Map-Sap Goodness

A few months ago, authorities in New Zealand wrapped up a five-month sting where they confiscated the largest import of methamphetamine in the country’s history. Millions of dollars of the liquid stimulant were discovered in, of all places, a shipment of maple syrup jugs. Agents swapped out the drugs with water and let the jugs continue to Australia, where the recipients were quickly apprehended. Did this story captivate me?  Why yes it did, but not because of a million-dollar drug bust. I pretty much stopped reading at jugs of maple syrup.

With all due respect to fruit, I think maple syrup is the better example of “nature’s candy”.  After all, it’s essentially organic liquid sugar.  If you have the tree, the tools and the time (a lot of time), you can tap your own supply.  Simply drill a hole into the trunk of your sugar maple tree, hang a bucket below the opening, and let the goodness s-l-o-w-l-y flow.  After you’ve collected what you need, boil off the water, filter off the crystallized sugar, and your pancakes or waffles are set to be topped.

Sugar maple

If you prefer a more solid sweet, make snow candy like Little House on the Prairie’s Laura Ingalls did back in the day.  Pour boiling maple syrup into short lines on a fresh bed of snow.  Press Popsicle sticks into the lines.  Then roll the cooling syrup around the sticks and voila! – a sweet handheld-treat.  Last Saturday’s arrival of the fall season makes this confection seem extra appealing.

My very favorite doughnuts are maple bars

In the U.S., “real” maple syrup is not so common anymore.  Years ago at my childhood breakfasts I was already consuming imitators like Log Cabin, Mrs. Butterworth’s, or Aunt Jemima (more recently known as “Pearl Milling Company”).  These brands and countless others are known as “table syrups”, made from corn syrup and chemicals instead of anything found in a tree.  They can’t even use the word “maple” in their names because of a consumer protection law known as the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Maple sugar

Enough about the impersonators.  Maple syrup’s rich flavor and density should be the preference to table syrup’s as long as a) Your taste buds can be reeducated, and b) you’re willing to spend a few more pennies.  And maple syrup is just a step removed from some distinctive treats.  Maple sugar candy is compacted maple sugar formed into small squares or maple leaves (delicious!)  Maple taffy is what you get if you boil maple syrup past its liquid form.  And for the truly obsessed (me), you’ll also find maple versions of toffee, butter, and liqueurs.

Treacle tart

Let’s take a paragraph for a confection of honorable mention.  Ever heard of a treacle tart?  Yes you have, if you know the timeless children’s classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  In the story, the evil Child Catcher in the fictional village of Vulgaria tempts young Jeremy and Jemima Potts with ice cream, candy, and treacle tarts (“and all for free!”)  Those tarts are small pastries filled with maple syrup, breadcrumbs, and a splash of lemon juice, served warm with a cream topping.  Yum.  Catch me if you can, Child Catcher.

If you know your flags, you can guess which country produces most of the world’s maple syrup.  Canada accounts for fully 80%, with most of the sweet stuff coming from the province of Quebec.  Vermont’s production is similarly dominant compared to other U.S. states.  Both locales are northern climates, where sugar maple trees thrive in the cold winters.  So as much as I’d like to channel my inner L.L. Bean by planting a maple tree and drilling a hole, donned in flannel shirt and snow boots, it’s never going to happen here in hot-and-humid South Carolina.  Guess I’ll have to settle for a store-bought jug of nature’s candy instead.

Some content sourced from the Deutsche Welle (DW) article, “Authorities find drugs worth millions hidden in maple syrup”, and Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.

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Author: Dave

Five hundred posts would suggest I have something to say… This blog was born from a desire to elevate the English language, highlighting eloquent words from days gone by. The stories I share are snippets of life itself, and each comes with a bonus: a dusted-off word I hope you’ll go on to use more often. Read “Deutschland-ish Improvements” to learn about my backyard European wish list. Try “Slush Fun” for the throwback years of the 7-Eleven convenience store. Or drink in "Iced Coffee" to discover the plight of the rural French cafe. On the lighter side, read "Late Night Racquet Sports" for my adventures with our latest moth invasion. As Walt Whitman said, “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Here then, my verse. Welcome to Life In A Word.

25 thoughts on “Map-Sap Goodness”

  2. I like maple syrup, the real thing– not those mock syrups that taste like chemicals to me. When I was a little kid we had a maple tree that my father used to tap, in the hope of getting some syrup from it. It didn’t provide much, but kept my dad entertained.

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    1. I weaned myself off of the fake stuff years ago, Ally. And I figure you’d have to be deep into a stand of mature sugar maples (go north, young man) to be able to tap a bucket’s worth. But I’d love to do that someday.

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    1. Reminds me of a whisky tasting I went to several years ago, Margy. I’m not a whiskey drinker but it was interesting to sip the varietials, including oat and quinoa.

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  6. Dave, I have never heard of treacle tart, though I remember I saw the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” back when I was a wee nipper. Also, when I was a wee nipper, we still lived in Canada, but did not consume a lot of maple syrup. We used to have Corn Syrup – maybe because my parents weren’t big sweet eaters, or it was cheaper? We ate a lot of pancakes during Lent and for Pancake Tuesday and sometimes put it in Cream of Wheat or oatmeal. Here in Michigan, you can buy a very small bottle of pure Maple syrup – it is decadent to do so as it is pricey, but the “real deal” and delicious!

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      1. We used brown sugar too – my mom had an earthenware teddy bear about two inches big which she kept in the brown sugar to keep it moist all the time – equally bad for your teeth, but brown sugar topped the oatmeal off perfectly. I meant to mention in the earlier comment that our Brownie troop in Canada went on an excursion to see how maple syrup was made and the person who conducted the tour had us girls make the maple taffy in the snow.

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  8. Hi Dave,
    I cannot stand maple syrup. I dislike even the smell. I guess it is because I was never exposed to it. There is no maple syrup in Brazil. Our pancakes are savory and filled with meat sauce, cheese, etc.
    Thank you for the maple lesson!
    Blessings!

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    1. Fascinating, Ana! It’s like chocolate – you just assume everyone loves it until someone says they don’t. Maybe maple syrup is a cultural food after all. No matter, Brazilian pancakes sound just as delicious (I love anything “breakfast”) and I hope I get the chance to try them some day.

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  10. I love, love, love all things maple. I am spoiled because genuine maple syrup can be bought in some fairly large (for maple syrup, anyway) containers at Costco. It is wonderful on top of oatmeal, as well as on pancakes and waffles. And there are few treats more special than maple sugar candy!

    I have a big sugar maple tree right next to my driveway – in late winter it drips sap on my cars if I park under it. I had thought once about trying to tap it. But I figured that the process would turn out like my attempt to harvest black walnuts from a couple other trees in my yard. At the end of a very labor-intensive process, I got a small bag of walnuts. About the size of one that cost under $5 at Wal-Mart’s grocery store. The labor to results ratio was quite high.

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    1. I envy you your sugar maple, but knowing me I’d probably kill the tree in my attempt to extract a little sap. I’ve never been good with “growees”.

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