We don’t want to get sappy, but we love our maple syrup. It’s a national treasure.
As the weather starts to get chillier, is there a better way to start your morning with hot pancakes doused in maple syrup? Or maybe even a shot of syrup into your morning coffee? Regardless, we’re going to slide some maple syrup facts towards you.
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Hopefully, some of these facts stick with you as we tap into a few things about the nectar of the gods that you might not know.
Maple centurTREES
A maple tree can yield sap for up to 100 years. But, the trees have to be roughly 45 years old before it’s tapped for syrup making.
40:1 ratio
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It takes roughly 40 gallons (150 litres) of maple tree sap to produce a single gallon (3.8 litres) of syrup.
To put that in perspective, that’s like filling up a bathtub with sap to make enough syrup to fill a carton of milk.
The Iroquois invented maple syrup
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Maple syrup was pioneered by the Iroquois, who are indigenous to southeast Canada and often characterized as one of the world’s oldest participatory democracies.
Iroquois invented the maple tapping process that drew sap from the maple tree and the techniques for transforming it into syrup and sugar crystals.
Quebec is maple syrup king
Quebec maple producers account for 72% of the world’s maple syrup production. In 2021, the planet produced 182 million pounds of maple syrup, 133 million pounds of which came from Quebec forests.
Quebec has plenty to spare too. According to the QuĂ©bec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP), the province has 100 million pounds in its maple syrup reserve, which covers 267,000 sq ft â the equivalent to five football fields.
(Take that, Vermont!)
Maple syrup is full of nutrients and antioxidants
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Maple syrup is kind of good for you!
Even though it’s rich and sweet, maple syrup is loaded with antioxidants and healthy minerals like zinc, magnesium, potassium, and calcium.
Maple syrup is valuable
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6. Sap straight from the tree is mostly water â only 2% sugar. That’s why maple producers boil it down, aiming for a minimum of 66% sugar in their syrup.
Maple syrup production relies heavily on the weather
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Maple syrup is no different than other agricultural crops when it comes to the weather. Producers usually tap trees in early spring when the sap begins to thaw and have between four and six weeks of the sugary season.
The great heist
In 2012, Quebec’s inventory â the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve â had a collection of warehouses that stockpiled over 100 million pounds of maple syrup.
Six million pounds of the sweet nectar was syphoned off and smuggled away.
There are four syrup classifications in Canada
Canadian Grade A maple syrup has four classifications associated with a different colour/shade.
Canadian maple syrup falls into the following classes:
- Golden (delicate taste)
- Amber (rich taste)
- Dark (robust taste)
- Very dark (strong taste)
Don’t get it confused
Don’t mix up table syrup (or pancake syrup) with maple syrup. Table syrup is made from flavoured high-fructose corn syrup.
It’s not the same. Sure, it’s less expensive, but it’s dramatically milder in flavour.
Stick to the good stuff.
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