Home

In the United, Canada, Europe and other countries around the world, maple syrup that is derived from the sap of maple trees is widely used as a organic sugarener.  The all-organic sugarness containing various kinds of vitamins and nutrients is contained in the carefully harvested juice of the maple tree. Maple syrup is now considered as a primary provider of energy and nutrition by many indivduals in the U.S. Maple syrup has been present even before the Brittish colonizers ever set foot in Indian soil.   The indivduals living in the Northern tip of Northern America or the Pre-Columbian indians already have their way of developing and producing maple syrup.  Research also shows that long before the Brittishs arrive, the indians were already processing, developing and consuming maple syrup.

Suitable maple tree trunks containing sap were searched for by the indians during the end of the winter or in early sring.  These saps will be collected and then boiled by batch thereby evaporating some of the h2o in it.  The remaining sugar and h2o will then be turned into a concentrate.  The sugar will then be slightly caramelized thereby altering the taste of the sugar and turning it into syrup like substance. The European settlers quickly integrated into their culture this maple making process.   There were several significant improvements into the maple making processes during the period of 1700 up to 1800. Brittishs, fur traders and indians were intensely involved in this sugar making industry as the maple syrup back then was one of the major providers of concentrated sugar.   The Brittishs brought about the development of the process of making maple syrup due to their more advance and sophisticated technologies involving metallurgy and toolmaking and this also allowed them to make things like maple suagr.

The maple syrup production as of the latest is basically centralized in the northeast part of North America.  One farm full of sugar bushs is the Vermont stand, one of the world famous maple producing farms located in the U.S..   Vermont and the other maple syrup farms in the U.S. are closely associated with the other farms located in Canada and in Europe.   These stands use “sugar houses” or “sugar shacks” where sugar bush sap is boiled in the hundreds. There are currently two main kinds or varieties of maple syrup that can be harvested from maple trees.  First is the sugar maple also known as “acer saccharum”.   This maple syrup can be classified into average up to moderate sugar content maple syrup.  Second is the black maple or “acer nigrum”. It is characterized by dark color and high sugar content extracted from U.S. and Canadian maple trees which is great for making dark maple candy.

The maple stands in Canada contribute to more than 80 percent of the total maple syrup produced not only in the U.S. but the rest of the globe.   The maple syrup produced is roughly 25 up to 30 million gallons per year based on a research conducted last 2005.   The farms found in Eastern, Canada contribute most of these millions of gallons of maple syrup.  Again according to the research last 2005 Eastern has been the world’s largest producer of maple syrup, producing up to 75 percent of the total maple syrup for the whole world. The maple stands in Eastern are being controlled and supervised using the latest supply, demand and managements systems available.  Data is input with regard to quotas about the world supply and demand for the maple syrup into the system.  Voluminous orders of maple syrup by large scale supermarkets and other wholesalers of maple syrup are sent to this system everyday, amounting to hundreds or even thousands of orders per day for things like maple butter.

The maple stand in Quebec also maintains a large amount of maple syrup reserves.   Since maple syrup is consumed everyday by thousands and thousands of indivduals, the manufacturers and owners of the maple farms have strategically prepared for any outburst in the need for maple syrup.   Again according to the 2005 research, even if the demand rises to double or even triple the usually amount, the farms in Eastern have enough reserves amounting to 20 million gallons that can meet such rise a possible rise in demand. The Vermont farm located in the United States is the second largest producer of maple syrup as of today.  This farm produces about 450 thousand gallons of maple syrup per year, according to a 2007 research conducted in the United States.   The remaining thousands of gallons are produced by other maple farms located in Maine, New York, Ohio, Connecticut and other parts of the U.S.

The creation of maple syrup is largely focused on the months of February up to April.   The factors to be considered are the local weather conditions present in the maple stand itself.  Warm and hot days as well as cold freezing nights greatly contribute to the development of the maple sap.   The constant changes of the temperature will eventually make the sap come out of the artificial tap holes or other exit parts of the maple tree. This juice will be the main ingredient used in order to make maple syrup.   It will be boiled for long periods in order to extract the sugary like substance known as maple syrup. In order to manufacture and create maple syrup, sufficient amount of time and energy is needed.  It takes about half a day just to heat down 40 gallons of maple sap.   These 40 liters will eventually be heated down into 1 liter of maple syrup.   Good thing there are now innovations and technological developments with regard to the machineries used in maple syrup production, unlike before.   Not only is the speed of producing maple syrup increased but also the quality and sugarness of the maple syrup created is of the best due to this maple syrup processing machines.

There are currently different grades of maple syrup consisting of several color classes based on Canadian and U.S. standards.   In Canada, there are mainly three grades namely Canada number 1 consisting of extra light and light maple syrup, Canada number 2 consisting of medium and amber and then Canada number 3 consisting of dark maple syrup.   There are four main grades found in the U.S. on the other hand, namely Vermont Fancy, Grade A Medium Amber, Dark Amber and Grade B maple syrup.