Maple syrup

Let 'er rip!

I  recently mentioned how the maple lemonade cleanse turned me onto low grade maple syrup as my syrup of choice - here's why.

First off, the flavour is far superior.  Maple syrup grades "B" or "C" (#2 or #3) are less refined than grade "A" (#1).  You simply get the purer flavour of the sap.  In Vancouver you see all the tourist shops with their maple leaf shaped bottles of syrup proudly advertising "Grade A" - it's sad.  Feeding all these folks a watered down product at a premium price.  The "A" syrup is so filtered, the colour is almost gone, along with all that flavour.  My lucky brother out in horse country in Ontario actually gets to go out to the Mennonite farms and pick up bottles of #4 - I can only imagine.  Maybe this year he can send me a bottle for Christmas (hint, hint).

Second, believe it or not, by getting less refined maple syrup, you get a nutritional boost.  You still don't want to be sucking the stuff down by the pint, but if you are topping off your pancakes, why not get the odd nutrient along with it?  The less refined your maple syrup, the more you get to benefit from:

Take the one on the right

potassium
calcium
magnesium
manganese
phosphorus
iron
zinc
copper
tin
sodium
pantothenic acid (vitamin B5)
niacin
biboflavin (vitamin B2)
malic acid
citric acid
succinic
fumeric
amino nitrogens
phenios

 - as well as several other elements in trace amounts.

Often, to get the lower grades of syrup, you need to resort to an organic company - whether you're big on that or not, it's another plus.  Some hardcore healthy people actually don't like to use honey (Honey and I get along fine) as it is technically a product digested by an animal, and therefore some of the goodness is already gone - it also makes honey vegan non-friendly.  Good old maple syrup comes straight from the tree, no monkey business, right into your belly. There's nothing not to like.

So there you have it, say goodbye to the "golden" crap and go maple, dark maple.  Put it on your pancakes, put it on your flag - we did.