Maple syrup has vanilla flavor

[skillet]

The first couple batches of syrup each year tend to have a slight hint of vanilla flavor. It grades as vermont fancy. The later in the season it gets the the more it tastes like maple and not vanilla. Most like the taste but i prefer the darker syrup with more of a maple/caramel flavor. Wondering if i may need to let the sap sit around a little more. That will help to get the bacteria growing making darker syrup and poss. to eliminate the vanilla taste. Anyone else notice this???

Thanks
skillet

[ebourassa]

i never had a vanilla flavor but i know several years ago i made a woody flavored syrup i think most producer did around me, usure of the cause but it must of had something to do with mother nature. A cousin of mine in canada lets his sap (150gals) sit for a few weeks till it gets really cloudy then boils it down to make a real dark syrup, taste pretty good too.

[BryanEx]

Yeppers... seems every year or two my first couple of batches have a distinct vanilla flavour to them. If syrup were wine I would say it had a "vanilla finish". I thought it was very odd the first time but then started reading about the industry possibly starting to grade syrup based on flavour... and vanilla was one of them so I'm not concerned. Just adds a new option to pancake day. :D

[red maples]

stop cleaning your pans with vanilla extract maybe your collection barrel had vanilla syrup or extract in it??? :confused:

no thats weird though. I prefer dark myself too.

[PerryW]

Vanillan is a compound that is found naturally in maple syrup and is also the largest flavor component of the vanilla bean.

I believe Light Amber often has a higher percentage of Vanillan than other grades. I.M.O., Light Amber without much vanillan tastes kind of flat and boring.

[Haynes Forest Products]

There is a producer that says he has a verry unique woods that produces Vanilla flavor and how is is the best in all the land BLA BLA BLA I have also had the reaction to my syrup as far as the slight taste its nice but I always thought it was just the way it works some times.

[Mac]

Still waiting here to make "my first couple batches" of the year. Hoping for it to taste like maple:) Left my coupla door open last night, 4" of heavy wet snow on em...... almost had to hook the ropes to my 1 ton to get em closed:D I said almost

[3rdgen.maple]

On a very few occasions my syrup has tasted like wiskey. Still not sure why maybe I just tasted too much of it and forgot how it got that way. When I was at the Verona conference the Marchland booth showed me a pie chart that was being considered to use as a reference to grading flavor. Very interesting flavor choices on there. Yes vanilla was one of them but I especially liked the fish flavor choice. Marchland said that pie chart got the nay real fast.

[Treetapper]

I have a "Flavour wheel from Agriculture and Agri Food Canada. I was wondering what it was all about. It even has "Tasting Maple Syrup" instructions on the back. Sort of like tasting wine. It says to spit the syrup back out after swishing it around in your mouth. I Don't Think So! Can't be very good stuff if ya have to spit it out eh!

It does show vanilla, plant (ligneous), Milky, Foreign (deterioration) etc. It covers just about any taste you could encounter.

[RileySugarbush]

From that wheel, apparently roasted dandelion root tastes like maple. I'm gong to do some digging next summer!

[BryanEx]

I don't think that flavour wheel is that far off. This past year I produced syrup for the first time that had a very slight "spice" taste to it. Two first place ribbons and a small trophy say that's not a bad thing to have I guess.

[DrTimPerkins]

I don't think that flavour wheel is that far off. This past year I produced syrup for the first time that had a very slight "spice" taste to it. Two first place ribbons and a small trophy say that's not a bad thing to have I guess.

There are over 150 distinct naturally-occurring flavor compounds in maple syrup, plus an additional 2 dozen (or more) off-flavors (some natural, some introduced). The Canadian "Flavor Wheel" and the Vermont Maple Flavor and off-flavor charts only show some of the more common and distinguishable flavors. Maple syrup has an amazingly complex flavor profile for what would seemingly be a simple product.

[driske]

A friend once suggested I help judge syrup at a Statewide Syrup contest. This was 30 some years ago ago and I was relatively new to the trade. What an eye opener. By the end of the 70+ samples tasted I could only marvel at the wide variety of subtle and not so subtle flavors manifested.
Think about lending your help in this regard if the opportunity comes your way. It goes along way to helping one identify Maple syrup, in a few of it's many taste configurations.
Also, if my memory serves me right a research article about vanilla taste in syrup was published in the Maple Digest years ago. (Maybe 15-20 years ago).
The range in ppm of vannilin varied widely. I don't recall causative factors involved in it's presence or absence being resolved. I want to say Dr. Morselli did the work but don't hold me to that.