This thread was started by the original author Heus asking opinions on taste. The following is my opinion ,all be it a strong one.
In 2004 when I was building my log cabin in the Maine wilderness my closest neighbor Jim who was boiling sap on a fifty five gallon drum trekked over and invited me for pancakes. The next day I showed up at his place for breakfast. He had a quart mason jar filled mostly with syrup he just made. I say mostly because the bottom quarter was sticks ,bark and moths. I poured it out onto my plate sticks and all and tried it. MAPLE SYRUP is actually good I exclaimed in my head! Previous to this moment the syrup I had always had was pure maple syrup from a grocery store. Which never had much of any flavor . That sent me on my journey to strive to make a living producing and selling maple syrup. When I started out I thought that I wanted an RO because that's what most people use.Another neighbor told me not to use it that I would not like the taste.Seeings how he had 50+ years experience making syrup I figured I would have to check that out. I then went on a mission to find out what really effects maple flavor. Over the course of the next couple years I made it a point to try syrup from many different producers.
To Make a long story short I now cut about 35 cord a year to make my syrup which is close to my full time living. I don't cut all that wood when I could use RO and only cut 7 cord because I am a head case.
I am the one that gets laughed at ever time I tell a producer face to face that I cut 35 cord a year to make my syrup. I do all my laughing on the inside because I know from experience if I mention taste they get mad.
I have had this conversation with Sam and Bruce Bascom. Bruce insist that he likes syrup that has been mixed from many different producers. I find that a lot of people say that single source is best. The different ways of making syrup taste different are probably endless.