KATE WEILER and JEFF ROSE, co-founders, DRINKMaple: ‘Why ship coconuts around the world when you’ve got this natural resource in your backyard?’
Becoming beverage entrepreneurs was never part of the game-plan until Kate Weiler and Jeff Rose discovered maple water on a trip to Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, to race in a triathlon in August, 2013, fell in love with it, and then found they couldn’t buy it anywhere when they got back to the US.
“We were intrigued, and started thinking why ship coconuts around the world when you’ve got this natural resource right here in your backyard?" says Weiler. "So we started looking into the supply chain and what is involved to create something scalable.”
Consumers like the simplicity of plant waters, while retail buyers are looking for something new and different, adds Weiler, who launched the flash pasteurized product in a TetraPak in 2014 in gyms, fitness centers and yoga studios as well as independent retailers, health stores and Whole Foods branches in the New England area plus selected chains further afield.
Click HERE to read more about DRINKMaple, and click HERE to watch Weiler on video at the Expo West show in Anaheim.
