Local company putting ‘nature on tap’ with carbonated maple tree sap

It’s been a bountiful season for sugarbush owners – cool spring weather has resulted in what some are calling a record-breaking year for maple sap. While local producers have been toiling away turning that sap into syrup, another company has been quietly working away to create a different product – a carbonated maple tree sap beverage.

The founders of TAPPED – Todd and Carolyn Croxall and Kyra Watters – recognized that they had the makings of a delicious beverage right at their fingertips.

While there are other producers in North America who have been bottling maple tree sap and selling it for its health benefits – as an alternative to coconut water, for example – TAPPED is among the first to carbonate it, the only one to offer it in a can as an alternative to soda or beer, and the only one to put it in a keg so that it can be served on tap at restaurants and pubs to drink as is or mixed into a cocktail.

But what is TAPPED maple tree water, exactly?

“This was our vision from the get go: Muskoka people are cool, and we’re so cool that we go into the bush and we pull water out of trees,” jokes Todd. “And then we put it in kegs where normally draught beer goes…and then Kyra said we need cans to give it to our tourist friends who come to visit us so they can take it home with them.”

Some who have been producing sap-based drinks label their product as maple water or maple tree water but the founders of TAPPED prefer to call it what it is: maple tree sap. It’s the single ingredient listed on their product. And that can be a hard concept for some people to get their head around, says Watters.

“People have these misconceptions because as soon as you say maple you have that flavour in your mouth – we all know what maple tastes like,” says Watters. “So it’s hard to envision a water with a maple flavour that comes right out of the tree tasting like that. It’s not watered-down syrup.”

“It’s actually fun to watch people taste it,” adds Croxall. “Their eyes get wide and they say, ‘ohhhh.’”

If you grew up around a sugarbush, you might remember lifting a sap bucket from its spout, putting its rim to your lips, and drinking the sweet liquid that’s been collected. If you didn’t, know that maple tree sap bears little resemblance to its well-known end product, maple syrup. Maple sap really does look like water, albeit a slightly sticky version of it, and it is subtly sweet – not at all like thicker, caramelized, and very sweet maple syrup.

The sugar content of sap is usually two to three per cent but that can vary widely from less than one per cent to up near 10 per cent depending on conditions. A 437mL can of TAPPED contains about nine grams of sugar.

There are some maple tree sap producers who say that their sap has certain notes, like a fine wine – chocolate or maybe caramel – it all depends on factors like where the sap was collected and what the weather was like that day, and those are details that the TAPPED team plan to share with their fans. Each harvest will be documented and consumers will be able to go to the TAPPED website and, using the date on the bottom of the can and the production location on the label, find details about the sap in the can they are holding in their hand.

So ‘nature on tap’ couldn’t be a more apt tag line. The TAPPED crew have simply taken the sap, filtered it, carbonated it, and packaged it for serving – in kegs for the restaurant and resort industry, and, soon, in cans for home consumption.

The process is simple in terms of the basic steps, but it’s also incredibly complex when you look a little deeper. The TAPPED production site, Croxall Farms, has strict processes for where and how the sap is collected, how it is handled, and how it is filtered, carbonated and prepared for use. It is a perishable food, after all, and the TAPPED team has high food safety standards.

Growing excitement

People in the hospitality industry are excited about TAPPED, says Croxall. “They hear about it and, right away, they think ‘cocktail.’”

TAPPED is limiting the number of restaurants that will carry it for this year, however, adds Watters. It’s a matter of supply and demand, and those that wait too long may be out of luck.

TAPPED will be working with the early adopters to educate their serving staff on what the product is and to install an appropriate keg system – it can’t be linked to lines used for beer, and because it’s non-alcoholic a restaurant could use a freestanding system on a patio, or a caterer could take it on the road with a mobile system.

Maple syrup production is associated with spring, says Croxall, but TAPPED is a different product that will be available 365 days a year. “It’s something you drink on the patio when it’s 31 degrees outside.” They are still pulling water for their late harvest that will be ready for fall, and have plans to create fall- and holiday-themed products in the future.

Some of the sap that goes into TAPPED comes from Croxall Farms, the TAPPED production site, and some comes from a growing number of accredited local suppliers, all of which have to follow the same strict processes that Croxall Farms does.

Although their team is in the bush at the same time as maple syrup producers, Croxall and Watters stress that they’re not taking away from the syrup industry – they are giving woodlot owners an alternative option to cutting down trees and maple syrup producers a way to extend their season or continue on in another way after retirement.

They have also recognized that some woodlot owners may not want to do the work of tapping, so they’ve created a program with experts in everything from forestry management to tapping trees and will offer suppliers a range of services from minor assistance right to doing all of the forest management for them.

It’s a sustainable, environmentally-friendly industry and they have plans to make it even more so by offering production franchises to cut down on distribution costs. Woodlot owners in other small Ontario communities can become a Croxall Farms franchise, replicating what’s happening in Muskoka to bring TAPPED to consumers local to their own communities. Six franchisees are already lined up and Croxall hopes to push that to ten this year.

TAPPED will be available on tap first – they aren’t revealing the local restaurants where it will be available just yet – before hitting the shelves in weeks to come. But anyone attending the Muskoka Maple Festival on April 23 can get a taste – TAPPED will be out in front of the Algonquin Theatre all day offering up samples.

For more information on TAPPED production, visit the Croxall Farms website, and for more on TAPPED go to www.drinktapped.com.

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