You seem bummed you weren't invited

I’ll taste test with ya anytime! Orange County has way better soil than Washington county, you can taste it in the water, forage quality is superior when we do forage analysis, it makes sense to me that the mineral composition in the syrup from Orange County would also lead to a better flavor. I’m a farmer, originally from Orange County but live in Washington county now. My forage and soil quality on my Washington county fields vs my Orange County fields are shockingly different, and to get my Washington county fields to the level of my Orange County fields requires a lot of constant amendments, where as I haven’t put anything on some of my Orange County fields in close to a decade (I mostly pasture those fields now as trucking hay home from there doesn’t make sense, if I was haying them I would obviously be adding amendments)

I will also say you’ll notice flavor differences with different rigs. Personally I don’t like the flavor or steam syrup. I think when you push sap through an RO you change the flavor some, going to around 10% doesn’t change much, but pushing it to 18% I think you’re losing flavor. Wood vs oil I think you have a different flavor, but not anywhere near the difference from that to steam.

I get what you’re saying with blending/grading and my terms are probably incorrect/misleading. I help out some friends who tap 60k and sell a lot of syrup, but grew up tapping 2k. Growing up we would draw off into a tank, check grade, run it through the press directly into retail packaging. Many small producers do this. At my friend, and most modern large producers it all goes into 40’s or 55’s and when we can we are blending the syrup with other boils to make grade. That is probably where I’m misusing the phrase blended.

Well water with an RO system.

Town water

Well water. I never gave it amy thought, but I've never lived on a house with town water. I think well water just tastes better.

Fluoride probably would have helped me when I was a kid, though.

An artesian well high on a mountain, which is what I have. 25 gals per minute.

well

I like town water only because if the power goes out I still have water. Planning for rural wells every time a storm comes in is....annoying at best.

I want the town for the shower and the hose and the well for eating and drinking

I have never looked at non us research. my partner is in the recovery field and we have looked and talked our kids about it. I imagine it is very related to culture as well.

private spring fed well the best of vermont water!

Town water all the way. I’ve known too many people whose wells dried up to ever want to have to deal with that. And, unless you have a generator, you can’t use your water in a power outage since the pump would run on electricity. And if you have a well chances are you’re also somewhere that you need a septic system, which also can have problems. Apparently I’ve given this a lot of thought.

That’s literally the source of my information. Like it or not.

That still doesn't bridge tje gap between "rumor" and "source."

Private

They are very similar organizations in the way they operate. In my opinion neither can be trusted

The laws and rules we follow as citizens don't apply to cops. They enforce the law not follow it and set good examples

Well water as long as you test it and have proper treatment. Municipal water is disgusting.

Well water. I hate being charged per gallon used. And to follow up I prefer my own septic system too. Most towns charge septic based on water used. So if you water your garden you pay for the water twice.

Town water for sure. Wells can dry up, cost loads of money to dig (if your property doesn't have one), uses a lot of power for pump/softener, buying softener salt, loss of water without power, can get contaminated, etc, etc.

Downside of town water is that the line between the main and your house is your responsibility and costs a lot to replace.

Well water.

Town always town. Surely there is some great well water, but modern civil engineering is real!

Unless you're on a mountain, I'd be testing that water pretty often if you're near any significant agriculture.

Let the town pay for it, that's part of what taxes are for

I doubt she gets in any trouble over this. If it was a regular ass working parent they would have been arrested for having an underage drinking party on their property. The rules don't apply to people with money and clout

Super interesting. Do you know off hand if this is US specific? I’ve heard of families in Europe giving their kinds wine earlier but also the binge drinking culture is very different