Advertisement from 2000 for Log Cabin Syrup featuring a tall thin plastic bottle with a handle in the general shape of a log cabin. Bean quickly acquiesced and pulled the cabin shaped bottles of syrup from their shelves and catalog. Worried about protecting their brand, L.L. Bean was a reseller of Highland Sugarworks’ syrup and, as a nationally known retailer, was an easy target. The metal cap came with a pre-cut slot for coins with a cardboard insert in the cap that one removed after the syrup was emptied and the bottle cleaned.Īt the time of the controversy, Highland Sugarworks was a relatively small independent maple syrup manufacturing and packing company owned and run by husband and wife, Judy MacIssac and Jim MacIsaac, the latter now deceased. The words “Log Cabin” were embossed on the roof on both sides of the bottle. One side featured a door and two windows, with the back side displaying two windows. Examples of the 1965 one pint Log Cabin Syrup glass cabin bank. In 1965, while part of the General Foods corporate umbrella, Log Cabin Syrup was offered for one year in a special glass cabin shaped bottle that could be reused as a bank. There was actually a precedent for Log Cabin Syrup being packaged in a glass cabin shaped bottle, but Aurora Foods made no mention of it in its threat to Highland Sugarworks. Bean and Highland Sugarworks to stop using the cabin shaped bottle, to destroy all their inventory of the containers, and turn over all profits made from sale of the syrup in these bottles. Bean company of Portland, Maine, and Highland Sugarworks, then out of Starksboro, Vermont, threatening cease-and-desist letters. In February 2000, Aurora Foods (Aurora Foods bought the Log Cabin brand from Kraft- General Foods in 1997), sent both the L.L. In 2000, this bottle was the center of a short-lived, but notable controversy, when Aurora Foods, Inc., the parent company of the Log Cabin Syrup brand, threatened a small Vermont maple syrup company with trademark violations for using this cabin shaped bottle. First introduced in 1998 by the Vetrerie Bruni glass company, this bottle was designed and sold for packaging maple syrup and was originally released as a 250 ml (8.45 ounce) bottle with a plastic or metal screw-on cap. Among this category of packaging, the cabin or chalet shaped glass bottle stands out for having a particularly interesting story. Fancy glass, or specialty glass bottles as they are sometimes called, began appearing in the maple industry in the 1980s and really took off in the late 1990s. "It's pretty disturbing because they're trying to sell a product that's making the public think it's something that it isn't and competing with something pure that we're making," he said.Today it is common to find pure maple syrup for sale in a variety of attractive and interestingly shaped and sized glass bottles, such as maple leaves, snowmen, barrels and unique flasks, curets, and decanters. ![]() ![]() It's a deliberate attempt to fool consumers, said Doug Bragg, owner of Bragg Farm Sugarhouse and Gift Shop in East Montpelier. The state is the largest producer of maple syrup, creating 710,000 gallons in 2008.īoth the word natural on the Log Cabin label and the packaging that's similar to containers of pure Vermont maple syrup are confusing to consumers, although the Log Cabin syrup costs less than half the price of the real thing, Vermont officials say. Pure maple syrup from Vermont - the country's largest maple-syrup producer - contains no artificial ingredients, just all natural sap from maple trees boiled down to the proper density. "In general, labels must be truthful and not misleading but would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis," said FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey. The FDA said it does not have a definition for natural. Michelle Weese, a spokeswoman for Pinnacle Foods of Mountain Lakes, N.J., said the company thinks its Log Cabin All Natural Syrup "complies with all FDA regulations." Food and Drug Administration to investigate whether Log Cabin Syrup, a division of Pinnacle Foods LLC, is violating FDA labeling laws. ![]() ![]() A new Log Cabin syrup promoted as "all natural" looks a lot like the pure, 100 percent maple product that's the pride of Vermont, right down to its packaging in a beige plastic jug.īut Vermont officials, seeking to protect the state's signature commodity, contend that Log Cabin All Natural Syrup is not what it seems, enticing consumers into dousing their pancakes with ingredients that include caramel color, xanthan gum - a natural thickener - and a paltry 4 percent maple.
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