The Maple Dude of Granton Discusses His Product in The Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin Contest

Tuesday, October 7th, 2025 -- 1:01 PM

The 10th Annual Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin contest is underway.

Local Granton business The Maple Dude has a product in the top 16 of the contest. I spoke with Tim Sternitzky, The Maple Dude himself, and he discussed the product in more detail and how people can vote to help move The Maple Dude’s product to the top 8!

Listen to the interview with The Maple Dude here!

Again, you can vote by going to https://www.madeinwis.com/. Voting for the top 8 ends at 5pm today, so make sure to cast a vote before then.

(AI assisted transcription of the interview provided by Otter.ai)

Tim: "We are a small business located out here by Granton, Wisconsin and we make maple products. We produce the maple syrup from beginning to end. And one of the products, among many others, is the maple shot."

"And I mean, it's nothing really that complicated. It's a one ounce maple syrup in a tear top package, and we sell that in a 10 pack bag, so it's a convenience item."

"But more than that, really, what we have found that is it has gotten traction for its use as an athletic fuel. A lot of people buying it are using it for that purpose. So, for people that are runners, people that are cyclists, people that cross country skiing, hiking, mountain hiking, things like that, it's an all natural fuel source."

"Instead of the energy gels, which contain, you know, artificial sweeteners and ingredients and stuff like that, maple syrup is got minerals in it, vitamins and it's got a lower GI than regular sugars, and it'll release that carbohydrate into the bloodstream for energy slower and less spikes and things like that, for, you know, for their athletic pursuits."

Riley: "When you came up for the idea for this product, is that the use you envisioned for it or did you have something else in mind?"

Tim: "I mean, probably for us, we just thought that, you know, we've never really seen the maple syrup in the little packages like you see, like ketchup and, you know, barbecue sauce, and, you know, honey or whatever it might be, you see everything else in something small like that."

"But normally you've seen maple syrup, you know, it's in bottles, and not easy to carry around a bottle in your pocket. So, we solved that problem as well. You can now put maple syrup in your pants."

Riley: "I love it. Just don't forget that it's in there!"

Time: "Right! Don't sit on that back pocket because you might break it open!"

Riley: "You actually have a lot of cool products out there at The Maple Dude, can you talk a little bit about some of those other products that you have?"

Tim: "We got, you know, like the regular the maple syrup. We also do bourbon barrel aged maple syrup. We do maple sugar, which is granulated sugar, but it's maple. We do maple cream, which is a spreadable maple topping."

"We've got maple coffee, Maple ice cream, Maple soda. And we also do the candies, lollipops. I'm trying to think of any of the others that we have right now, cookies, Maple almonds, so a lot of different things like that, and treats. And, you know, unique maple products is what we do."

Riley: "And now, again, as we mentioned, you are in that contest for the Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin and, at this point, they are narrowing down the top 16, I believe it is to the top eight. If people are interested in helping you make it to that next round, how do they go about doing that?"

Tim: "We're trying to get to the round of eight right now, and we are in there with, if you look at the 16 companies, lot of really large businesses, large companies in there, but we're still in there."

"And you can go and vote for us. Voting goes through Tuesday at 5pm and you can vote once per 24 hours, you go to madeinwis.com. Vote for us and hopefully we'll make it to the next round."

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.