Aunt Jemima gets its new name

[tenders]

Acer wrote:
Lighter-colored syrups are not as strongly maple. The darker stuff is more readily made so it's cheaper and more likely encountered by casuals.

The opposite, actually. The darker stuff has had more energy added to it to boil additional water out of the sap, so its flavor is stronger, and it's more expensive.

When you buy maple syrup, you're paying for the energy necessary to drive the water out of the sap. It's strictly a commodity play, so there's little reason to buy fancy name brands unless you like the design of the bottle!

(Making maple syrup from the sap of the trees in my backyard was my sixth grade science project, and my sister now makes it every year with her family. Huge vats of sap are boiling on her back patio over a serious investment in propane heat right this very minute. She's a Durham Fair blue ribbon winner, I'll have you know!)

[JoeH]

tenders wrote:
[quote=Acer]
Lighter-colored syrups are not as strongly maple. The darker stuff is more readily made so it's cheaper and more likely encountered by casuals.

The opposite, actually. The darker stuff has had more energy added to it to boil additional water out of the sap, so its flavor is stronger, and it's more expensive.

When you buy maple syrup, you're paying for the energy necessary to drive the water out of the sap. It's strictly a commodity play, so there's little reason to buy fancy name brands unless you like the design of the bottle!

(Making maple syrup from the sap of the trees in my backyard was my sixth grade science project, and my sister now makes it every year with her family. Huge vats of sap are boiling on her back patio over a serious investment in propane heat right this very minute. She's a Durham Fair blue ribbon winner, I'll have you know!)
The darkness comes from partial caramelization directly from contact with heated sugaring pans. Some of the increase in darkness can come from cooking longer and concentrating the syrup more, but there are limits. Commercially most syrup is done to a similar density no matter which grade.

To use less energy, most sugarhouses moved to using reverse osmosis for the initial removal of water from the sap. Then boiling down has the sap in the sugaring pans for less time to get to the final concentration and results in less caramelization.

Friend from college was a member of a local family who ran a sugarhouse on their farm for additional income for decades. I have been there in the past.