Once pierced, century-old maple trees drip sap referred to as liquid gold. It will take roughly 50 gallons of these drops to make one 1 gallon of 100% pure Grade A maple syrup. Farms in the Hudson Valley, New York State, can sell that gallon for over $200, almost 29 times more than popular imitation syrup. Despite the price, Grade A maple syrup is incredibly sought-after. So much so that C$18 million worth of it was stolen in one of the largest heists in Canadian history.
But why is Grade A maple syrup worth so much? And why is it so expensive?
But why is Grade A maple syrup worth so much? And why is it so expensive?
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00:00 Inside this century-old tree hides pure grade A maple syrup made exclusively from this sap
00:09 with no added sugar.
00:11 It's the purest form of maple syrup you can get, but it's extremely rare and time-consuming
00:17 to make.
00:19 To retrieve this liquid gold, Jeffrey needs to individually tap thousands of trees by
00:26 hand and extract their sap slowly, drop by drop.
00:32 It could take hours or even days for the sap to reach its final destination, and after
00:37 that about 10 hours to get one single gallon of syrup.
00:43 Farms like this one in New York State's Hudson Valley then sell that gallon for over
00:47 $200.
00:48 That's almost 29 times more expensive than popular imitation syrup, which sells for $7.
00:57 Despite the price, grade A maple syrup is incredibly sought after, so much so that $18
01:03 million of it was once stolen in one of the largest heists in Canadian history.
01:09 But why is grade A maple syrup worth so much?
01:13 And why is it so expensive?
01:16 [Ticking]
01:18 I love very dark maple syrup.
01:25 It's got these beautiful notes of toffee and caramel, it's a little buttery, and it's got
01:30 that really strong maple flavor, which I really like.
01:34 I love it obviously on pancakes, on waffles, but it's really great too to slather on some
01:39 ribs too, so adding that sweetness, that maple flavor.
01:45 The basics of making maple syrup are all the same, you boil sap.
01:48 But from tree to like jug of syrup, there's a lot of different variables in that process
01:53 that affect the taste as well.
01:55 Jeffrey and his wife, Ashley Ruprecht, have been making syrup for almost a decade.
02:00 They produce limited batches of syrup that have been tapped, wood fired, and bottled
02:05 right here on their 50-plus acre farm in the Hudson Valley.
02:10 Outside of Vermont, New York has the most tappable maple trees in the U.S.
02:15 Currently we have around 1,200 trees, so we're not a huge farm.
02:21 It's still manageable for my husband and I.
02:23 Though many may associate it with autumn, maple syrup is actually a product of spring.
02:33 During the summer months, the maple tree absorbs energy from the sun as well as water and minerals
02:38 from the soil.
02:40 Starch is then created and stored in the roots through the winter.
02:44 In spring, as the snow begins to melt, the starch turns to sugar or sucrose and circulates
02:50 throughout the tree.
02:52 And it's the ideal time for Jeffrey to tap.
02:56 While most of the trees are sugar maples, they also pull sap from other types.
03:01 Really, sugar maples are the predominant species that are tapped.
03:04 Just because the sugar content in the sap itself is so high, I would say 25 to 30 percent
03:09 red maples we tap, and then the rest are sugar maples.
03:13 To be tapped, a maple tree needs to reach at least 40 years old.
03:18 But they can live for up to 400 years.
03:21 And if tapped properly, producers like Jeffrey can reuse the same tree for decades.
03:27 There's no harm to the tree.
03:28 You want to tap where there's not any major large knots or flaws or anything above.
03:34 Good crowns, good diameter of the tree, healthy tree, no rotten spots and stuff like that.
03:39 So this is a really good spot.
03:41 And when tapping, it's super important to go as quick as possible in and out, make sure
03:45 like all the wood comes out.
03:47 And you have a clear tap hole that's nice and round.
03:54 You're good to go.
03:55 For Jeffrey to collect the sap, a couple of factors need to be just right.
04:00 The sap is ready when the temperature is above freezing during the day and below freezing
04:05 at night.
04:08 And can also affect the flow of the sap.
04:11 Today is a really good day.
04:13 We had a nice hard freeze last night and it's warm today.
04:18 So that pressure in the tree is really pushing sap out.
04:22 So it's a really, really good day.
04:25 Jeffrey drives a spout one and a half to two and a half inches deep into a hole 5/16 of
04:30 an inch wide.
04:33 He then fits every tree with a tube like this one.
04:38 In Jeffrey's and Ashley's forest, lines of tubes transport sap to a sugar house for
04:43 processing.
04:47 In the US, there are three grades of maple syrup, substandard, processing grade, and
04:53 the highest quality, grade A. To be sold as grade A, it needs to contain no more than
04:59 68.9% solids, have a consistent color, and contain no sediment.
05:07 In comparison, cheap commercial table syrup can contain anything from artificial colorings
05:13 to harmful chemicals.
05:16 So table syrup, that is actually not maple syrup.
05:19 It's usually corn syrup or cane syrup, maybe a little bit of maple flavoring added to it
05:25 because it's not from a maple tree at all.
05:28 For grade A, the time of year also affects the quality of the syrup.
05:33 The earlier in the season it's harvested, the lighter the syrup.
05:37 It's all the same process to produce these colors.
05:41 It's the sap that changes throughout the season that actually changes the color and the taste
05:45 of the syrup.
05:46 Usually we'll start out with a lighter syrup, a golden, an amber, and you usually end on
05:53 very dark syrup at the end of the season.
05:56 Today, Ashley and Jeffrey will likely harvest grade A very dark.
06:00 It's the darkest color that we produce as well, which has the strongest maple flavor,
06:06 and that is really popular for us here.
06:10 On the market, these factors are reflected in the price, with Jeffrey and Ashley's premium
06:15 syrups going for a little over $200 per gallon.
06:22 Premium syrups are so valuable that between 2011 and 2012, 6 million gallons worth over
06:30 $14 million US dollars were stolen from producers in the Canadian province of Quebec, the world's
06:36 largest supplier of maple syrup.
06:39 The heist was so large that it affected the global supply.
06:43 It remains to this day the most valuable heist in Canadian history, known as the Great Maple
06:49 Syrup Heist.
06:52 In the US, table syrup is still the first choice, with 75% of consumers preferring it
06:58 over pure maple syrup.
07:00 But here in the Hudson Valley, premium syrup like Jeffrey and Ashley's has no equals.
07:06 I grew up in the fifth generation of restaurateurs in the Hudson Valley.
07:13 There is more of an increase in the demand for the maple syrup.
07:17 I find that it's drawing an influx of people and an attention to the Hudson Valley.
07:22 I think that the usage of both the red maple and the sugar maple trees does have a little
07:27 bit more of a well-rounded flavor to it.
07:32 I typically use the dark maple syrup, being kind of a middle of the road.
07:36 It has an excellent flavor profile that does pair well with sweet dishes, savory dishes.
07:41 You just simply can't get that same flavor profile or balance from honey or any other
07:46 type of sweeteners.
07:48 The maple, almost that oaky type flavor does carry through with it and balances very well.
07:55 Grade A I find suits very well for multiple applications.
08:02 Back at the farm, Jeffrey and Ashley get ready to begin evaporating and filtering the freshly
08:07 drawn sap.
08:10 To get the sap up the evaporator in the sugar house, it first needs to reach this building,
08:15 the sap house.
08:19 With the help of a vacuum, the network of tubes carries it to a giant stainless steel
08:24 collection tank.
08:25 The first point of entry gets pulled into this big bin and we have pumps going all the
08:30 way up to our sugar house up there, which pushes sap up into there and that's where
08:35 we evaporate.
08:38 It's pumped up to the sugar house to a larger holding tank.
08:41 This is where filtration and evaporation begin.
08:48 Ashley and Jeffrey's farm runs on a wood evaporator.
08:53 We boil as hot as we can get our firebox.
08:56 We are testing it constantly.
08:58 You're measuring the bricks of the syrup, which is basically the viscosity of the syrup,
09:04 making sure it gets to the correct density.
09:11 When it's pulled from the tree and before reaching the evaporator, sap contains 98%
09:16 water and 2% sugar.
09:19 By the time it evaporates, it should be ready at 33% water and 67% sugar.
09:28 Precision is key here.
09:30 Jeffrey needs to make sure the syrup reaches exactly 68.9% density.
09:36 We'll just boil away most of the water content from the sap until it reaches the perfect
09:42 maple syrup consistency.
09:44 Because once you evaporate too much of the water content out of the sap, it goes from
09:50 syrup to like a candy to a sugar.
09:55 Many farms today, especially larger ones, tend to use oil-powered evaporators.
10:01 Neither method affects the taste of the syrup, but the wooden evaporator is more labor-intensive,
10:06 which is another factor that drives up the price.
10:09 We do have a lot of storms that come through, so a lot of the trees that do fall, we use
10:13 the firebox to evaporate.
10:16 From sap to finished syrup, Jeffrey and Ashley have to be mindful of the entire process.
10:23 Trees can fall on your main line.
10:25 You can have a pretty catastrophic day if that happens.
10:29 All of your syrup is just pouring out of your main line.
10:31 You definitely have to be paying attention unless you have a lot of automated systems
10:34 going and even then sometimes things happen.
10:39 But there is one thing that can't be controlled - the weather.
10:44 Recently, warming temperatures and changes in freeze and thaw cycles have affected maple
10:50 trees and syrup production and the quality of Ashley and Jeffrey's products.
10:55 We've seen a change even in just these few years.
10:58 Long periods of freezing in the middle of the season are really hard because you could
11:03 have two weeks where it's a really hard freeze and sap is not flowing and then a few weeks
11:09 later it's really warm and the trees just stop producing sap.
11:13 So the seasons have become shorter, but we're also seeing every year we're tapping a little
11:19 earlier and seeing sap flows a little earlier too.
11:23 So the season might be moving a little earlier as well and ending earlier too.
11:29 Despite the challenges, maple syrup farms like Ashley and Jeffrey's in New York continue
11:34 to thrive.
11:35 We're a great support system for each other and it's always nice to walk out your back
11:41 door and be in your sugar woods and business.
11:46 [Music]
11:53 (chime)