Different tasting syrup

[highlandcattle]

Our last couple of batches don't have a real mapkesyrup taste. Real good,but not a maple flavor that we've ever had. The shack smells like cinnamon buns baking. Grades Robust. Anyone else with strange tasting syrup?

[vinkandy]

I had the same issue with the batch I made this weekend here in Michigan. Tastes good however it didn't have a good flavor for a table syrup. It's a gade B, quite tart. Would make a good marinade. I'm wondering the same as you. Why all of a sudden so different from all of my other batches from multiple years. SAP was a little cloudy this past run and temps warmed up info the 60's.

[Galena]

Every year my first batch, regardless of colour, tastes more of vanilla and marshmallow than maple. By the end of the season (I generally go up to 6 or 7 batches a year) the maple flavour is very pronounced. In the late section of last year's run, I had a batch that had a very pronounced flavour of hay, which is quite acceptable and not at all unpleasant :-)

There is a maple flavour wheel out there with what, 91 flavours that maple syrup has been known to taste of. Some are noxious but others are quite unexpected, in a wonderful way, and yes cinnamon is amongst them. Hope this helps!

[Urban Sugarmaker]

My last batch last season had a little "off flavor" that I first noticed in the aroma of the steam. It had an almost floral, perfume-like aroma. Not bad but detectable slightly in the taste of the syrup as an aftertaste. Yesterday I noticed a faint resemblance to this but then today it cleared up. Fortunately I'm done for the season. I bet your trees are just starting to change for spring.

[Russell Lampron]

The metabolism of the sap changes as the trees come out of dormancy. This can cause the flavor of the syrup to change. If the off flavor tastes okay but isn't something that you would sell to your customers keep it for baking and other personal uses.

The syrup that I make on my first boil of the season usually has a flavor that has a hint of honey to it.

One season I made about 5 gallons of very dark syrup that has a molasses taste to it. I kept it for baking and my wife won baking contest's using it in her baked beans. She always hated that syrup until it was gone but now wishes that I could make more.