Hartford
The switch, which was generally lauded by sugar makers as a way to avoid nagging logistical problems and other concerns about metal containers, has already taken effect, with supplies of the state’s industry-approved tin containers dwindling.
“It is the generally held belief of our board of directors,” said Matthew Gordon, executive director of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association, “that both the plastic and glass bottles are superior containers for retail syrup.”
That’s bad news for sugar makers such as Sheldon Beebe, who’s been tapping about 2,000 trees in Westminster since the 1970s and sells roughly 300 gallons a year to farmstands and restaurants.
“I just — my market has always been tin,” Beebe said. “The people who buy syrup from me, my retail and wholesale has always been tin.”
“To some people the metal is probably very, very important, whereas some of the people who are newer have probably never seen a metal container,” said John Narowski, who taps 7,000 trees as the owner of Maple Stone Farm in East Corinth and is also one of a handful of authorized maple sugar makers association container dealers for Orange County.
Estimates by Narowski and other sugar makers on the percentage of customers who prefer tin ranged from the single digits to 20 percent.
The association has announced that it is selling off its stores of tin containers, and that, henceforth, it will allow its logo and official seal of approval to be emblazoned on glass and plastic containers only. With sugaring season right around the corner, some suppliers say they’re stocking up on tin while it lasts, and others say they’re already out.
“We’re out of the quarts and we’re very low on the pints,” said Owen Manahan, a packaging sales representative at Dominion and Grimm USA, the American wing of the Canada-based sugaring equipment supplier with more than 20 branches throughout North America.
Manahan said his customers have given him “mixed reviews” on the association’s decision to drop tin. “It’s certainly a popular item, and I’m surprised they’re getting rid of them,” he said.
For decades, Vermont’s maple consumer has been able to choose between containers of various sizes and shapes, thereby allowing the syrup-swilling public to indulge in anything from a half-pint capped glass bottle in the shape of a maple leaf to a half-gallon opaque beige plastic jug reminiscent of those that held Prohibition-era moonshine.
A third option has always been tin, and many old-time Vermonters say their maple syrup experience is inextricably wrapped up in the nostalgia associated with either a flask adorned with a folksy, hand-painted woodlands scene beneath the words “State of Vermont Pure Maple Syrup,” or a tin container shaped and painted like a log cabin, with the screw-on cap serving double-duty as a chimney.
Some sugar makers say the choice of container is a reflection of the way customers see themselves. Practical shoppers seeking the best deal choose plastic. The organic, crunchy slow-food movement enthusiasts target glass. And old-timers buy metal because that’s what their family bought when they were young.
“It isn’t necessarily the thing itself that people are nostalgic about. It’s the experience that the object sort of represents,” said Greg Sharrow, co-executive director for the Vermont Folklife Center, a Brattleboro-based nonprofit. “Everyone feels like, in a way, sugaring belongs to them as a birthright to Vermonters.”
Sometimes, Sharrow said, there’s no way to tell whether an object has real nostalgic currency until someone threatens to take it away.
“The proof’s in the pudding,” Sharrow said. “If this happens and nobody peeps, then guess what? It’s time to change. But if, all of a sudden, there are a flood of letters to the editor, then, oh boy.”
Sharrow said companies with recognizable brands and images — for example, pictures of Betty Crocker and the Morton Salt girl — are constantly being tugged in opposite direction by the forces of nostalgia and modern relevance.
Sharrow said he wouldn’t presume to know which way the public will break on the tin container phaseout, but he’s seen the same question posed countless other times, as the world changes and past practices become obsolete.
“Things have currency as long as they have meaning in people’s lives,” he said. “When they cease to have meaning, they pass away, and they continue to be of interest to people who are of an antiquarian bent.”
While inhaling the sweet steam of the sugar shack, sugar makers and syrup enthusiasts alike can debate the merits of the different containers — and many do.
Don’t fall sway to the seductive arguments that newer and cheaper is better, warned Beebe.
“The theory being, ‘plastic is better, glass is better. You should be changing the way you do things.’ Maybe so, but people are finicky. If people have been buying metal, they want metal,” he said.
“My preference is, I like the plastic,” said Dale Lyman, a third-generation syrup maker who taps 2,200 trees to churn out around 500 gallons of syrup a year from his White River Junction property. “The quality of the can, the craftsmanship of the can, was going away anyway. I’ve seen handles break off, things like that.”
They’re both wrong, said Thetford sugar maker Tig Tillinghast, who’s been in the game since 2006 and prides himself on taking advantage of the latest technologies to increase his yield to about 1,000 gallons from 2,500 trees.
Tillinghast said glass is king. Before turning his taps over to a middleman a few years ago, he imported a batch of rectangular glass bottles from Italy. Customers love being able to see the golden glow of the maple before they buy it. But Tillinghast conceded that metal has one advantage over glass and plastic — shipping durability.
“There was one woman in California who would buy two gallons at a time,” he said. “There was never a plastic gallon we sent her that didn’t explode.”
Something about the way the containers were handled, Tillinghast said, caused there to be enough pressure on the jugs that the plastic threads would just give way.
“And if it explodes, you’re going to hear about it,” he said. “You’re going to have a lot of people in town with sticky mail.”
But Lyman’s son, 26-year-old Sean Lyman — who qualifies as a fourth-generation syrup maker — said his experience has been the exact opposite.
“We did used to use the metal syrup containers,” he said. “I remember they used to blow up when we used to ship them.”
George Fraser, who sells syrup out of Dan and Whit’s in Norwich, said glass is pretty but has an obvious drawback that many consumers won’t overlook.
“The little kids at home only have to drop the glass once,” he said. “And that’s the end of it in that house.”
The association’s decision to deep-six metal containers came slowly, and was the result of what Gordon, the executive director, calls “a confluence of events” — events that industry insiders say include decreased customer demand, difficulties in identifying an ideal supplier, and a general feeling that metal containers are just inferior.
Steve Taylor, the former New Hampshire agriculture commissioner, said any sugar makers who have stood by tin are behind the times, and courting problems.
“It’s been going on 15, 18 years now, the effort to get rid of it,” Taylor said, noting that, decades ago, cans would have included lead solder. “I know there’s people who are skirting it, but if you’re in the food business, you’ve got to be on the ball. … I’m surprised it took them this long.”
Henry Marckres, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture’s consumer protection chief and maple syrup guru, said there was a problem with a contaminated batch of cans obtained from China several years ago, but “lead was never an issue.”
“The cans are all epoxy-lined and should be fine,” Marckres said.
Taylor, whose family makes and sells syrup at Taylor Brothers Farm in Meriden, said he welcomes the association’s decision.
“That’s good. A lot of guys have invested and upgraded in new equipment to comply,” he said. “Then you see guys thumbing their nose and still doing it. This is putting some heat on.”
Fraser said changes were spurred after “they started making cans in China and some of those cans had contaminants in them and that kind of spoiled it for the industry,” he said. “Plastic got to ride in the front seat after that.”
The Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association about 10 years ago formed a can committee with the purpose of sourcing metal containers that were affordable, reliable and contained an interior lining that addressed food-safety concerns.
Behind the scenes, the can committee struggled, said Tillinghast.
“The tins were problematic. They tried to source cans from other places,” he said. “My sense was that the folks who were looking into it felt that no matter what you do, there are compromises.”
Around 2010, there was a three-year period during which no supplier could be found, but a few years ago, they settled on a company in England that met the criteria.
Narowski said the metal cans were decent enough, but they cost more than plastic — he paid $2.20 for a quart tin, as compared with $1.60 for a plastic jug.
In addition, the containers were built based on the metric system, so a quart actually held a quart plus 4 fluid ounces. Sellers were left to either eat the difference, or explain a price increase to customers.
Now, Gordon said, sales haven’t justified the continued efforts to keep metal on the shelf. “Sales of the tin can have been on the decline in recent years,” he said.
The association’s board also voted in May to roll out a new logo, which will be made public later this year.
Gordon said the iconic image on the side of the tin cans remains the property of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association — and the public might see it in other marketing efforts.
“We’re exploring ways we can use that in the future,” he said.
The logo, characterized by an image of a tap sticking out of the side of a map of Vermont, dripping sap into a container, wasn’t beloved, according to Gordon.
“The decision to change from that was pretty easy as it doesn’t have a lot going for it,” he said. “The new logo utilizes a wordmark, primarily, and does not in itself depict a sugaring scene.”
With the “rebranding effort,” which will include new plastic and glass bottles bearing the new logo, in progress, Gordon said it was the right time “to move forward with the plastic and glass bottles only.”
Dominion and Grimm offers other tins that don’t bear the association’s logo. “We call them all-state,” said Manahan. Gordon acknowledged that other containers are out there. But they won’t bear the association’s logo.
“I would also tell our members to remind customers that while the metal containers make a great decorative item, they are not as good a container for syrup as the glass or plastic bottles,” he said.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.