Saturday, February 18, 2017

New Maple Syrup Grades (or, "Where's my Grade B Maple Syrup?")

I've kind of half-heartedly been trying to figure out what happened to grade B maple syrup over the past few years.  Here's how they changed the labels:

Legend: Old grade -----> New Labeling
  • Fancy -----> "Grade A: Golden Color & Delicate Taste"
  • Grade A: Medium Amber -----> "Grade A: Amber Color & Rich Flavor"
  • Grade A: Dark Amber -----> Either "Grade A: Amber Color & Rich Flavor" or
                                                             "Grade A: Dark Color & Robust Flavor"
  • Grade B -----> "Grade A: Dark Color & Robust Flavor"
  • Grade C -----> "Grade A: Very Dark & Strong Flavor"  (This is not really sold commercially.)
I learned this from an excellent epicurious.com guide

Now I look for "Grade A: Dark Color & Robust Flavor", but the downside is that the syrup I'm getting might not be as dark as I want.  Sad!

I understand the need for the labeling change: the intuitive understanding of Grade B is that it was a lower class than Grade A.  Unfortunately, now I can't be sure I'm getting what I want.