Where to find REAL maple syrup
If you’re not up to driving to thousand islands you can buy it online. I used to drive up every summer and get some on my way back. It’s about $10 per can, sells in a case of 8.
https://www.maplesyrupworld.com/maple-syrup-can-8-x-cans-box-540ml-18-25-oz/
Try the Summit Farmers Market- someone there every Sunday from the Adirondacks is selling syrup this year.
My Vermont native friends all swear by Square Deal Farm maple syrup. Available for shipping.
My favorite place for maple syrup is the fabulous Maplewood Farm in Valatie NY. Best fresh eggs as well. Alpacas watching you as you buy from their honor system roadside stand. Love it.
https://www.facebook.com/Maplewood-Farm-1271584436299406/
(of course this excludes my sister in Putnam County who makes her own maple syrup - exquisite stuff if I say so myself)
Maple syrup grades result from weather conditions. Darker grades give a stronger taste. Vermont farmers tend to keep the dark grade for their own use and leave the "A" amber for the gringos in October.
Look for B grade. It's better.
I was lucky about 10 years ago. Farmers' market in Nova Scotia. 1 gallon can for $10, Ca. Dark amber.
They have changed the grading of maple syrup to four colors/flavors: Golden, Amber, Dark, and Very Dark:
https://extension.unh.edu/blog/2019/02/making-grade-color-flavor-maple-syrup
I prefer the stronger flavor of the darker syrups.
Is this good? Love maple syrup and wondering how this stacks up.
I'm a fan of the Costco maple syrup. Not exactly what you get from Canada, but it's pretty good. I grew up on Log Cabin so I'm probably not the best of judges.
The laughably worst is the syrup that comes out of those little peel away packets in diners. Anything in a jug seems like fine cuisine compared to those.
For an online option check out April's Maple. This is a woman owned maple sugaring farm/restaurant in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont: www.aprilsmaple.com.
We were up north a few weeks ago - here’s 2 of the syrups we got - the can actually has someone’s name and phone number on it.
We finally used up all the maple syrup that our neighbors brought us from Canada and have discovered that we have become syrup snobs. We had accumulated a lot of bottles over the years but now they are all gone.
We tried syrup from Trader Joe's but it was too runny and tasteless.
Any recommendations on what we can buy locally? We can't wait until our neighbors go on vacation and bring back syrup to thank us for cat sitting again.