Today I opened a plastic bottle of syrup, given to us by a friend of my wife’s, who makes and sells maple syrup. The syrup was very dark and had an almost molasses taste to it. I still used it on my French Toast. My guess was that it was syrup from near the end of the season.Assuming that guess was correct, I have spoken to people and have read some posts, where they stop collecting sap, before the syrup gets too dark. I guess for some, they have enough syrup for their needs, and for others they want to end before they get into the darker syrup.
I guess there is stopping before the sap goes bad, but are there clues on when to stop before the syrup gets too dark and molasses like?