where does maple syrup come from

Maple syrup comes from the sap of certain maple trees, mainly sugar maples, that is collected in late winter and early spring and then boiled down to concentrate the natural sugars into a thick, sweet syrup.

Quick Scoop

• Maple syrup is made from the sap of maple trees, not from the bark or the wood.

• The key trees are sugar maple, black maple, and sometimes red maple, because their sap has relatively high sugar content.

• Sap is collected when days are warm and nights are still below freezing, which makes the sap flow in late winter and early spring.

• People drill small holes (taps) into the tree, let the clear, slightly sweet sap drip out, and gather it in buckets or through plastic tubing.

• That raw sap is mostly water; it is boiled for hours so the water evaporates, leaving a concentrated syrup.

• Maple syrup production is traditional to northeastern North America, first developed by Indigenous peoples long before European settlers arrived.

• Today, most of the world’s maple syrup comes from eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, with the Canadian province of Quebec alone responsible for the large majority of global output.