My Black Walnut syrup results are in...

[Homespun]

I finally boiled my 7% brix concentrated sap (saved as frozen) to syrup today.
My collected sap ended up being about 1/2 Black Walnut & 1/2 Silver Maple.

The finished color is dark amber and the flavor is pure butterscotch, with a slight maple syrup aftertaste. To me, it tastes like the butterscotch topping for ice cream. I have very little niter in the syrup (I didn't bother filtering it).

The flavor is unexpected, but very delicious!

I'm very happy with the results...but I don't know how much of the strong butterscotch flavor was caused by either the Black Walnut or Silver Maple saps, so we'll see if it happens again next time.

After it's done settling out and clarifying I will bottle it and post a picture.

[asknupp]

It would be interesting to hear what walnut syrup alone tasted like. Because our sugar maple only had a bit of buttery taste to it.

[Homespun]

If I had enough Walnut sap my plan was to make it into syrup separately from the Maple, but the screwy sap running weather this year put an end to that plan. I felt lucky to get enough to make a small amount of syrup.

Now that my Black Walnut blend syrup has cooled, the flavor tastes like something between butterscotch and kettle corn (or maybe even cracker jack)?

I would like to call it "Maple-Walnut" syrup, but it still has almost no maple flavor.

[Homespun]

UPDATE: It's now one week later and after storage in the refrigerator the flavor has changed again. Now it's definitely regular Maple flavor, but with a Caramel Corn/Kettle Corn aftertaste according to myself and 5 new tasters. I'm wondering if certain aromatics have disappeared or changed because of refrigeration?

[Galena]

Wow, that is a cool taste test experiment! I know you used black walnut trees, and I don't have any. But now you've got me wondering if I can tap the 28 butternut trees available to me....after all butternut is white walnut...:-)

[Michael Greer]

Galena, I have tapped Butternut for several years. It's delicious, and I think it actually improves the taste and texture of maple syrup. This year I intentionally tapped every Butternut I came across while tapping, and probably ended up with about 10% in the mix.
Tapping Butternut comes with a few considerations; The sap is extremely fragile, and will go bad in the bucket on a fifty degree day. I try to tap on the north side of the tree to keep the bucket in the shade. Butternut sap will clog and slow whatever sap filtering medium you're using. My sap passes through a 1500mg bag, and sometimes that bag needs changing after just 100 gallons of sap. Butternut syrup...even in a 90% maple syrup, is difficult to filter. It coats the pre-filters with a slimy layer that reminds me of tapioca, which can stall the filtering and bottling process to a crawl. I've remedied it somewhat by putting 12 pre-filter liners into the filter bag, and pulling them out one by one to remove the slime.
The jury is still out on whether this is all worth while. The resulting syrup is richer, with a deeper butter-like flavor, and a smoother mouth feel. Everyone who tastes it raves about it, but not so much that they'd pay a premium price for it. That might work in a more up-scale market, but not in Potsdam.

[woodey24]

I have a decent amount of walnuts. I thought about tapping them after reading on this forum. They are just worth some good money for the logs and I hate to think about damaging them. A logger may call one a few names for putting holes in the bottom of their veneer log. Sounds intriguing though. Does anybody know if the sap production/syrup received is about the same? I would think about risking a few of them next year if I was going to get enough to make a pure pint.

[zandstrafarms]

Silver maples have a butterscotch taste and tend to be lighter in color.

Also, if the syrup is not tightly closed in the fridge it will absorb flavor. I had a dish of syrup off my filters I was saving for pancakes. Full of niter of course but tasted great so I put it in fridge for a few days. Flavor turned wonky. Almost a licorice or dark chocolate taste.

My syrup supply lady told me syrup is worse than baking soda with absorbing smells and flavors so be careful with it!

Regarding walnut tapping:

Here in central western mi, a guy basically offered my dad $300 a tree for walnut. Nice thick straight trees. They don't want branchy ones as there is less usable wood. They only use the heart wood which is several inches in, and not affect by a 1in tap hole.

Guy offered $3000 for like 20 of his trees. Honestly if you tap them right and sell it (usually $7/oz) you'd easily make that $300 in a few years, plus walnuts go for a pretty penny on ebay!

[wishlist]

Silver maples have a butterscotch taste and tend to be lighter in color.

Also, if the syrup is not tightly closed in the fridge it will absorb flavor. I had a dish of syrup off my filters I was saving for pancakes. Full of niter of course but tasted great so I put it in fridge for a few days. Flavor turned wonky. Almost a licorice or dark chocolate taste.

My syrup supply lady told me syrup is worse than baking soda with absorbing smells and flavors so be careful with it!

Regarding walnut tapping:

Here in central western mi, a guy basically offered my dad $300 a tree for walnut. Nice thick straight trees. They don't want branchy ones as there is less usable wood. They only use the heart wood which is several inches in, and not affect by a 1in tap hole

Guy offered $3000 for like 20 of his trees. Honestly if you tap them right and sell it (usually $7/oz) you'd easily make that $300 in a few years, plus walnuts go for a pretty penny on ebay!

$7 per oz ? I must be giving away my walnut syrup at $1.50/oz .

This Is my 3rd year doing walnuts . I would say sap runs are very inconsistent. You just don't know what will happen. I had 90 taps this year and will add more next year. Walnut syrup doesn't sit on the shelves long at all. I did try the maple/walnut blend once as Dr Mike F recommended but most people like the distinct taste of the pure walnut. Nothing better than walnut syrup on butter pecan ice cream .

[woodey24]

I am looking at tapping some of my walnuts next year. Do you watch for the same temperature combination for the sap to run? Do you put them on tubing too?

[wishlist]

I am looking at tapping some of my walnuts next year. Do you watch for the same temperature combination for the sap to run? Do you put them on tubing too?

Yes same temps. However, my first year with walnuts I noticed significant runs on the roadsides where as the roadside sugars didn't do much of anything. Since then it's pretty much the same time , just less sap. This year especially was a down year .

I have tubing, 5/16 and some sections of 3/16. Bags or buckets are tricky with walnuts . The bark is so thick there is not much left to hang a bag on. Tubing into buckets on the ground works well.