The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-05-18
Liked Bogus Maple Sugar,

The New York Sun tells, in the sub
joined article, how Boston firms GUS
toners objected when it sold them gen.
uine maple sugar:
The patrons of one of the largest
wholesale and retail grocery houses in
New England have been buying spu.
rious maple sugar for years was dem
onstrated by a test made in Boston.
For the past six or seven years the
chief buyer for this firm had been pur.
chasing several tons of maple sugar
from one man, paying fancy price
and retailing it at twenty-five cents per
pound. 1t was of such exquisite and
delicate maple flavor that the patrons
of the house preferred waiting for it
rather than accept an inferior substi-
tute. Last summer the chief buyer for
the house made the acquaintance of a
Vermont sugar maker; as result this
years consignment of sugar was
bought from him at rather cheaper
price. The sugar 10 be consigned was
warranted pure maple sugar, and the
buyer had confidence enough in the
maker TO believe him.
Two weeks ago the sugar arrived
and was put on sale. 1t was some
what darker than usual, and the head
of the firm was the first one to con-
denim it. His opinion was shared by
the customers, apparently, for COM
plants began to pour in, and finally the
buyer was told that the consignment
was failure.
He was naturally wroth, and at once
dictated a letter couched in stror =
terms to the consignor, who repli .
briefly that in few days he would be
in Boston, and would prove. that his
was genuine maple sugar.
When he arrived, he told the buyer
that he would not only prove that his
was real maple sugar, but that the other,
which the firm had previously bought,
was bogus. He needed fire and a
kettle for "sugaring off" his product, so
he and the buyer went to the company's
warehouse, where these could be had.
The firm had small sample of maple
syrup which one of the members had
seen reduced from the actual sap, and
this was first aiken by the Vermont
sugar expert and boiled down to sugar
1t had the exact flavor and color of the
sugar which the house was unable to
sell.
Then the Vermont man called for
two pounds of granulated sugar and a
sample of the poorest maple syrup they
had in stock. A hunt was made
through the warehouse, and a con-
demned lot was found, thick, black as
molasses, and smoky in flavor. The
expert reduced the granulated sugar to
syrup, mixed it, half and half, with the
black syrup, and "sugared off, again.
The sample of maple sugar he pro-
duced was the exact counterpart in
color and flavor of the sugar which the
house had been selling it's customers
for seven years at fancy price, as the
only genuine and unmistakably pure
article.
Another sample was made of brown
sugar, and the three were taken to the
head of the firm. He sampled each,
and at once pronounced the grsnulated
mixture the genuine article. A sugar
expert in the wholesale district also had
an opportunity to distinguish himself.
He did it by picking out the genuine at
once. Somebody doubted his ability,
and he offered to try again. This time
he picked the bogus granulated, and
then the brown sugar mixture.
The Vermont sugar man had, how
ever, made his point, and his consign-
nent was pushed at once, though the
firm was under the somewhat embar-
RAISING necessity of telling its custo.
mers that for several years they had
been buying bogus sugar for the real
article.