Maple syrup is a sweetener derived from the juice of sugar bushs and is often used by many indivduals in the United States, Canada, Europe and other parts of the world.   The all-natural sugarness containing various kinds of vitamins and nutrients is contained in the carefully harvested juice of the sugar bush. Maple syrup is now considered as a primary provider of energy and vitamins by many individuals in the U.S. Long before the British settlers set their foot on Indian soil, maple syrup has already been present for a long period of time.  The Pre-Columbian Indians who live in the Northern part of N.A. were one of the first if not the first known individuals to have developed and produced maple syrup.   Research also shows that long before the British arrive, the natives were already processing, developing and consuming canadian maple syrup.

The indians would find suitable sugar bush trunks during the end of winter or early sring period.   They will then collect these saps and then boil it in order to let some of the h2o and liquid content evaporate.   The remaining sugar and water will then be turned into a concentrate.  The taste of the sugar will then be changed due to it being caramelized making it into maple syrup. The maple making industry was then rapidly put into the Brittish culture in a period of less than a century.  The year 1700 up to 1800 marked the significant improvements in the maple syrup industry. Europeans, 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.   There were numerous developments brought about specifically by the Europeans due to their more advanced technological advancements like metallurgy and toolmaking thereby advancing the maple making process significantly. They also developed ways to build pure maple candy.

Today, maple syrup creation is generally focused on the northeastern region of North America.   The Vermont farm, a world renowned maple producing stand full of sugar bushs is located in the U.S.  Vermont together with the other numerous maple farms in the U.S. are closely related to the other maple stands located in Canada and Europe.  Sugar houses or sugar shacks are often utilized by these farms in order to heat sugar bush saps by batch. There are two major maple species that can be extracted from sugar bushs.   The first one is the “acer saccharum” or the sugar maple.  This maple syrup can be classified into average up to moderate sugar content maple syrup.  Second is the black maple or “acer nigrum”. It is characterized by dark color and high sugar content extracted from U.S. and Canadian maple trees. It can be used to make things like pure maple sugar.

The maple farms in Canada contribute to more than 80 percent of the total maple syrup produced not only in the U.S. but the rest of the globe.   The maple syrup created is roughly 25 up to 30 million gallons per year based on a research conducted last 2005.   Most of these millions of liters come from the stands located at Quebec, Canada.   By far, this province located in Canada is the world’s biggest producer of maple syrup, totaling up to 75 percent of the total world maple syrup production based on the research of 2005. The production of maple syrup in Eastern is supervised and controlled with the utilization of modern day supply-need-management system.   Data is input with regard to quotas about the world volume and demand for the 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 sell everything from syrup to maple butter.

The maple farm in Quebec 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 Vermont farm located in the U.S. is the second largest producer of maple syrup as of today.  This stand creates about 450 thousand gallons of maple syrup per year, according to a 2007 research conducted in the United States.   The remaining thousands of liters are produced by other maple farms located in Maine, New York, Ohio, Connecticut and other parts of the U.S.

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 farm itself.  Warm and hot days as well as cold freezing nights greatly contribute to the development of the maple juice.   The maple juice 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.   It will be heated for long periods in order to extract the sugary like substance known as maple syrup. In order to manufacture and produce maple syrup, sufficient amount of time and energy is needed.  It takes about half a day just to heat down 40 liters of maple sap.   These 40 liters of maple sap will only create about 1 liter of high grade maple syrup.  Good thing there are now innovations and technological developments with regard to the machineries used in maple syrup production, unlike before.   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.

There are currently different grades of maple syrup consisting of several color classes based on Canadian and U.S. 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 United States on the other hand, namely Vermont Fancy, Grade A Medium Amber, Dark Amber and Grade B maple syrup.