I never liked maple syrup until I moved to New England and - on a whim - started making my own. Store bought maple syrup has a bitter edge to it that I don't care for. My first batch made approximately one tablespoon of syrup, but it was the most pure, delicately delicious maple syrup ever. It was unlike anything I had ever tasted. It was full of caramel and vanilla flavors and it was divine! I was hooked!
Of course, that meant I had to figure out what I was doing compared to the big guys and see if I could scale it up. There are many reasons that our syrup is better than the rest, but the three main factors come down to this: we only tap sugar maples, we keep all our collecting equipment scrupulously clean, and we boil it gently so that there are never any off flavors.
The big guys say, "tap it all!" They claim it all tastes the same, but I was skeptical, so I tapped red and sugar maples and boiled the sap separately. The red maple syrup was fine, but the sugar maple syrup was great. If I wanted to make the best syrup available, it was clear to me that I could only tap sugar maple trees.
In most of the larger operations, they use plastic tubing to collect the syrup over large sections of woods. The tubing stays out all season and, over time, bacteria grow in the lines, eating the sugar in the sap. This bacterial action is not harmful, but it can change the flavor of the finished syrup because it ferments the sap slightly. I find that if I keep my collecting equipment clean (which means bringing it in and washing it if we have a couple of warm days), I can avoid the slightly off flavors caused by sap fermentation.
Lastly, I boil my sap gently. I'm a former high school science teacher and I was always a bit confused as to how the syrup could develop slightly burnt flavors since the liquid shouldn't go over its boiling temperature while cooking. Then I saw a video of a large producer showing a "good" boil in his evaporator. He had the thing cooking so hard that the maple sap/syrup was jumping out of the pan a good 8 to 12 inches. What that tells me is that it is doing more than boiling! Mystery solved. We boil our syrup slowly and gently and you can taste the difference. The only flavors in our syrup are those that nature intended.
Each batch will taste slightly different as the amounts of various vitamins and minerals fluctuate throughout the season. I love tasting each new batch and comparing its flavors to previous batches. Typical flavors found in our syrup are vanilla and caramel, but I have had batches with flavors of allspice or butterscotch. Nature decides what the flavor will be; my job is simply to let it shine.
Maple syrup season occurs during a short period of time in the very early spring when there is a steady freeze/thaw cycle between days and nights. Sap is collected and boiled down to a concentrated 67% sugar syrup. It takes around 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. The syrup is then filtered and bottled at 180 degrees so it will keep for long periods of time unopened. Once opened, maple syrup should be refrigerated to maintain its quality.
Of course, that meant I had to figure out what I was doing compared to the big guys and see if I could scale it up. There are many reasons that our syrup is better than the rest, but the three main factors come down to this: we only tap sugar maples, we keep all our collecting equipment scrupulously clean, and we boil it gently so that there are never any off flavors.
The big guys say, "tap it all!" They claim it all tastes the same, but I was skeptical, so I tapped red and sugar maples and boiled the sap separately. The red maple syrup was fine, but the sugar maple syrup was great. If I wanted to make the best syrup available, it was clear to me that I could only tap sugar maple trees.
In most of the larger operations, they use plastic tubing to collect the syrup over large sections of woods. The tubing stays out all season and, over time, bacteria grow in the lines, eating the sugar in the sap. This bacterial action is not harmful, but it can change the flavor of the finished syrup because it ferments the sap slightly. I find that if I keep my collecting equipment clean (which means bringing it in and washing it if we have a couple of warm days), I can avoid the slightly off flavors caused by sap fermentation.
Lastly, I boil my sap gently. I'm a former high school science teacher and I was always a bit confused as to how the syrup could develop slightly burnt flavors since the liquid shouldn't go over its boiling temperature while cooking. Then I saw a video of a large producer showing a "good" boil in his evaporator. He had the thing cooking so hard that the maple sap/syrup was jumping out of the pan a good 8 to 12 inches. What that tells me is that it is doing more than boiling! Mystery solved. We boil our syrup slowly and gently and you can taste the difference. The only flavors in our syrup are those that nature intended.
Each batch will taste slightly different as the amounts of various vitamins and minerals fluctuate throughout the season. I love tasting each new batch and comparing its flavors to previous batches. Typical flavors found in our syrup are vanilla and caramel, but I have had batches with flavors of allspice or butterscotch. Nature decides what the flavor will be; my job is simply to let it shine.
Maple syrup season occurs during a short period of time in the very early spring when there is a steady freeze/thaw cycle between days and nights. Sap is collected and boiled down to a concentrated 67% sugar syrup. It takes around 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. The syrup is then filtered and bottled at 180 degrees so it will keep for long periods of time unopened. Once opened, maple syrup should be refrigerated to maintain its quality.
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