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Fantastic Fir Trees |
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Production of Santasapina® Syrup For many centuries, extracts from fir trees have been used in syrups. The fresh shoots of the common or Norway spruce (lat. Picea abies) are some of the ingredients in A. Vogel’s well-known Santasapina syrup. Every year Bioforce produces over 100 metric tons of the popular Santasapina syrup. The bulk of spruce tips needed to produce of this enormous quantity of syrup – 20 to 25 metric tons – comes from wild collection with 5 metric tons cultivation. This latter amount increases each year. The spruce tips come from Carinthia, Austria and the Saarland, Germany, both of which have been used as major sources of sustainable cultivation for many years. The pickers must have approval from landowners and foresters. Bioforce requires that the shoot tips be picked only from the lower two thirds of the young tree so as to cause as little damage as possible to the growth of the tree, ensuring sustainable cultivation. Hand harvesting takes place in the four week period, starting mid-May, and each supplier must deliver an agreed amount. As is always the case with fresh plants, time is the crucial factor because the tips must arrive in Roggwil as fresh as the morning dew. Whether during harvesting, on the road, at customs or during unloading, every minute counts. As soon as the lorry arrives in Roggwil with the delivery, the aromatic greenery is unloaded. Any spruce tips which have been overheated and turned brown during transportation are rejected. Only fresh, fragrant green shoots belong in Santasapina syrup! On arrival, the raw material is first tested by Bioforce laboratory staff against set guidelines to establish identity and check for contamination. Once the spruce tips have undergone this detailed examination, Santasapina production can begin. Mnufacturing Process Let us examine the manufacturing process that results in Santasapina syrup: After the quality checks the spruce shoots are placed on a conveyor belt where the plants are chopped up. After the mixture has been pressed, the pressed juice and residue remains – these form the basic ingredients. The residue is put into sacks and is almost immediately frozen to minus 26 degrees centigrade. Because the pressed spruce shoot juice is naturally unstable, it is preserved with alcohol and kept in a large storage tank. Following strict guidelines, laid down by Bioforce, quantities of the syrup are then produced to order. The residue and pressed juice together form 20 percent of the end product and holistic standardisation is used to ensure consistency of the active ingredients between one year’s crop of shoots and the next. To produce the syrup itself, the residue is boiled with water in a mixing tank, then pressed and once again concentrated. Then the concentrated pressed juice is sweetened with raw cane sugar and likewise concentrated. These extracts are mixed together and pear juice concentrate, honey and essential oil (such as spruce needle oil) added, until the sugar content of the syrup, known as the viscosity, reaches the required level. The finished Santasapina syrup contains three to four percent alcohol. The advantage of this production system is clear - the syrup can be produced on demand, as the residue and pressed juice are kept ready to be processed at any time. In practice this means that production can take place to order, ensuring that, while careful forward-planning is a must, Bioforce can always respond quickly to market needs. The Final Stage The final stage has now been reached. The prepared syrup – both with or without alcohol – is heated to a maximum of 40 degrees centigrade. This is because the heat thins the syrup so making it easier to fill the bottles. Each country has its own specific requirements as to bottle size. Then, after a final quality inspection, it is packed and delivered to various customers at home and abroad. Lozenges and other Syrups Santasapina syrup forms the base for two other A.Vogel products: Santasapina Lozenges and Drosinula Syrup. The latter also contains the extracts of sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) and ivy (Hedera helix). 1545 |
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