Coconut water is so last year. Small beverage companies like Wahta, Oviva and Maple3 are touting maple water instead—a low-cal, gluten-free drink that has the consistency of water but is slightly sweeter. (Drink Maple, an American maker, is already available in 800 stores.) In recent years, a slow drip of products with maple flavour has increased to a spring-thaw gush, including everything from icing, chips, ice cream, tea, coffee and even beer. Last January, Quebec entrepreneur Bastien Poulain sold his first bottle of maple syrup–sweetened 1642 Cola; by October, he had sold 260,000 bottles and now plans to crack the Asian market.
But maple water isn’t the only maple-flavoured product hitting store shelves—it’s popping up in everything from granola to beer. The Canadian Business staff decided to put some of the new maple products to the test.
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