Central Ontario Tapping

[Galena]

Possibly, regional differences in taste and all...from what I've experienced over the years, the light is more tempered in terms of actual maple flavour and has more interesting notes like vanilla and marshmallow. The darker my syrup gets, the more I get a stronger maple and then a noticeable tone of brown sugar/molasses/coffee (all acceptable flavours on the Flavour Wheel btw).

I don't sell my syrup, I either give it away or barter for other regional goodies, and will describe to recipients what kind of things they can expect to taste in certain batches of syrup. Lots of people try and like the light marshmallowy/vanilla, but even more love the more developed mid-run maple flavour and the late-season coffee/brown sugar/molasses.

[NTBugtraq]

Galena,

We have a lot of honey makers around here, so for light, vanilla, marshmallow flavors people like honey. I really don't get why people would like a less maple-flavored syrup...;-]...but they grade it that way for some reason??

I have developed an unproven theory that the longer the sap sits, the darker it gets. This is why I believe syrup gathered later in the season is generally darker, and why my first year I was able to boil up an ultra light batch...it was taken from tree to pot and boiled within hours of coming from the tree, like most of you bucket boilers do. I can't start my arch till I have 50 gallons or so collected, and then for the first several days I am leaving it on the arch to get 8L to syrup...so the sap has sat longer. Its all good with me, I like medium to amber, thicker, and sweeter...

I collected maybe 15 gals of sap today, but bottled 13L @ 71.4brix. I know its high, but if I don't sell it I will turn it into sugar or something. Hey, quick sugar question, I assume you filtered the syrup at some point before you went to sugar...and it would seem you can't filter after you've gotten up there (say above 230F?)...am I right?

[5050racing]

I will agree the lighter has marshmallow ,vanilla flavor for sure,we sit around n taste all the batches and some from last year,it's fun to compare them! With my friends,I give away more then I sell always!

[Timberwolf]

Galena,

"I really don't get why people would like a less maple-flavored syrup...;-]...but they grade it that way for some reason??"

Grading is a layover from the old days when maple sugar was the primary sweetener used in the Americas. It was used as a sweetener in most everything and thus maple flavor was not always desirable especially for some dishes. In my opinion grading adds little value, fortunately grading is not required in Ohio.

[Run Forest Run!]

The 16L boiled down from last night is delicious. I kept it separate from my last two smaller batches in case it ended up tasting like Lesley's buddy batch. Don't want that! It's now safe to combine all three to bring to final density. I don't know how much more sap will be running at the sugar bush down the street, but what I'm getting right now sure makes a yummy syrup.

[MustardSeedMum]

Was your last batch light as well, Karen? We took all the buckets off yesterday - threw away about 60L of sap. Spent the day washing the buckets. Today I'll be cleaning the tubing and pans.

Last night we tried to make maple nuts with some light syrup we had from 2013. Total disaster. First batch we took it to 245-250. Ended up with clumps of taffy cashews. Second batch took it to 260 and ended up with rock almonds. Gah - we wanted sugared nuts. Trying to figure out what went wrong. I've heard about syrup sometimes having too much(?) invert sugars which messes things up?

Made maple popcorn today again. Here's the recipe we used:
1 cup maple syrup (light)
3/4 cup popcorn kernels
pinch of salt
butter

Butter the sides of a saucepan. Cook syrup until hard ball stage (260). I put in a pinch of salt and ~1 tsp of butter and stirred it in to the syrup
just before pouring it over the popped corn. Mix to coat popcorn.

This makes lightly coated popcorn - probably equivalent to the double butter popcorn sold at Kernels. If you like double double butter, adjust your amounts of syrup/popcorn ratio. If you like the maple flavour to be stronger, I think using a darker grade syrup would be better. (Or use maple flavouring...hahaha that's blasphemy on this board, isn't it?!)

[Run Forest Run!]

Thanks for the recipe MSM. It looks like a keeper!

Low and behold, for the first time ever I am actually making something other than light and extra light syrup. Last night's batch will register as a medium. It appears that three of my batches this year might end up being medium. When I do the final bottling I'll know for sure. I'm thrilled to have a little extra variety with my syrups this year.

[Run Forest Run!]

I'll be pulling my taps here tomorrow, and likely the ones down the street as well. Mine are dry, and the ones down the street held a lovely collection of bugs, flies and moths doing the backstroke. I dumped out the little bit of sap in those buckets and tomorrow when I check on them I'll be either bringing home sap or bringing home the buckets. It's do or die. It's been a great year. Can't wait to finish off what I've got and update my signature with a final tally for 2015.

[67HEAVEN]

Now that Karen's pulling the plug, I think it's fairly safe to say it's all over.

[Run Forest Run!]

Good one 67Heaven. Yes, I'm a real die-hard. I can hear the fat lady singing loud and clear.