95 WINTERHOUSE
It comes in a slender bottle with a
pretty label. It’s The Syrup: sweet,
beautifully amber in color and reserved
for a lucky few. Only 100
bottles of it are given each year as
gifts to friends and clients of the design
firm Winterhouse. The designers
of the label on the lovely bottle
are the very same who go forth to
harvest the syrup.
“We had designed milk and egg packaging for a local farmer, and
he helped us the first year,” says William Drenttel. “We tap trees
on our own land.” About 600 gallons of raw syrup, boiled down,
yield between 10 and 15 gallons of gold. In November they bottle
the syrup in their kitchen over what Drenttel describes as “a long,
messy weekend working with kids and neighbors.”
Finding the right bottle was important. The proprietors
couldn’t find a commercial bottle in the U.S. with the right shape
or elegance. “We finally imported this beautiful bottle from Italy
and have enough for at least 10 years stored in our barn,” says
Drenttel. Of course, a little of the sweetness they keep. “We have
it on all the normal breakfast items,” he reports. “Recently we’ve
started baking squash with our own syrup!” by Romy Ashby
Winterhouse | design: Jessica Helfand, William Drenttel, Teddy Blanks | Client: Winterhouse Institute | Contact: www.winterhouse.com
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