Fun Detour - How to Host a Maple Syrup Tasting

While maple creemees were the focus of my this week’s post, the real star is the maple syrup itself – and it turns out, not all maple syrups taste the same.

Years before my first trip to Vermont, I was deep into researching sugaring and the process of turning sap into syrup. While maple is the most familiar (and the best tasting), you can also tap trees like black walnut, sycamore, beech, and birch. At one point, I even researched starting a small sugaring venture in the mid-Atlantic. Fortunately, I found and read Michael Farrell’s The Sugarmaker's Companion: An Integrated Approach to Producing Syrup from Maple, Birch, and Walnut Trees, which ultimately talked me out of it.  But, it also deepened my curiosity about how flavors varied by tree and region.

That curiosity turned into a collection of syrups at home. When Cade and Liberty were approaching school age, I decided to turn that collection into a fun activity: blind taste tests. Over the years, we have done more than a dozen of these.

Here’s how we did it, and you can as well.

Step 1: Gather Your Syrups

Start with three to six different types. Too many and the flavors blur; too few and you don’t get enough variety. Syrups can differ by:

Grade: Golden (delicate), Amber (rich), Dark (robust), and Very Dark (strong).

Place of Origin: Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and other states including Maryland, and of course Canada.

Type of Producers: Local farms, regional brands, co-ops, and national brands.

Infusions: Vanilla, cinnamon, and aged in bourbon barrels.

Type of Tree: Beyond Maple there is Black Walnut, Beech, Birch, and Sycamore. (Sycamore is rare. The last commercial producer closed almost a decade ago.  I have not tried it, but it supposedly has a butterscotch flavor.)

From one of our maple syrup tastings in 2023.

Depending on participants’ palates, you can add pancake syrup to the mix just for the contrast.

In a couple of our more interesting tests we tested:

Maple-Birch Syrup, Pure Maple Syrup, Tangy Birch Syrup, Maple-Beech Syrup, and Maple-Black Walnut Syrup.

Kirkland Maple Syrup, Wegman’s Pure Maple Syrup, Butternut Mountain Farm Maple Syrup, and Dorset Maple Reserve Vermont Maple Syrup, and Wild Four Organic Bourbon Barrel-Aged Maple Syrup.

Step 2: Set the Table

You don’t need anything fancy. Just use 3- or 4-oz paper cups and number each syrup. Each participant gets one of each cup. The organizer keeps the key and pours just enough into each cup – about a quarter inch. Display the syrup bottles off to the side – part of the fun is seeing if guesses match the real thing.

Step 3: Rating and Scoring the Syrups

Participants rate the syrups on taste from best to worst, as well as guess which syrup came out of which bottle. This always leads to conversation and comparison.  There are no bragging rights, just a growing appreciation for subtle differences of flavor.

Final Thoughts

What I love most about these tastings is not just the flavor – it is the way they slow us down and turn a simple sensory exercise into a moment of connection. I’ve watched my kids (and guests) pay attention, compare notes, and develop preferences. It's the kind of curious, cozy tradition that sneaks up on you.