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Outrageous-Outside61 t1_jd2k1p8 wrote

Reply to comment by thisoneisnotasbad in Is Runamok a good maple syrup brand? by kitokspasaulis

I’m gonna argue with you on tastes the same. Orange County syrup is much better than say Washington or windham county. Soil quality/type makes a HUGE difference in taste of syrup. Grade is a function of weather, and mostly of cleanliness/bacteria levels.

As far as blending, unless you’re going directly to a producer you’re buying blended syrup, absolutely, and even than there’s a good chance it’s atleast blended with their own syrup to make different grades.

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thisoneisnotasbad t1_jd2n1c8 wrote

That is fine, you can argue that. I obviously disagree.

Your blending comment is very misleading. If you are buying graded syrup it is graded. Nobody is selling one boil without mixing in others of the same grade if that is what you mean.

Blended is actually a “grade” that is sold, often to food manufacturers.

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Outrageous-Outside61 t1_jd31wxy wrote

I’ll taste test with ya anytime! Orange County has way better soil than Washington county, you can taste it in the water, forage quality is superior when we do forage analysis, it makes sense to me that the mineral composition in the syrup from Orange County would also lead to a better flavor. I’m a farmer, originally from Orange County but live in Washington county now. My forage and soil quality on my Washington county fields vs my Orange County fields are shockingly different, and to get my Washington county fields to the level of my Orange County fields requires a lot of constant amendments, where as I haven’t put anything on some of my Orange County fields in close to a decade (I mostly pasture those fields now as trucking hay home from there doesn’t make sense, if I was haying them I would obviously be adding amendments)

I will also say you’ll notice flavor differences with different rigs. Personally I don’t like the flavor or steam syrup. I think when you push sap through an RO you change the flavor some, going to around 10% doesn’t change much, but pushing it to 18% I think you’re losing flavor. Wood vs oil I think you have a different flavor, but not anywhere near the difference from that to steam.

I get what you’re saying with blending/grading and my terms are probably incorrect/misleading. I help out some friends who tap 60k and sell a lot of syrup, but grew up tapping 2k. Growing up we would draw off into a tank, check grade, run it through the press directly into retail packaging. Many small producers do this. At my friend, and most modern large producers it all goes into 40’s or 55’s and when we can we are blending the syrup with other boils to make grade. That is probably where I’m misusing the phrase blended.

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thisoneisnotasbad t1_jd33wjh wrote

Ok. Maple taste off.

I grew up in Franklin County. Worked with some of the big namea up there as a grunt. They all use RO now. I think most places do.

I have never heard of steam to boil though. But yes, wood vs gas vs oil matters. I think it is unfair to try to sweep "Quebec" into any single method though. Just as presumptuous as assuming any of VT is better then all of Quebec.

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