Syrup from different maple tree species

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Pollo Caballo
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Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2016 2:17 pm
Location: Milton
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Re: Syrup from different maple tree species

Post by Pollo Caballo » Wed May 02, 2018 5:15 pm

... so ....two years later I will finally finish this thread.
In the end I did separate sap boils on my silver maple, Norway
Maple, red maple, and sugar maples as well as just combining all above sap.
The ratio of sap to finished syrup that year was:
Norway maple 32.5:1
Silver maple 50:1
Red maple 38:1
Sugar maple 34:1
The mixed sap ratio was around 40:1
The silver and Norway maple trees tend to run better towards the end of the season and their finished syrup is lighter in colour and has a really nice caramel type flavor. Both my kids prefer their syrup to traditional maple syrup but they love all maple syrup in general. The red maple syrup was close in flavour to the pure sugar maple syrup. The mixed maple syrup had a lighter maple taste than commercial maple syrup but still distinctively ‘maple’. I also do my primary boil on an outside wood burning brick oven ( with smoke stack) and finish inside on stove so it often has a very subtle smokey taste.
This year I did one batch of Norway mixed with silver maple syrup and the next three batches were of all combined saps. ( I tapped one silver, one Norway and five sugar maples on my laneway). The red maple was too swampy around the base so I skipped tapping it this year.
I found this season was so long and spotty with such a cold March that I ended up running out of enthusiasm by first week of April and gave the last 55 litres of mixed sap to a neighbor to boil down but I still ended up with over 2.5 litres of my own finished syrup. They got about a litre and a quarter of syrup. I found my overall sap to syrup ratio was more like 43:1 compared to other years. Anyone else find their trees not as “sugary” this year.
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