Any maple syrup experts / Canadians here?

[pepijn@mastodon.online]

Any maple syrup experts / Canadians here?

Yesterday our neighbours had us over for some nice homemade food. Being proper Americans it was served it with imported Kirkland Maple Syrup.

The food was great but the syrup looked and tasted like water blended with cane sugar. No real taste beyond "yup, it's sweet". Is this really what maple syrup is?

(asking here as I didn't want to be rude to our nice neighbour).

#food

[tarnport@mastodon.green]

@Pepijn not at all. It varies in quality and also by year (and I've heard last year was not a good one), and this is industrial wholesale Costco brand - but a truly fine maple syrup is unlike anything else! Keep coming back, I hope.

[climatejenny@biodiversity.social]

@Pepijn I’m no expert, but I can tell you that Grade B, which is darker, will generally have more of the maple flavor than Grade A. Maybe we need to send you a bottle of the darker stuff. The Canadians will have the details.

[pepijn@mastodon.online]

@Tarnport Just remembered we had this (photo) in our cupboard. Think a Canadian gave it to us. It's actually rich in taste!

[juliette@mastodon.green]

@Pepijn @Tarnport that’s the one I brought back from Ottawa!

[pepijn@mastodon.online]

@juliette Oooh yes, so it was a French person who gave it to us

@Tarnport

[vapaad@wandering.shop]

@Pepijn I was very fortunate to have a field trip to tap trees almost every year of grade school!

At the end of the field trip we got to taste the fresh maple syrup that had just finished being processed, and I remember it never tasted different than sugar water to me lol, but I was a kid so who knows. Maybe it has to sit to get that maple flavor?

[gooseliketyping@corteximplant.com]

@Pepijn good maple syrup most definitely has a flavor different from sugar water.

Something also worth trying is maple butter, IF you get the real thing. I used to get it homemade from someone. Good on beschuit, though that's not what the Canadians do.

[jackeric@beige.party]

@Pepijn canadian partner says "any canadian would know you don't buy it in a plastic bottle"

[ambulocetus@mefi.social]

@Pepijn I'm neither an expert nor Canadian, but most American syrup is mostly corn syrup with added maple flavor, so the real thing might not be what you're used to.

[rhempel@mstdn.ca]

@Pepijn We often buy our syrup locally where you can ask the folks for the good stuff - syrup that has had a little too much water evaporated and is darker and more flavorful.

Mae syrup is serious business and has some ... Interesting stories.

https://www.cbc.ca/arts/quebec-s-18-7-million-maple-syrup-heist-is-getting-the-small-screen-treatment-it-deserves-1.7399887