Great guide to "is this or that raw?"

[Sharon in Colorado]

Just stumbled upon this, thought it was a great reference. Puts a lot of stuff in perspective when trying to justify the rawness of something besides an obvious fresh fruit or vegetable.

http://www.living-foods.com/articles/rawornot.html

[Conscious Midwife]

Interesting link/ article.

Thanks

[Coriander74]

That's fascinating!
I'll definitely keep the amounts down of the things mentioned... I look at it as.. if something's out of a bottle, it's not directly out of the ground (or tree).
Still, that agave nectar is beautiful in a cup of warm tea :)

[Sharon in Colorado]

Ya, I've gone through a lot of 'raw' agave nectar.

Someone had once mentioned to me the idea of there being honey or something in there, as it was too good. It reminds me of cotton candy.

It says on the bottle not heated beyond 118 degrees, but I have no idea if it is 100% pure agave nectar. It would be interesting to see how they actually make the stuff.

[Coriander74]

Sharon your dancing banana cracks me up every time I see it LOL

I had to go get the bottle of agave I have, this is what it says...

It's made by Madhava. It says "Raw Pure-Organic Agave Nectar" "Specially produced at temps below 115 F" "Produced from rooted plants for consistent high quality" "BioAgriCert Organic Certification"

Contents: "100% Pure Organic Agave nectar"

I'm about to email them and ask if it's really pure LOL

[Sharon in Colorado]

Sharon your dancing banana cracks me up every time I see it LOL

I had to go get the bottle of agave I have, this is what it says...

It's made by Madhava. It says "Raw Pure-Organic Agave Nectar" "Specially produced at temps below 115 F" "Produced from rooted plants for consistent high quality" "BioAgriCert Organic Certification"

Contents: "100% Pure Organic Agave nectar"

I'm about to email them and ask if it's really pure LOL

Mine probably says 115 degrees as well...I didn't have the bottle in front of me, but it's the same brand (Madhava) which I've gotten through hfs and co-ops.

You would think they know they could get in big trouble for mislabling that they wouldn't put those words on there if they weren't true.

Please keep us posted about your correspondence with them. The dancing banana will be waiting with hyper-anticipation! :)

[rawpriestess]

this is a great link and so true.


I also loveryour dancing banana

[m_pizzano]

Thanks for the link. It was very helpful :-)
Marisa

[mrsalf97]

Thanks for the link.

[RawFoodieMom]

Thanks for sharing another great link, Sharon. :)

[JEN]

Great link!
Thanks

[veganman]

I had e-mailed Madhava a while back, asking about the purity and this is what they said -

"Yes, ours comes from agave salmiana. This variety is "tapped" rather than
harvested. The tops of the large mature plants are removed and a bowl shaped
cavity made. The plant secretes its juice into the cavity and it is removed
by hand, twice daily. Excess moisture is removed and the monosacharride
components of the agave nectar are produced by the introduction of an
organic, vegan enzyme. The same process a bee uses to make honey, but
without the bee!
The agave nectar is 100% pure, no additives of any kind. And, yes there are
enzymes present, but I don't have a list or analysis.

[Coriander74]

Thank you so much veganman... Much appreciated :)

[RawFoodieMom]

I had e-mailed Madhava a while back, asking about the purity and this is what they said -

"Yes, ours comes from agave salmiana. This variety is "tapped" rather than
harvested. The tops of the large mature plants are removed and a bowl shaped
cavity made. The plant secretes its juice into the cavity and it is removed
by hand, twice daily. Excess moisture is removed and the monosacharride
components of the agave nectar are produced by the introduction of an
organic, vegan enzyme. The same process a bee uses to make honey, but
without the bee!
The agave nectar is 100% pure, no additives of any kind. And, yes there are
enzymes present, but I don't have a list or analysis.

Bolding mine. I wonder how they remove the excess moisture. They're removing excess moisture from a juice. So isn't that usually done by adding adding heat? And if so, I wonder what temperature it's done at? :confused:

[Sharon in Colorado]

Maybe a field trip to the Madhava processing plant is in order. Anyone game?

[RawFoodieMom]

They didn't mention heat in the email response, but if it says on the bottle that it's processed below 115 degrees then maybe they are removing the moisture with a low heat? I wonder why they wouldn't have mentioned that in their response of how the agave nectar is extracted and processed. :confused:

Would love to see the plant, where is it? Probably nowhere near me, but you never know... ;)