Color and Flavor

A dear friend asked what does the color of maple syrup have to do with the flavor?

The answer: Everything.

Starting at the beginning, it is a badge among backyard maple sugarmakers to acquire light straw in color, ie fancy, maple syrup. It means the sugarmaker collected first run sap. That the weather conditions during the collection time were pretty near perfect. Light is color. Crystal clear with just a hint of maple flavoring: a maple grail.

As the night time temperatures warm, along with the daytime temps, the resulting maple syrup turns amber and the maple flavor is enhanced. This is the typical syrup loved on pancakes.

And last, and the best is the dark maple syrup. Rich in complex flavors; this syrup is the product of sap collected towards the end of the season under warming conditions.

Also effecting the flavor is the soil in which the trees are planted. Usually, for whatever reason, our maple syrup has an almost buttery flavor when compared to other syrups.

Why the change in color and enhancement of maple flavor? The Extension Service at Cornell says the browning is due to burning or browning the syrup in the evaporation process. My home data don't support that. As some of my darkest syrups have been in the pan the shortest period of time. I had long suspected the darkening and enhanced maple flavor is due to the microorganisms that grow in the collected sap, and last year I read that this is true, along with a bunch of other very interesting facts.