Whilst there may be many beverage products which have been used for years in the beverage industry, including fruit juice concentrate, fruit puree, fruit aromas, and more, there are some products which have gained a lot of attention, especially from health food enthusiasts, in recent years – and one of these products is birch water. If you are running a food establishment and are interested in incorporating birch water into your menu or using it as an ingredient for some of the beverage products you produce, here’s what you need to know about birch water: your essential guide.
The basics of birch water and how it is made
The process of producing birch water is inherently due to nature. Every springtime, the snow from the mountains melts, and this is the time when birch trees collect gallons upon gallons of fresh water underneath the soil’s frozen surface. Essentially speaking, birch water is the water that is gathered or harvested from the trunk. The sap is collected by tapping the birch tree’s trunk or by collecting it from a branch of the tree. Once the harvest has been done, the hole in the tree is then closed, enabling the birch tree to ‘heal’ in the span of a year. The fresh sap from the birch tree has a slightly sweet taste, and it can be drunk as soon as it is harvested.
The history of birch water and its properties
Birch water, whilst only now gaining recognition in the UK, has long been consumed in Scandinavian and Baltic countries as well as in Russia. The belief in folk medicine is that birch water is loaded with plenty of benefits for the health and is a natural diuretic. Birch water is believed to contain various nutrients, such as vitamin C, amino acids, potassium, phosphorous, calcium, manganese, magnesium, sodium, zinc, and iron.
How it is consumed
Whilst birch water can be drunk straight from the tree and freshly harvested, it can also be drunk in fermented form, as confirmed by fruit juice manufacturers. Fermented birch water can also be made free of additives and preservatives. Birch water is essentially free from sugar; on the average, it only contains about 0.3 amount of sugar per 100 millilitres.
The uses of birch water for your food business or establishment
Birch water can be served fresh or fermented, but if you want something unique, you can try making sparkly birch water similar to tonic water. Birch water can also be added to other fruits and ingredients to make a blend, such as rhubarb, ginger, berries, and more. Because of its delicate taste, you can easily experiment with some flavour combinations, mixing it with other fruits to produce a unique and distinctive drink.
