Before You Pour All That Maple Syrup on Your Pancakes, Here's What You Should Know About It

[Warpy]

And no, it’s not just sweet. “Maple syrup is a lot more complex than sugar,” says Laura Sorkin, who owns Vermont-based Runamok Maple with her husband, Eric. “There’s a lot more nuance than what you would get with granulated sugar.” The flavor can vary depending on the time of year, but Sorkin says toffee, caramel, honey and apple are among the notes she can pick out. There’s also a balance of sweetness and acidity.
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Still, here is the rundown of how the government describes the grades aimed at individual buyers (there is a processing grade that can be used by manufacturers making other products), ordered from least to most intense, as well as early to late season:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/before-you-pour-all-that-maple-syrup-on-your-pancakes-here-s-what-you-should-know-about-it?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Good description of FDA grading system. I avoid "Grade A Fancy" because I find it super sweet and lacking in flavor. Health food store Grade B was my go to before the FDA muddied the waters, it was less sweet and a mahogany brown, perfect for almost everything I wanted to do. Granulated maple sugar did the rest, sweeter than sugar and with a pronounced flavor.

Grade C was available and OK for things like maple breads, but it looked as black as tar and wasn't very sweet, at all.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. My choice is Canadian labelled

My choice is Canadian labelled "Grade A Very Dark with Strong Taste"

I make a mixture of berries (strawb, rasp, blue, black, what's available), a third of a banana, and then plain vanilla yogurt, and a healthy dash of Canadian maple syrup. That is my dessert most days.

[CrispyQ]

3. That's great!

Thanks for posting!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. It looks like US grades have changed as well

[ms liberty]

5. That sounds so good. n/t

[CrispyQ]

2. Netflix had a series called Dirty Money & one episode was about the great maple syrup heist.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80118100

Dirty Money
2018 | TV-MA | 2 Seasons | True Crime Documentaries
From crippling payday loans to cars that cheat emissions tests, this investigative series exposes brazen acts of corporate greed and corruption.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7909196/

The Maple Syrup Heist
Episode aired Jan 26, 2018

Dirty Money (2018)
In Canada, maple syrup is worth more than oil. When $20 million of syrup goes missing, the trail leads back to an epic battle between cartels and the little guy.

It was fascinating!

[Old Crank]

6. Back in the 'good old days'

I lived on the east side of Ottawa on the Air Force Base there. Now gone. We could walk off base and visit the maple
cooking operation and buy syrup there. It was a lot cheaper than now. Of course I think it was not all that cheap in comparison
but we were kids and didn't know any better. It was probably cheaper than at stores as it was bottled on site and might not have
been graded back in 1960-65.

The syrup I get here in Munich is Canadian, now A, I had preferred B. I watch the sales like a hawk.

[Old Crank]

7. Fun data point

My X-Frau grew up with Mapleine. (You make a sugar syrup and add the flavor. It isn't too bad and I prefer it to the likes of Karo.
We had her mother over for breakfast and I made pancakes, From scratch which always amazed by X. We had maplene for the syrup.
Her mother says why are you using Mapleine? My wife says I like the taste. MIL says you know, we used that becasue we couldn't afford anything else....
Now I use it for my current wife who can't have maple syrup because of the fructose content.... So I have to thank my X-Frau's mother for feeding her kids Mapleine.

[chowmama]

11. Mom's syrup

I started calling it 'Depression Syrup', which made her give me an evil side-eye. But she was a child in the Oklahoma dust bowl and kept some of the Dust Bowl, Depression and WWII habits. I still make a version of it for my husband, who prefers it to real maple.

1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar (either kind), and 1/2 cup water. Boil till clear and syrupy. When it cooled a little, my mom added a few drops of Mapleine extract. It tasted the same as store-bought 'pancake' syrup and it was dirt-cheap. The Mapleine bottle lasted forever.

My version is fancier. I boil the sugars and water with a cinnamon stick. When it's done, I fish out the stick and add a cup of honey. It's good, but I still like real maple.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

8. I used Grade B for a beer that I home-brewed...

... in the past, since it had flavor beyond sugary sweetness which would just get consumed by the yeast during fermentation anyway.

I never did it again because I wasn't impressed by the result.

Just verifying that Grade B has more flavors and aroma.

[Warpy]

9. Grade C in addition to barley malt might have worked

and given a little more flavor. I mentioned making maple (well, maple walnut) bread with it because the bread required the flavor and color but not the sweetness. The results were fair but only marginally better than using maple flavoring.

Still, I don't think I'd be terribly impressed with maple ale or beer. About the only addition I particularly cared for back in my brewing days was blackstrap molasses, I've never been fond of pale ales or beers. That's the Irish talking, I guess.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. Yes, I think blackstrap molasses has...

... a better reputation for home brewing anyway. I never tried it, though. (And I haven't home brewed in years.)

Like how something more aromatic, such as raspberries, works better in home brewing than a lot of other fruits/berries.

If I wanted to make something more "fruity", though, I tended to rely on yeasts from Belgium to do it.