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Hickory syrup


pennbrew

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I remember being intrigued after reading an article about hickory syrup a few years ago. I thought the article said (or maybe I just assumed) that it was made in the same fashion as maple syrup.

Today I was at a local organic farmers' market and there was a vendor offering samples of his hickory syrup! It was tasty so I bought a bottle.

After bringing it home closer examination of the label revealed it was made from hickory bark extract and sugar. Hmmm....

So I've done some googling and it appears this is how all hickory syrup is produced. Not by collecting sap and boiling it down. The price was certainly comparable to maple syrup however. Perhaps I'm unreasonable but it's left me kind of disappointed.

It got me wondering though--is the maple the only tree that produces sap in sufficient quantities and sugar content to make syrup?

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Birch sap is collected and made into syrup in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. I have seen it done when I lived in Wisconsin.

People in Wisconsin also tap butternut trees and cook syrup from the sap but it is a very long process as the sugar content is quite low.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Well, there's the palm tree, various varieties of which produce sap strong enough to be fermented into an alcoholic beverage (toddy, among many other names). But the tapping process and the sap are different, from what I read in Wikipedia.

Dick in Northbrook, IL

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