coffee in the sap... what would you do??

[ckkrotz]

So on Saturday when we were boiling down I spilled about a Tablespoon of coffee (with cream and sugar) into a five gallon bucket full of sap :o .. now we only had 25 gallons of sap to begin with, so there was no way we were going to dump 5 gallons... I quickly scooped out what coffee I could before it totally dispersed in the sap. We are only making syrup for ourselves, and I THINK the tiny bit of cream in the coffee will probably be pasteurized to the extent that it will not be an issue... if it didn't evaporate out entirely.... What would you have done if you were in our place???

[spud]

What kind of coffee was it? I might want to buy some of your syrup. I'm sure it will be good to the last drop. All kidding aside your coffee will not hurt anything and I would have boiled it to. For years kids have peed in road side buckets and that never killed anyone.

Spud

[happy thoughts]

What would you have done if you were in our place???

Taken away your coffee privileges:).

It's such a small amount that you'll probably be all right but you might want to set that batch of syrup aside and keep it refrigerated to use up first. Pasteurization does not mean sterilization. The long boil at higher temps to reach syrup will probably kill all the bacteria but that doesn't mean the cream still won't spoil. Since cream is mostly fat that will float, I'd probably try to keep the batch well skimmed while cooking and hope any solids get filtered out when you filter. Just remember that you can't store milk by simply boiling and packing it it in jars like you do syrup though I certainly wouldn't toss your batch of syrup for that little bit of cream.

[Chainsaw Baby]

I use milk to keep the foam down, so consider your cream adventure a preemptive move to break the surface tension and reduce foaming! The main use I have for maple syrup is in my coffee (I tried to convince Tim Hortons to offer maple syrup, to no avail) so the coffee component would be moot to me.

If you were selling commercially, it might be a different story, but then 5 gallons of sap is nothing for the big boys... Heard of one Quebec producer that has 105,000 taps... They add 5 gallons to the evaporator every 15 seconds! They would dump it without blinking an eye.

Tim Hortons: A hockey player who started some donut shops. In Ontario there is a Timmies on every corner. Had a meeting in Ohio recently and they had Tim Hortons coffee in the meeting room. I looked at the coffee, then at the guys from Ohio, who said "Yeah, thanks a lot... Now we're all addicted"...