Maple syrup is a sugarener made from the sap of sugar bushs and is commonly used by many people in the U.S., Canada, Europe and other parts of the world. The sugar from the sap of the maple tree is carefully extracted retaining all of the natural sweetness coupled with essential vitamins and nutrients. Many people especially in the United States have recognized maple syrup as a key provider of energy and health. Long before the Brittish settlers set their foot on Native American soil, maple syrup has already been present for a long period of time. The individuals living in the Northern tip of Northern America or the Pre-Columbian indians already have their way of developing and producing maple syrup. A recent study indicates that the indians were already into the processing, development and consumption of maple syrup long before the arrival of the Europeans. The Indians could also make things like maple candy.
Suitable maple tree trunks containing juice were searched for by the natives during the end of the winter or in early May. They will then collect these juices and then heat it in order to let some of the water and liquid content evaporate. The sugar left will then be concentrated upon together with the remaining water. The sugar will then be slightly caramelized thereby altering the taste of the sugar and turning it into syrup like substance. The Brittish settlers quickly integrated into their culture this maple making process. There were several significant improvements into the maple making processes during the period of 1700 up to 1800. Brittishs, 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. The Brittishs brought about the development of the process of making maple syrup due to their more advance and sophisticated technologies involving metallurgy and toolmaking which allowed them to make things like maple sugar.
The maple syrup production as of the latest is basically centralized in the northeast part of North America. One stand full of maple trees is the Vermont stand, one of the world famous maple producing farms located in the United States. 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 farms use “sugar houses” or “sugar shacks” where sugar bush sap is boiled in the hundreds. There are currently two main kinds or varieties of maple syrup that can be harvested from sugar bushs. First is the sugar maple also known as “acer saccharum”. This is the kind of maple syrup that has average to moderate sugar content. 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 sap it was extracted from I like the dark canadian maple butter.
A whopping 80 percent of the total maple syrup manufactured and produced for consumption of the indivduals of the U.S. and other parts of the world come from several maple farms located in Canada. According to a research organized last 2005, the maple syrup created from Canada totaled 25 up to 30 million gallons per annum. Most of these millions of liters come from the farms located at Quebec, Canada. 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 production based on the research of 2005. The maple stands in Eastern are being controlled and supervised using the latest supply, demand and managements systems available. Data is input with regard to quotas about the world supply and need for the pure organic maple syrup into the system. Voluminous orders of maple syrup by large scale supermarkets and other wholesalers of maple syrup are sent to this system everyday, amounting to hundreds or even thousands of orders per day.
The maple stand in Eastern 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 need 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. A total of 450 thousand gallons of maple syrup are manufactured and produced in this stand every year. The remainder with regard to the total demand of maple syrup worldwide is being supplied by other stands beside Vermont and Quebec and are located in Maine, New York, Connecticut and other U.S. stand lands.
The creation of maple syrup is largely focused on the months of February up to April. The factors to be considered are the local weather conditions present in the maple stand itself. Warm and hot days as well as cold freezing nights greatly contribute to the development of the maple juice. The maple sap will eventually pour out from tap holes and other passages due to the constant rise and fall of the temperature. This juice will be the main ingredient used in order to make maple syrup. The sap will eventually be boiled for long periods of time in order to harvest the liquid substance similar to sugar. In order to manufacture and create maple syrup, sufficient amount of time and energy is needed. A typical example is that it takes a period of 24 hours in order to heat down 40 liters of gathered maple sap. These 40 gallons of maple juice will only produce 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 sugarness of the maple syrup produced is of the best due to this maple syrup processing machines.
As of today there are numerous varieties of maple syrup consisting of different color classes in Canada and the United States based on the current standards. There are 3 main grades of maple syrup in Canada namely Canada 1, 2 and 3 with Canada 1 comprising of extra light and light maple syrup, Canada 2 comprising of medium and amber colored maple syrup and Canada 3 comprising of dark maple syrup. There are four main grades found in the U.S. on the other hand, namely Vermont Fancy, Grade A Medium Amber, Dark Amber and Grade B maple syrup.