Making syrup taste like maple

Since moving to Michigan I have been trying to make the most of the state so for the past four years I have been tapping trees to make my own maple syrup. I have probably tried 20+ trees of varying maple varieties from three different properties at different parts of the tapping season but when I boiled them down at home on the gas range, no tree's sap has ever tasted like maple. Like at all.

I have gotten vanilla, I have gotten straight sugar, I've gotten maybe a butterscotch kind of flavor, but none of these maple trees have ever given me the maple flavored syrup. Any ideas??

Im almost to the point of dumping into the bucket some store-bought maple just to be guaranteed a Win. 

Is this your first adventure in evaporating sap?

Yes

Wish I can help, other than mental support.  A friend of ours down near Brooklyn/MIS taps maples on her farm, and they have given us some of the syrup- and it's really, really good.  They have even been able to show the difference between harvest times- early vs. late.  

You'll learn and figure it out.

I really would have thought it would have been as simple as harvesting sap and then boiling the sap? I guess I should probably stick to my day job.

I hope you figure it out and I'm jealous that you have the opportunity to make your own syrup.

P.S. if it still doesn't work out, Vermont SportsCar sells syrup, too: https://store.vtcar.com/collections/accessories-more/products/maple-syrup-limited-release-3?variant=47238590333215

What most people think of as "maple syrup" is actually the fake stuff, with "natural and artificial flavorings added."

Every time I have had genuine maple syrup, it hasn't tasted much like that pancake syrup at all.  I like the grocery store stuff, but don't be surprised that the real thing doesn't taste like it.

Isn't commercial syrup made from a single species?  Sugar Maple? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup

Are you tapping the correct species of tree?

Rush nerd cautions you to avoid violating Maple Union rules.

alfadriver said:

They have even been able to show the difference between harvest times- early vs. late.  

 

Late harvest for the best taste!

Duke said:

What most people think of as "maple syrup" is actually the fake stuff, with "natural and artificial flavorings added."

Every time I have had genuine maple syrup, it hasn't tasted much like that pancake syrup at all.  I like the grocery store stuff, but don't be surprised that the real thing doesn't taste like it.

 

This is 100% true.

E36 M3 maple syrup is corn syrup with maybe 1% of the lowest "bug" maple syrup (lowest grade) in it so it can call itself "maple syrup".

Real maple syrup is very loose and tastes similar as you have found, different notes of many things but still maple.

Get some certified 100% maple from NH or VT and taste it for yourself. Mind blowing if you are a corn syrup eater.

In reply to P3PPY :

I live on a multiple acre wooded lot in Central Indiana.  We've been producing Maple Syrup from our trees for years now.  I'll type up an appropriate response for you later tonight when I get some time and access to our pictures.

Real Maple Syrup is 100% delicious

I can attest that Indy - Guy and family make good maple syrup.

In reply to P3PPY :

Are you using a Brix Refractometer?   Maybe you're stopping the process too soon.

Are you running the cooked off syrup through the proper filters before canning it?  There are certain filters that should be used for the syrup. 

Also, are you testing the gravity of the syrup?  Your syrup might be too thin yet.  

I've boiled it thin and I've boiled it thick, there's never ever a hint – – and I do mean not a *hint* – – of maple flavor. I've even boiled it all the way to taffy. And yeah, ever since moving up here to Michigan, I joined her family bandwagon and have only gone for the 100% pure stuff, so I know what I am aiming for, at least. What I get is sweet, sweet, sweet, but just not right. 
 

Regarding the species of maple, I have tried a few different ones, including sugar, with the same inconsistent results (wait, is that a contradiction in terms?). My understanding is that you can get it from all the different kinds of maple trees, just some have a different water to sugar ratio than 40 to 1 so you are going to be boiling it longer. But really, don't take that from me, because obviously I am doing something wrong. Unless I just happen to live in some maple flavor black hole.

As an aside, have you noticed the bottles from Cracker Barrel recently? Sneaky wordsmithing. 

In reply to P3PPY :

Ok, I see you've already made it past some of the initial obstacles I was going to warn you about.  What time of year are you tapping the trees?  This is critical to the "robust maple flavor" or abscence of it.

Too early and it's "delicate" which means not much "maple" flavor.  Too late in the season, it's generally only good for cooking with.

In reply to P3PPY :

This time of year, I would only expect the trees to be producing "light delicate" sap/syrup.

I'll keep trying because I like the idea, but we have tried later in the season, too, and had similar results. And what we have now is flavorful, just not MAPLE flavorful. The kids like it, at least, because they like sugar. 

In reply to Indy - Guy :

.....has someone tried distilling a Very Dark mash yet?

Someone should. 

Evidently, the reason maple syrup doesn't taste right anymore is because of invasive Earthworms.

Non-native earthworms have begun to stress native plants, trees, and wildlife by altering soil properties and encouraging the spread of invasive plant species.

For example, in the northern broadleaf forests of the U.S. and Canada, alien earthworms' impact on soil stresses trees such as sugar maples by altering the microhabitat of their soils. This triggers a cascading series of impacts on the food web that help invasive plants spread. 

MSN.Com: Invasive earthworms are reshaping North American ecosystems

So, after the Ice Age covered a giant chunk of North America under miles of ice, we can assume that there were no living earthworms left in the soil. This means that over the last 10,000 years or so, those poor worms had to dig their way north throughout the northern US and almost all of Canada. I believe the way earthworms travel threw the soil is by eating dirt in front of them and pooping fertilized dirt out behind them all the time converting dead stuff into composted fertilizer. This is all being accomplished by the bacteria in their gut.

I know next to nothing about the process, but I was told by the seventh-generation owner of a maple farm nearby that you need 72 hours below freezing to get a good sap run. I believe they typically harvest in either Feb or Mar (the lines go up in Jan). They are one of the only farms in NY state that is a 100% wood-fired syrup operation - probably not a huge factor, but it does seem to add a subtle element to the final product.

As others have said, it's about when you harvest.  The early sap is pretty flavorless.  I have no idea about Michigan, but in Ontario where some friends of mine have a sugar bush, they typically won't get even to light syrup until early March.  Mid march will be Amber, and by the time April rolls around, it's too acrid to consume.

IIRC, they have about a 26-day window between light syrup and dark, with amber being in the middle week.

They have a pretty scientific way of determining when things will be at their peak based on how the winter was and what the spring might look like.  They tap in Jan/Feb, and they have the benefit of thousands of acres and hundreds of miles of tubing, so it's easy for them to test batches by opening the valves every few days.

preach said:

Duke said:

What most people think of as "maple syrup" is actually the fake stuff, with "natural and artificial flavorings added."

Every time I have had genuine maple syrup, it hasn't tasted much like that pancake syrup at all.  I like the grocery store stuff, but don't be surprised that the real thing doesn't taste like it.

 

This is 100% true.

E36 M3 maple syrup is corn syrup with maybe 1% of the lowest "bug" maple syrup (lowest grade) in it so it can call itself "maple syrup".

Real maple syrup is very loose and tastes similar as you have found, different notes of many things but still maple.

Get some certified 100% maple from NH or VT and taste it for yourself. Mind blowing if you are a corn syrup eater.

Or get the real stuff from Quebec :) We buy ours straight from the sugar bush by the case.

Janel brought home a bottle of the Cracker Barrel stuff from a work trip once. Wow, it was awful.

Thanks, this is all checking out. It's kind of annoying that you don't hear more about the fact that you're going to get some flavorless stuff at the beginning. I found a book yesterday that mentioned it in passing, but I feel like it would be very pertinent information to highlight for those of us who tire of boiling down 5 gallons of water into 16 ounces of not what we had hoped for. 

It's a very weather dependent item.