Maple Syrup

Real maple syrup is tapped sap from maple trees, boiled down slowly until it's thick and deep amber, worlds away from the corn-syrup-and-flavouring bottles sold as "maple" on a supermarket shelf right next to the real thing, unlabelled as the imitation it is.

It's built for pancakes and waffles first, but it earns its keep well beyond breakfast: glazing bacon or ham, finishing a smoked pork shoulder, or going into a bourbon-forward cocktail where real maple flavour actually matters and cheap syrup falls flat on its face.

The style worth seeking out is barrel-aged: genuine Vermont-sourced syrup rested in bourbon barrels after tapping rather than bottled straight off the boil and shipped out, picking up whiskey and vanilla notes a plain syrup never sees. Vermont remains one of the handful of regions where proper maple syrup has always actually come from, tapped the traditional way.

This shelf runs thin right now, genuine barrel-aged maple is a specialist import rather than a supermarket commodity, and we'd rather leave the space honest than pad it out with syrup that isn't the real thing. Real maple, or nothing at all.

Explore more: our honey and dessert collections.