Shrewsbury Town footballer Cheyenne Dunkley and co-owner of Cool Rummings rum punch drink to host meet and greet in supermarket
Childhood friends and owners of the Cool Rummings drink will be hosting a meet and greet to mark having their beverage being stocked by a supermarket.
The rum punch drink will be stocked at the largest independently owned supermarkets in Shropshire, Tuffins, which has branches in Craven Arms and Welshpool.
Owners of the beverage, Cheyenne Dunkley and Conor 'CJ' Johns, childhood friends from Wolverhampton will be hosting a meet and greet and taster event at the Craven Arms store on Friday, May 26, and on Saturday, May 27.
The meet and greet will take place from 4pm to 8pm on Friday, May 26, and from 12pm to 4pm on Saturday, May 27, and will be taking place at the Craven Arms store.
Cheyenne, who plays for Shrewsbury Town Football Club will be attending the event too, and is welcoming fans of the club to attend and get up close and personal with him, and of course taste the samples that will be on offer, but of course, anyone tasting samples of the drink will need to be 18 years old or older.
Speaking ahead of the event taking place this weekend, Cheyenne said: "We will be there on both days ahead of the bank holiday, and with the weather being nice, it will be nice to meet people and allow them to taste the drink.
"It is our first supermarket that is stocking the drink and it is a good milestone to achieve, as many drinks don't ever make it to a supermarket, just convenience stores.
"And considering we officially launched in January, it is going well and hopefully this will lead to people getting more eyes on the product and enjoying the taste and eventually result in more stockists.
"We believe the drink is very flexible, as it can be bought at stores and enjoyed or it can even be a drink served for events and hospitality as it is like a ready to drink cocktail.
"And with the summer weather coming now, it is the perfect beverage to enjoy, whether that is for barbecues or just in general.
"We feel proud too because of our heritage and we are essentially passing bits of our heritage and culture to the British people with the drink."
The name of the drink Cool Rummings is a play on the name of the hit 90s film Cool Runnings, and of course rum.
There are currently two flavours available, Original and Purple Rain. The Original flavour is based on summer fruits, bursting with tropical flavours with a Caribbean white rum, whilst the Purple Rain flavour is a blend of tropical summer fruits with a grape base.
Having tasted the drink myself, I can confirm that it is incredibly tasteful, with a sweet combination of punch and rum and it makes for a very tasty alcoholic beverage that I will be drinking throughout the summer period.
The drink will be available at both Tuffins supermarket stores from this weekend.
Tuffins Supermarket & Garden Centre, The Craven Centre, Shrewsbury Road, Craven Arms, SY7 9PX
The Welshpool store: Tuffins Supermarket, Cross Enterprise Park, Butting Cross Petrol Station, Welshpool, SY21 8SL
Sharing about the drink and the work that has gone into it, Cheyenne added: "We get a lot of compliments about the drink and taste, and that is because we chose to down the premium route in the ingredients and recipe.
"We could have gone for cheaper ingredients but we wanted it to be a premium drink and have put our own touch on the recipe to make it bespoke to how we like.
"And of course we wanted people to spend their money on the drink and actually enjoy it, not just look nice, and we think we have done that."
Speaking about the idea behind the drink, CJ previously told the Express & Star: "Essentially we are two friends that met in Year Seven at Heath Park school, always kept in contact and always supported one another, so we decided to work on the idea of launching our own drink.
"There is currently a gap in the market for a rum punch drink and so we want to fill that gap. It's a Caribbean drink which comes from our background.
"Our grandparents were born in Jamaica, and it's an old school recipe, and so we took that idea from our roots and made it into a premium rum punch which is made with natural flavours and ingredients."
