Buying cheap syrup from discount stores

[Biz]

A friend bought some syrup from a discount chain store this week. Paid about half of the going rate around here, I thought wow, how are they making any money on this. I reheated, filtered, tested, and re-bottled it for her into gift size bottles. So I had to taste it... Well I would not sell it to my own customers, even though I sell dark syrup. Very strong buddy taste, I was surprised. End of the season barrel maybe? You get what you pay for.

Dave

[Wanabe1972]

It's funny my daughter bought a quart last night as I'm totally out. She was making a maple treat for Christmas. There was a few drops left in the bottle so I had to try it. It tasted like it was filtered through dirty wool socks. The candy she made was good but I would have been pissed if I was eating pancakes. Jeff

[buckeye gold]

I have bought from a warehouse store before to make maple nuts, because I don't want to use my syrup when I'm low. I taste all of it and it varies widely.Some is just ok, but some is just plain awful. It's all out of Canada that I have bought, but I doubt that matters. However, it seems to do well for nuts and confections. It's actually cheaper for me to buy it to do nuts with when I compare loosing the sale of my quality syrup. I don't sell any nuts, I only make them for family and friends so I can't recover my lost sale. So I say if you are in low supply on your personal syrup it is a good option to make candied nuts with, but I would never recommend it for table use.

[Wanabe1972]

This was bought at tops market or Grand Union. What ever they are call this week. It was 4.99 a half pint which is not too cheap in my book. It is light amber with not much flavor other than the dirty sock aftertaste and now after a sniff test it smells like wet wool socks. If I had made this stuff it would have found it's was back to mother earth. Yuk

[sweetwater sugar shack]

That's funny my wife just told me one of our customers just bought some organic syrup form stop& shop not as good as ours very thin said she would never buy again.

[southfork]

With consumer experiences such as these, one has to wonder when we will see more government mandated standards based on taste, rather than simply color and density?

[mudr]

Pretty sure NY regulations specs that out in their rules for maple production. A grade can't have any off flavors.

http://www.agriculture.ny.gov/FS/industry/04circs/maplesyrupansugarCIR947.htm

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[maple flats]

That's correct. If the syrup has any off after taste it MUST be sold as commercial regardless of the color, in New York State. In fact that is supposed to be in the regulations regardless of where it came from according to the new grade standards.

[southfork]

I think if these claims are actually true, producers and packers better figure out a way to get ahead of the problem. Would seem to me that any producer/consumer who actually encounters such poor quality syrup should report to the appropriate regulatory bodies and the producer/packer in question. A public forum can do nothing to remedy the problem, and in the eye of the consumer serves as a source to diminish the industry and producers as a whole.

[southfork]

I might also add that occasionally poor quality product happens in every food industry segment, and potentially to every producer, including me. The product should however be removed or recalled from the shelves, not simply discounted. In fact, identified and never offered for sale in the first place. I am not sure what happened here. Guess the best we can do is strive to put a quality product in front of the consumer. Happy customers come back for more.

[buckeye gold]

Every bottle I have seen in the warehouse stores says Canada is the source. Is this because of the shear volume coming from Canada or do they have different standards? when your dealing with the size of COSTCO, SAM'S Club and large retailers all that matters to them is margin. Buy from the lowest bidder then Put it on the shelf and sell it. If it doesn't sell remove it and move on to another product. I seriously doubt they do much research into grades or quality of the syrup they sell. Grocers and markets usually have a better quality on their shelves. All the crap syrup I have seen is from the big club stores. I'm sure it comes from a large bottler and is a mix of all grades including buddy junk syrup that most of us would throw away. I think the only way to stop it is by stopping the production of poor quality syrup, and that isn't going to happen. As long as there is a buyer someone will make it and sell it. I'm not even against it. I do think we need to educate our consumers to the difference. If all you want is something to cook with then most of these lower grades actually preform well.

[Clinkis]

Canada has the same standards as the US to the best of my knowledge. I would guess that the syrup is commercial grade coming from the federation in Quebec. Our Costco' here in Ontario sell maple syrup which, in my opinion, is barely passable as well as table syrup and that's where it comes from. I guess if you don't eat a lot of syrup you might think it's fine but to the refined palet of most small producers it tastes dreadful.