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Maple syrup is a traditional and whole sweetener that has consistently played an integral part of the economies of North America ever since Native Americans first taught the early European settlers how to tap maple trees and boil down the sap.
Maple syrup derived early in the season at the time of the spring thaw runs sweet and clear. It takes about 20-30 gallons of boiled down sap to make one gallon of light amber colored syrup, labeled as Grade A. This is the maple syrup typically available in the supermarket.
Late in the season, maple sap thins out and grows watery. Much more than 20-30 gallons of sap must be boiled down to yield Grade B maple syrup of equal sweetness. Boiling down more sap to concentrate the sweetness also concentrates the flavor and nutrients. This late season syrup is darker, more maple flavored, and higher in minerals than the Grade A syrup and is labeled as Grade B.
The blander, lighter syrup typically commands the highest price as consumers tend to prefer sweetness without too much flavor.
The Growing Popularity of Grade B Maple Syrup
I’ve been a fan of Grade B maple syrup for years and have enjoyed the lower price point despite its relative rarity in comparison to Grade A.
As consumers have moved further away from refined sweeteners in recent years, however, the price of Grade B has risen as has its availability.
Years ago, I used to be able to call up my maple farmer in Chautauqua, New York who I got to know spending summers there as a youth visiting the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings and ask for a few gallons of Grade B to be shipped and it was no problem. Then, it became much harder to come by. In addition, the price for this homely sweetener kept going up with Grade B sometimes even higher in price than Grade A!
In the past couple of years, I’ve purchased maple syrup from Vermont as the price was really fantastic. The first few gallons were excellent quality, and then suddenly, I received a gallon of maple syrup from Vermont labeled as Grade B but it was in fact Grade A!
The first time this happened, I thought it was just a simple mistake because the next gallon I got was correctly labeled Grade B. Then, the “mistake” happened again and then again.
At that point, I realized that this might be happening on purpose – the Grade B was sold out so some gallons of Grade A were labeled as Grade B maple syrup to meet the increasing consumer demand with the hope that the consumer wouldn’t notice the difference.
Then I heard of this happening to other folks buying maple syrup from other sources as well!
Make Sure Your Grade B is Really Grade B
The motto of this story is to check your Grade B maple syrup and make sure you are really getting what you paid for!
Fortunately, it is easy to tell the difference. Grade B maple syrup is much much darker than Grade A so it is easy to tell the difference if you put them side by side. What I do is keep a small glass bottle of Grade A from the supermarket in the pantry to use as a comparison test each time I buy some Grade B in bulk.
More change is on the horizon, however!
By 2013, new international standards for labeling maple syrup will come into effect with the term Grade B no longer used.
Once these new standards come into effect, all maple syrup will be labeled Grade A with four identifying colors: Golden, Amber, Dark, and Very Dark.
Have you purchased what you thought was Grade B maple syrup only to discover that it was really Grade A? If so, what did you do? Did you complain or just switch suppliers?
Please note also that there is a significant difference between conventional and organic maple syrup producers. This article spills the beans on these little known production practices that will have many consumers switching brands in a hurry!
Do you just love Grade B maple syrup? If so, here’s a healthy, homemade maple kombucha salad dressing to try.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
More Information
Coconut Sugar: A Healthy and Sustainable Sweetener
Don’t Fall for Xylitol
Sugar Alcohols Harm Gut Health
Maple syrup is made by boiling down the sap from sugar maple trees, and molasses is basically what’s taken out of sugar cane to leave behind white sugar. They’re not even remotely related to one another.
Thank you!
Can someone explain to me the difference between maple syrup and molasses?
If it looks like Grade A and tastes like Grade A and exactly matches the light stuff at the supermarket, it is Grade A. Sticking a Grade B label on it doesn’t make it so.
As a Vermonter the color varies from season to season. There are many grades of A as well fancy, medium/amber and dark the past few years almost no grade b was produced. there are official grading kits you can purchase and it’s highly regulated. Other than flavor it’s still the same exact product and a dark A will suffice for most purposes. It is always the same price and entirely dictated by nature will vary by place and soil, think of it as buying fruit at the farmers market it will depend on ripeness time of year and local weather maple is a local crop and farmers have little control over mother nature this year the weather snapped and very little was produced. I’d be more worried about the companies that mix it with cane or beet sugar and sell it as pure at least a local farmer is giving you true local natural syrup. I think this post is highly misleading
Thanks for this post. The post and the comments were very helpful to me. I guess the price will go up once everything is “Grade A”, huh? Still worth it, though.
We just returned from Maine, up near the Canadian border. We know a great guy there who works in the states during the week and spends his weekends in Canada. We asked him to get us some maple syrup from Canada (cheaper for the quality). He asked us what color we wanted because they have (when in stock) 4-5 different colors from very light (what we call grade A here) to variations of dark (which might be called grade A for the lighter darks and B for the darker darks). He brought us some “medium” dark as they were out of all the other colors. He said the darkest dark is unpalatable for most folks, but next time I visit I hope to get some just to try it.
Long before I knew of the nutritional benefits of dark over light maple syrup, I have always preferred the darker kind. The light kind tastes very bland to me and actually not as sweet and I will end up using more of it to get any flavor. I eat a lot of what some people might consider bland food (not a lot of seasonings so you can taste the food rather than the seasoning) but bland maple syrup is not one of them.
I have heard news from my home-state, Vermont, that the mild winter severely hurt maple syrup production. Sounds like economic forces lead your supplier down a path of dishonesty:-( Sorry!
oops,means syrup
Hi tyo all,wonderful information Sarah, after all this tragedy that I already notice a little ago, for about 2 years now I only buy the brand NOW grade B maple syro it is wonderfl,maggie
This JUST happened to me! Thanks for sharing, I knew something was wrong! The maple syrup company said the color could be light or dark and that they didn’t think it was labeled wrong. But you can tell by the taste!