The Union-Leader has a good story about UNH research project to study syrup from tree species other than maple. You can read it here.
Apparently this has been a thing for a while, although it’s new to me:
“Our biggest customers are people that are really intrigued by the fact you can get syrup from a lot of different types of trees,” Farrell said. “It’s definitely a niche market and probably always will be.”
Farrell said maple and walnut trees run at the same time, while beech trees can be tapped halfway through maple season when the ground thaws. Birch sap is harvested at the end of maple season.
Farrell said beech syrup has a deeper, bolder flavor than maple syrup while walnut syrup has buttery and nutty notes.
I once drank filtered sap from a black birch tree on our property – not boiled down, so it was very dilute. But it had an interesting sweet flavor.
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Food quality continues it’s downhill slide. For large food producers, It goes beyond needing to increase corporate profits year over year. Supply and demand comes into play in a big way now. Every year there are millions more people to feed, so producers are getting very inventive to keep up with demand. Artificial ingredients, test-tube kitchens, genetically engineered produce, you name it.
As for good old maple syrup, when I was young (I’m 71 now) I remember reading the label on popular brands of pancake syrups. They contained “10% maple syrup”. Now it might be 2%, if any at all.
Having had a career as a supplier to the biggest food manufacturers in the country, I could go on and on, but that’s enough for now.