Get Happy

Here at Clean Plates, we take hydration seriously.

Beyond the joys of fresh-filtered water, we keep ourselves hydrated with everything from fermented watermelon basil coolers to iced cocoa to silky homemade almond milk.

But drinking water tapped from a tree was a new idea we had to try on. Thankfully for us city-dwellers, we won’t need to tap any trees ourselves for this experience: Happy Tree maple water ($4 for 10 oz. and $5.50 for 16 oz.) has just launched and is available in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Last March, Happy Tree co-founder Ari Tolwin was visiting his brother in the Catskills. While the two were making maple syrup, he had a discovery, “I had no idea that maple syrup is actually made from the tree’s water,” he says, “Which is refreshing, hydrating and nutrient-rich as-is, straight from the tree.”

Happy Tree comes to you having never been heated and full of naturally occurring Thiamin (B1) and Riboflavin (B2). Tolwin and his comrades even shipped samples off to food scientists at Silliker Labs to confirm the presence of those metabolism-boosting B vitamins, electrolytes and anti-inflammatories.

If the word “maple” has you thinking of sticky-sweet pancake syrup, stop right there. This stuff is faintly sweet (it has a 2% concentration of maple sugar, versus syrup’s heavy 60 to 70% concentration) but tastes pleasantly earthy too. This new beverage is perfect for anyone watching his or her sugar intake: Happy Tree clocks in at only 35 calories and 7g of sugar per 10 oz. bottle.

Watch your back, coconut water.

Learn more about Happy Tree