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Maple syrup is a sweetener derived from the juice of sugar bushs and is often used by many individuals in the United States, Canada, Europe and other parts of the world. The sugar from the juice of the sugar bush is carefully extracted retaining all of the organic sugarness coupled with essential vitamins and nutrients. Maple syrup is now considered as a primary provider of energy and health by many individuals in the U.S. Long before the British settlers set their foot on Indian soil, maple syrup has already been present for a long period of time. The Pre-Columbian Indians who live in the Northern part of North America were one of the first if not the first known people to have developed and produced maple syrup. A recent study shows that the Indians were already into the processing, development and consumption of canadian maple syrup long before the arrival of the Europeans.
The natives would find suitable maple tree trunks during the end of winter or early May period. These juices will be collected and then boiled by batch thereby evaporating some of the water in it. The remaining sugar and h2o will then be turned into a concentrate. The taste of the sugar will then be changed due to it being caramelized making it into maple syrup. The European settlers quickly integrated into their culture this maple making process. There were several significant changes into the maple making processes during the period of 1700 up to 1800. Europeans, fur traders and natives were intensely involved in this sugar making industry as the maple syrup back then was one of the major sources of concentrated sugar. There were numerous developments brought about specifically by the British due to their more advanced technological advancements like metallurgy and toolmaking thereby advancing the maple making process significantly. This also allowed for the creation of Canadian maple candy.
The maple syrup creation as of the latest is basically centralized in the northeast part of North America. The Vermont stand, a world renowned maple producing stand full of maple trees is located in the U.S. Vermont together with the other numerous maple stands in the United States are closely related to the other maple stands located in Canada and Europe. These stands use “sugar houses” or “sugar shacks” where sugar bush sap is boiled in the hundreds. There are two major maple species that can be extracted from sugar bushs. The first one is the “acer saccharum” or the sugar maple. This maple syrup can be classified into average up to moderate sugar content maple syrup. Second is the black maple or “acer nigrum”. This is the kind of maple syrup classified as dark syrup because of its color due to the high sugar content from the juice it was extracted from. It makes a nice dark organic maple sugar.
The maple stands in Canada contribute to more than 80 percent of the total maple syrup produced not only in the United States but the rest of the globe. According to a research organized last 2005, the maple syrup produced from Canada totaled 25 up to 30 million gallons per annum. The stands found in Quebec, Canada contribute most of these millions of liters of maple syrup. By far, this province located in Canada is the world’s biggest creater of maple syrup, totaling up to 75 percent of the total world maple syrup creation based on the research of 2005. The production of maple syrup in Eastern is supervised and controlled with the utilization of modern day volume-need-management system. This system accepts data input requirements pertaining to quotas about the supply to be created and the total demand for the maple syrup from the different parts of the world. Thousands and thousands of orders from big supermarkets and nationwide wholesalers are sent to this modern day system every day. They sell everything from syrup to maple butter.
The maple farm in Quebec also maintains a large amount of maple syrup reserves. The reason for this is simple, pertaining to a strategic preparation for situations of a double or triple increase in the demand for maple syrup all over the world. As such, even if there is a rise of double or even triple the amount of maple syrup per year, they can effectively meet with such demand due to their overwhelming reserve of 20 million liters as of the year 2005. The next biggest producer of maple syrup is the Vermont farm located in the U.S. 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. They make a ton of pure maple syrup.
February, March and April are the months that are the center of maple syrup creation. This largely depends upon the local weather conditions surrounding the maple stand. Warm and hot days as well as cold freezing nights greatly contribute to the development of the maple juice. 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. The juice will then be gathered as a primary ingredient in producing maple syrup. It will be boiled for long periods in order to extract the sugary like substance known as maple syrup. Processing maple syrup needs ample amount of time and energy. It takes about half a day just to heat down 40 gallons of maple juice. These 40 liters of maple juice will only create about 1 liter of high grade maple syrup. You can just imagine if this was done manually, good thing there are now several upgrades on machineries with regard to producing maple syrup. Not only is the speed of producing maple syrup increased but also the quality and sweetness of the maple syrup produced 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 United States 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. In the United States there are mainly four grades namely Vermont Fancy, Grade A medium amber, dark amber and Grade B maple syrup.