Arthur Rubin wrote:littleFred wrote:I like Maple Syrup. The real stuff, not the Maple-ish Syrup we get in the UK.
You need to go to Canada to get Maple Syrup. (You can get some Canadian Maple Syrup in US specialty stores, but you have to look.)
Burnaby, please check me on this, but I've been told the (US? Canadian?) Grade B syrup (generally more flavorful than Grade A) has become Grade A dark, with the previous Grade A becoming Grade A amber.
Both US and Canadian maple syrup grades have been reconfigured, to make them more accurate and to lessen the negative connotation of Grade B syrup, which is actually superb and for which a little goes a long way. It also lessens the rather exalted "Fancy" designation, which is a holdover from the days when families filled their sugar needs not from cane sugar, which was expensive, but from maple syrup. Six sugar maples would give a family enough sugar to last a year; and the first sugar run produced syrup which had the lightest color and maple taste. This was granulated, and went on the table for use in tea, coffee and so on.
Before, we had (all Grade A) light amber/fancy, medium amber and dark amber; and then it was Grade B. Grade C was not available for retail use. Now, we have (all Grade A) golden color, delicate taste; amber color, rich taste; dark color, robust taste and very dark color, strong taste. Below that, we now have "Processing Grade", which goes into baking and into the fake "pancake syrups" which have maybe 1% maple syrup in them.
Living in the northeast, there is nothing like "the real stuff" for me; but my paternal grandfather was born and raised in Washington, DC, which back then was a very Southern city. Granddad used dark Karo syrup on his pancakes; and I thought that he was weird because "everyone" used maple syrup.
A lot of the real maple syrup we get in stores is Canadian; but in Massachusetts it's very easy to find syrup made in New England. I've even had maple syrup produced from a sugarbush on the slopes of Pottapaug Mountain, in the former town of Dana, Massachusetts.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture." -- Pastor Ray Mummert, Dover, PA, during an attempt to introduce creationism -- er, "intelligent design", into the Dover Public Schools