Over 70% of the Earth is covered in water. But only a fraction of that is drinkable. Asarasi, from the Latin Aceraceae, meaning maple, reclaims drinkable water from maple syrup production.
Okay so maybe water from maple syrup product is a little outside of the normal product range that we review here, although we’ve certainly reviewed drinks before, but I happen to have an obsession with the just about anything related to maple. It’s also been incredibly hot and dry lately, so from a tech and environment point of view, this campaign is interesting.
Production
The idea behind Asarasi is actually pretty simple. When maple syrup is produced, the sap is concentrated by putting it through a reverse osmosis filter. This filter pushes out everything except the water, leaving behind super clean drinkable water. But this water isn’t generally used. And it’s a substantial amount of water. According to the campaign 500,000,000 gallons of water a year, extracted during maple syrup production, is just dumped down the drain. So the people behind Asarasi decided to partner with maple producers and bottle the water.
Campaign Specifics
Goal: $10,000
Pledge Tiers: 11 tiers ranging from $10 to $10,000
End Date: Mon, May 25 2015 2:59 AM EDT
Funding Type: Fixed
Chances of success
Initial engagement for the campaign was pretty reasonable. But, the campaign lost some momentum about half way through. A few updates and some leg work from the campaign managers should help that along to an extent. However, the lack of discussion in the comments section is a little concerning. It suggests that backers are not actively checking up on the campaign and may therefore not be too concerned with whether or not the campaign succeeds.
On the production end, the initial batch of water is already complete so backers are pretty much guaranteed to receive the product if the campaign is successful. That’s a real plus as many backers have been burned by successful campaigns that haven’t delivered.