Maple Nectar : On the verge of large-scale commercialization!
Over the past few years, I’ve been keeping you updated on our project for a new sweetener that holds great promise for the maple syrup industry: maple nectar. Here are the latest developments from the collaboration between CDL and its partners.
What is maple nectar?
• It’s a new, 100% natural maple sweetener, with a final Brix of over 60. It can be certified organic and carbon-neutral.
• Maple nectar comes from a process that preserves the nutritional integrity of the sap and eliminates the bacteria and yeast that could appear after the sap runs through the tanks and tubing.
• It is concentrated by mechanical filtration and then evaporated at low temperature to prevent mineral precipitation.
Good for consumers, the industry, and the environment!
The maple nectar produced during the 2023 season will be used in part to help Centre ACER – CDL’s scientific partner – confirm its nutritional profile. Maple nectar comes from a process that preserves the integrity of the nutrients in the raw sap. In our opinion, the nutritional value of maple nectar gives it a considerable advantage over other liquid sugars used by food processing companies.
Another advantage: this new sweetener is produced with equipment running on 100% renewable or carbonneutral energy! And since maple nectar can be stored unrefrigerated, at room temperature, it is an eco-friendly and financially attractive ingredient for the food processing industry.
This is why at CDL we strongly believe that this new sweetener will be beneficial for the entire maple syrup industry and will offer new opportunities to maple syrup producers. Let’s not forget that since 2022, maple nectar has been recognized as an innovative maple product by the Producteurs et productrices acéricoles du Québec (PPAQ) and the Conseil de l’industrie de l’érable (CIE), proof that the industry shares our vision. Maple nectar was also recently added to the Convention de mise en marché de l’eau d’érable (Quebec’s maple sap commercialization agreement) in order to standardize its purchase and sale as a new sweetener derived from maple sugaring.
On the left, Jean-Marie Chabot, co-founder of CDL, Vallier Chabot in the middle, and Steve O’Farrell, R&D project manager putting maple nectar into barrels and containers.
Improvements and tests for large-scale production!
The 2023 season has allowed CDL to make the final adjustments to the process and equipment. A batch of approximately 75 barrels had been estimated and promised to distilleries and partners in the beverage industry so that they could integrate and test this new sweetener in their recipes. So far, the feedback has been extremely positive.
For the 2024 season, our goal will be to increase the scale of our production, both at the CDL Technology Centre andwith a few maple sugaring clients!
