Living an active lifestyle remains a key marketing message around the Jazz apple.
T&G Global, which owns the Jazz variety and brand, recently sponsored the four-day Tour de Fresh cycling event for third year in a row, and Jazz apples were a featured refreshment for cyclists during the 300-mile ride, according to a news release. Jazz is grown under license by T&G in New Zealand, the U.S., Chile, Asia, the United Kingdom, France and Australia.
The variety — sold domestically by the Oppenheimer Group (Oppy), CMI Orchards and Rainier Fruit Co. — aims to resonate with “active” and “adventurous” lifestyles across all demographics, according to the release.
The mid-October cycling event raised about $180,000 for school salad bars this year. Since 2014, it has raised more than $750,000, bringing salad bars to 5,000-plus schools and 3 million students, per the release.
“The Tour de Fresh brings together industry-wide riders, who may be the fiercest of business competitors, but all that gets set aside when we get on our bikes,” 2018 Tour de Fresh alum Chris Willett, general manager of ENZAFruit Products, T&G’s Wenatchee, Wash.-based arm, said in the release. “I was proud to ride in it and hope to return in the future. “T&G was pleased to support Tour de Fresh as a premier sponsor again this year,” Willett said.
The release described the event as gratifying for participants.
“As riders, we train weekly in hopes of raising awareness that more kids need access to fresh produce and to get moving with exercise,” Kelly Ansaldo, four-time Tour de Fresh rider and first-time wearer of the Jazz apple jersey, said in the release.
