private label" products. The stores will tell you there brand is cheaper, however, they are the one who dictate the price on the store shelf, not the manufacturer. Sadly, there are no longer any stores in New Brunswick currently purchasing either of those two flavours and soon, I suspect, you will no longer be able to purchase any of our drink crystals. We are more than willing to supply any of the grocery chains with our crystals, however, once head-office delists an item even the store manager is unable to order it. Other than travelling out of province, about the only way you will be able to obtain our crystals is to have one of your local corner stores request the item from a wholesaler such as Trecartin Brothers as we are unable to supply small grocers directly. Thank you again for your customer loyalty and your concern.

I pondered this course of action for a while, but since I am somewhat irrationally afraid of asking for things that are not stocked, I hadn't pursued it any further. Lately though, I have been getting more and more fed up. I've found substitute brands, one from Co-op and one from Sobeys, but they just aren't the same. I miss the originals.

I got up the gumption today to call a wholesaler to see if they stocked the crystals before calling or visiting a corner store to make a request. The answer was somewhat surprising. The wholesaler told me they did have Orange, but didn't have Grape because it wasn't being manufactured anymore. Grape is the one I miss the most; the one I notice more difference between the original and the Co-op brand.

I decided to write an email back to Crosby's to confirm that this was true. If so, I guess my quest is over. The orange from Sobeys is close enough that I don't notice too much of a difference. I'll see what their answer is, and whether I have to make substitute grape a permanent change.