Poor quality syrup for sale- hurts us all

[Bruce L]

On Saturday I was judging syrup at another fair,came across one bottle,beautiful colour,looked like it could easily be golden,however,there was a good one inch or better of sludge and nitre on the bottom,when I untwisted the cap,there was black mold on the lid,the syrup ran off the stirstick like water,Refractometer read 55.2 for brix. I had driven by this place just before entranceway to the fairgrounds,was a beautiful roadside stand,with all the bells and whistles. Convenor and I both thought that this is bad for the industry,should someone purchase a bottle of this syrup,could easily get them sick,or at the very least turn them off from ever purchasing maple syrup again. By the way,this was not their only bottle of syrup,found another bottle in another class similar,not quite as thin,but had a fermented off flavour to it.

[maple flats]

I suggest you write up a note and give it to them. It would be best if you explain all of the issues and how to avoid them in the future. That is what a good maple producer does.
I do believe it could give maple a bad name if someone buys it who has never had real syrup before, they will be lost forever.

[ennismaple]

Wow Bruce - we all work too hard on promoting the industry to allow this to happen. I hope you said something to them or left some very detailed notes on their entry as to why they were DQ'd.

[buckeye gold]

I think we have all seen this at times. I was actually in a sugar shack one day visiting a producer i thought I might learn from. I was watching him bottle and I just knew is syrup was thin. I just had to say something....his reply was I been doing this long enough that I know what I'm doing. I suggested a quick check with a hydrometer to his wife and she agreed. It was thin by a bunch.....she nagged him into finishing it to proper density. Yeah, I was never invited back, oh well. I later found out he had gotten multiple complaints. I now sell to many of his customers and he is out of business. I never went after him but whenever anyone made a comment about his syrup I told them what I knew. A friend of his later told me he done it on purpose to get more product. It didn't take long to sink his own ship. I suppose I played a part and he may be upset with me over it, but I don't lose any sleep over it....to me it is fraud and fraud is just thieving! I agree if we see something we need to say something. Be sure it's not an honest mistake first is a must, but we all suffer when people pull crap.