Homemade Maple Syrup Recipe: How to Make Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is a natural sweetener made from the sap of North American sugar maples (Acer saccharum). All tree sap contains some sugar, but this particular type of maple tree has exceptionally high sugar content. Earthy, mineral flavors balance the syrup’s intense sweetness for a unique, rich taste that complements brunch classics like granola, waffles, and French toast and flavors desserts like ice cream and cake.

Quebec, Canada, produces the vast majority of the world’s maple syrup, though you can find some producers in New York, Vermont, and Maine.

Indigenous people discovered the sweet liquid centuries ago and developed a method to concentrate its flavor via freezing. Around the eighteenth century, maple syrup and other maple products, like maple sugar, became a popular alternative to white sugar throughout North America.

The popularity of these maple products declined around the end of the nineteenth century, with the rise of cheaper alternatives like corn syrup and the reduced price of white sugar. As white sugar became more affordable, maple sugar makers shifted their focus to maple syrup. Still, they continue to use terms like “sugar bush” (a cluster of maple trees) and “sugar house” (a maple syrup production site).

In 2015, maple syrup production centers throughout the United States and Canada standardized their grading systems. All maple syrups destined for human consumption receive the Grade A designation, plus a grade for color. These are the four grades of maple syrup, from lightest to darkest:

1. 1. Golden, delicate taste: As the name indicates, this mild maple syrup has a golden, light amber color and delicate maple flavor with hints of vanilla. Golden syrup typically comes from sap extracted early in the sugaring season.
2. 2. Amber, rich taste: This slightly darker maple syrup, recognizable by its rich amber tone, is a popular choice for bottled maple syrups, as it falls in the perfect middle ground between a delicate golden syrup and a more potent dark maple syrup.
3. 3. Dark, robust taste: This brown, distinctly flavorful maple syrup with a dark amber hue is the perfect choice for people who prefer a more intense maple flavor than the milder golden and amber varieties. Pre-2015, some producers labeled this syrup Grade B.
4. 4. Very dark, strong taste: This maple syrup variety has the most robust taste of all the grades. Use very dark maple syrup for cooking, as the flavor holds up well throughout the cooking process and may be too intense for some in its raw form. You may have seen this syrup labeled Grade C.

Real maple syrup comes from the sweet xylem sap of the sugar maple tree, harvested in early spring by drilling or cutting tapholes into a tree and using a spout to extract the thin, watery sap that flows freely from the bark.

The maple tree sap—mainly water and about two percent sugar—gets heated in an evaporator to boil off some of the water to produce a thick, caramelized sugar syrup with a golden or brown color. On average, maple syrup producers use forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Shortly after extraction, maple syrup gets refined and packaged in an on-site location called a sugar house or sugar shack.

Alternatively, home cooks make homemade maple syrup using sugar, corn syrup, water, and maple extract.

Popular store-bought maple-flavored syrups, often labeled as “pancake syrup” or “table syrup,” contain little to no actual maple syrup. Instead, they feature high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, maple flavoring, and caramel coloring to replicate the taste and appearance of the natural product.

Some people prefer the milder flavor of artificial maple syrup to the intense salty sweetness of pure maple syrup, while others choose pancake syrup for its lower price point. To identify pure maple syrup, look for the label “Grade A,” followed by a color designation: golden, amber, dark, or very dark.