The Infinite flavors of maple syrup
I’ll bet you did not know that maple syrup and wine have something intriguing in common. No, it’s not the fact that the contents of the container are gone sooner than expected. And no, it’s not the fact that they are both derived from plants. The cool fact I believe everyone should be aware of is that syrup and wine are affected by the geographical region they hail from. A wine from California tastes different than a wine produced in France. Maple syrup’s flavor is also affected by where it was produced.
““When you sip your way through a few syrup flights, you quickly realize that maple syrups are wildly different once you get beyond that great bear hug of sweetness”
Flavor wheel for maple syrup from the Acer Center in Canada.
Just like wine, there are many factors that go into how a syrup tastes. Some of them are specific to a certain geographic region and others can be caused in the sugar house during production. The sap from the maple tree is made up of chemical compounds and those can fluctuate from area to area and they can also be different throughout the season. Maple trees in one area will produce sap that has a different composition than trees from a different area. Tree genetics, soil types and slope aspect can affect the sap composition and syrup flavor as well.
As the composition of the sap changes, so does the flavor of the syrup produced from it. Syrup produced from our sugar bush in Walden, VT will have a different flavor than syrup produced in other parts of Vermont, New England, across the U.S. and Canada. I think a lot of people do not realize this when it comes to maple syrup.
I encourage people to try syrup from different producers to see the subtle differences. There is an awesome quote about the varieties of flavor you may notice as you sample. Food writer Rowan Jacobsen wrote in his book American Terroir “When you sip your way through a few syrup flights, you quickly realize that maple syrups are wildly different once you get beyond that great bear hug of sweetness” This sums it up perfectly! All maple syrup when produced well will have a dopamine releasing sweet punch that can distract from the differences in flavor. People love their sweets and maple syrup does not disappoint when it comes to the satisfying of one’s sweet tooth. People’s eyes light up when they taste it for the first time.
Syrup grades are broad ways of categorizing maple syrup so consumers have some idea of what type of syrup they are purchasing. They consider flavor intensity and color of the syrup. They do not however account for the many different flavors that can be found in different maple syrups due to where they were produced. Grades account for intensity of flavor but they do not speak to where the syrup lands on a flavor wheel. Have you ever looked at a flavor wheel? They are complex!
So, to wrap up, we here at Wild Woods Maple encourage you to sample syrups from all over. I have seen the statement “best maple syrup” from time to time as people market their products. With there being so much variety in syrup flavors how could somebody make the “best maple syrup”? Shop around and find your own personal best when it comes to syrup because as we have discussed there is a lot of variety. A great resource for tasting syrups can be found on the UVM website, it is called the “Map of Maple” and it speaks to this subject with greater detail.
