2021 Maple Water Harvesting Season - Visible Minerals
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Dear Maple 3 community,
The 2021 harvest season was very special!
Due to a warm early spring, the maple sap seemed richer in minerals than previous years.
From years to years, research and analysis have shown that maple water contains 46 bioactives nutrients including electrolytes, minerals, pholyphenols, amino and organic acids. In 2021, the lab reports showed precipitation of some minerals.
As a result, it is sometimes possible to see the minerals, that crystallized from a liquid to a solid state during the pasteurization just before the bottling process.
You might see the minerals as black particles. Just keep in mind that these minerals are nutrients sourced straight from nature and that provide a great hydration. All the laboratory analysis proved the great quality of the water.
Enjoy this natural tree-water with peace of mind!
Stephane Nolet / President
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More About the Production
Maple water is sourced straight from the Canadian maple tree forests. Out of the 150 maple tree species, only two provide the sap that will be used either as a hydration solution or to produce maple syrup. They are the sugar maple (Acer Saccharum) and the red maple (Acer rubrum).
This precious sap flows when Quebec’s frigid winters are followed by the milder temperatures of spring. Our skilled maple producers collect it from the trees and make sure to perform a thorough analysis of the quality of the sap.
The Sap Flows
In summertime, maple trees create sugar through the process of photosynthesis. This sugar is what allows the trees to breath through their cells, to grow, and to store starch in their roots.
As winter changes to spring, the alternation of nighttime cold and daytime heat provokes movement of sap in the maple trees. In the freezing darkness, the branches stiffen as the gasses in its fibres contract. The sap also freezes but, as it’s a liquid and not a gas, it expands in the tree fibres. And, through the night, the water that’s been absorbed by the roots rises up the middle of the tree, capturing its sugar reserves as it goes.
When the sun comes up, the air temperature rises with it, thawing the branches. The daytime warmth turns the sap back to liquid, and it’s the turn for the gasses in the tree fibres to expand. This pressure causes the sap to flow through the trunk of the maple tree.
The Sap is Harvested
Traditionally, maple sap was collected in pails hung beneath the taps driven into each of the trees. Those buckets would be picked up by hand and emptied into larger containers on a trailer or sleigh, then hauled to the sugar shack.
Today, in most cases, the pails are gone, replaced by tubes attached to the taps in the trees. The tubes come together at larger collector pipes in a system using gravity or pumping to take the maple sap right from the tree trunks to the sugar shack.
Arriving directly from the trees, the sap then flows into large stainless steel tanks, from where it will be filtered again before it is send to the bottling facility by water tank trucks.
Bottling Facility
One the sap arrives to the facility by water trucks, there will be another important step in the process, which is pasteurization to make sure the water is aseptic (i.e. so that any harmful bacteria are eliminated). From there, the sap is bottle in the tetrapak and where the integrity of the liquid and its taste will remain stable for at least 3 years.
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Video to learn more about maple water harvesting process
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Mineral content table
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Microscopic photographs of the mineral content in maple water
