Bottled Sap?

[Sugar Daddy]

About 10 years ago a colleague told me that he'd seen bottled sap for sale in New England. I've not seen any reference to bottled sap on this site, so I'm left wondering whether he was pulling my leg or if that market didn't take off.

I'd imagine that it would have to be pasteurized or run through UV and bottled under sterile conditions - likely involving a bottling plant. But given the price of bottled water, the economics might be favorable to just bottle the sap and forego the expenses of boiling it down. I'm not suggesting to stop making syrup, rather just wondering if there's another maple based product and an untapped market (sorry, bad pun). What do you commercial operators say?

[mapleman3]

I bet you could sell it to unknowing yuppy types (sorry if I offend) you probably could bottle at 180deg, it may stay till opened... kinda weird though

[Lyle]

With the right sales pitch I think you can sell anything. If you told me 25 years ago that selling water in bottles would be a multi billion dollar industry I would have said you're crazy. Just another reason I'm not a millionaire today.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Funny thing is, there are some people that seek it out. I had two people stop in the healthfoods store where my girlfriend works and ask for it. I heated it up and gave it to them after it was filtered and told them to make sure its refrigerated and used within a few days ( you know same concept of us boiling sap quickly) I had no idea how to price it so i sold it for 1.50 a gallon. I would only be worried about shelf life because of the sugars but i guess if its bottled right, it would be okay.



Another think i think it could be marketed for is making foods (boiling sweet potatoes or my personal favorite making rice) I made a nice white rice with just a hint of sweetness with it and it paired well with a chicken and mango salsa and fish and a fresh Spicy Fruit salsa.


I think it could definitely be a good industry.


Lastly those with RO's anyone every think of marketing the discharge water for bottling?

[DS Maple]

I'm no expert, but I wouldn't think the discharge water from an RO would be very good. The water that gets spit out by our SteamAway is not very tasty, and I think this comes from the fact that it is so pure. I would imagine that RO water is the same way. Just my thoughts though.

[Flat47]

While not quite bottled sap, I just recently picked-up a bottle of Maple Vodka. It's made by Duncan's Spirits, Inc. in St. Johnsbury, VT and made from distilled sap. I'm starting to re-think my sugarhouse plans...

[MaplePancakeMan]

DS, almost all water is put through an RO before bottled.

[TapME]

you should see the ones just down the street from me. They fill a tanker truck in short order with processed water from a well spring.

[pennslytucky]

DS, almost all water is put through an RO before bottled.

yes, but then the minerals are added back. without the disolved solids, water is bitter and quite abrasive to the taste...

[mapleack]

My dad has an unopened bottle of sap sitting on his office desk. I can't think of the name off the top of my head, but he picked it up in Vermont probably 10 years ago. I too suspect that the market just didnt take off, and the seasonal availability couldnt have helped either.

[Gary in NH]

There are still some dissolved minerals in permeate water, particularly with nano-filtration membranes. The total dissolved solids (TDS) level of my most recent sap was 210 mg/l. Concentrate that 5 times and I had a TDS level of 1050 mg/l after processing through the RO prior to boiling. I am using tap water membranes and had 4 mg/l of minerals in the permeate. I have tested and drank my permeate water several times and it had no taste. I work in the water treatment industry and have literally hundreds of customers with small RO systems that love the taste of their RO water. Taste is VERY subjective but 99% of the time less minerals in water means better taste. Mineral content added back by bottled water producers is very low, usually somewhere in the 10 mg/l range. (ppm is the same as mg/l). Dasani and Aqua-Fina are both RO waters produced by Coke and Pepsi respectively and they both add a small amount of minerals back into the RO water for taste distinction. They hope you will like one over the other. If they both had no minerals they would taste exactly the same and consumers would buy either one. Just as they have different formulas for their soft drinks they also do the same with their waters. I will agree that distilled water or de-ionized water is not pleasant to drink. The big difference between RO and Distilled / De-ionized is that the RO leaves carbon dioxide in the water since it is a dissolved gas so it is not "flat".

[Brent]

I don't particularly like the taste of RO water from either the GE Smartwater in our kitchen (but it makes great coffee) or the RO from the Merlins.

Today when I flushed the Merlins with soap I was tasting both the concentrate and permeate to help guide me when they all the soap was gone.
I couldn't taste a change in the permeate at all.

[Brent]

I don't particularly like the taste of RO water from either the GE Smartwater in our kitchen (but it makes great coffee) or the RO from the Merlins.

Today when I flushed the Merlins with soap I was tasting both the concentrate and permeate to help guide me when they all the soap was gone.
I couldn't taste a change in the permeate at all.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

There is someone down here somewhere in WV I think that sells sap as bottled water. I have heard of it, but haven't seen it but I think it is called "Treewater" which is appropiate.

[pennslytucky]

it makes your breath bad.... maybe thats why it doesnt sell well... i drink alot of it, and after a few swigs from a jar, u have a noticable bad taste in your mouth.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Hmm! I like to drink it while working and boiling and never noticed that or thought of it. From what I have heard, it is a big hit as bottled water, but I can't verify it as I have never seen it but heard of it a few times.

[jtbucket]

There is such a thing as bottled sap. It comes from a company named Vt Swetwaters in Poultney Vt. . I sell them about 2000 gals of my first run sap. They do add a little flavor. They have there own bottlng system. They are on the web. Vermontsweetwater.com .

[maplehound]

A fellow sugar maker several years ago bought his first preheater. At the time he had a lead on a man who wanted to buy all the water that came off the preheaters that he could get. He was even going to pay 1.00 a gallon for it. That would mean he could make almost as much from the preheat water as he could from the syrup. Unfortanatlly he was unable to find this person and it seemed that it must not have every taken off. But what an idea though. You see all kinds of bottled water out there, if you could only come up with a good marketing skeem to sell the water that was evaprorated off as some kind of health water.