Maple Syrup Season in Canada
Canada’s most popular export, maple syrup, is a significant industry. Maple syrup plantations, sometimes known as sugar bushes, have made this delightful sweet treat for centuries, and many farmers still employ the original processes today.
Nowadays, Canada supplies almost 80% of the world’s maple syrup, with Quebec alone accounting for two-thirds of global production. If you’re coming from the UK, there are several sugar bushes in Ontario that are simple to get to. All you have to do is purchase tickets to Toronto to begin your sugar-fueled vacation! And we’d strongly advise you to do it during the maple syrup season.
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Maple Syrup Season in Canada
Warmer days and chilly nights are brought on by the changing temperature as each year’s winter retreats. As a result, sugar maple trees start to produce sap from the roots, which intensifies the season for maple harvesting. Farmers and tourists throng to sugar bushes (maple tree woods) and sugar shacks during this brief but much anticipated sweet season to observe the tree-tapping and boiling process of turning sap into syrup.
From February to April, when maple farmers tap their trees to harvest sap, is the maple syrup season.
Maple Syrup Products
Maple syrup can be enjoyed many different ways, in liquid form over pancakes, solid as maple syrup candy or frozen over snow and ice. Maple syrup is also used to create many delicious food and drinks.
Probably you heard about maple sugar, maple syrup candy and maple syrup sauce, but did you hear about Maple Syrup Wine?
Although grapes may be used to produce the wine you know and love… Yet our goal is to open your eyes and persuade you to try maple wine.
But what exactly is maple wine? Like other alcoholic beverages, wine must be made using sugar. The substance is naturally abundant in maple syrup. It was just a matter of time before Canadians made the decision to turn it into an alcoholic beverage. Like ice wine, maple wine has a lovely colour (imagine golden gold) and a sweetness that makes it ideal for use as an aperitif or dessert wine. The same tall, narrow bottle holds it most frequently. The sweet wine is produced by many wineries throughout Ontario, Nova Scotia, Quebec and British Columbia.
In order to make Maple syrup wine, the syrup must be diluted with water, a yeast mixture must be added to begin the fermentation process, and the finished product must be filtered after being allowed to mature for a few months in repurposed whisky barrels. And that’s basically it.
The maple wine can become bolder by maturing in whisky barrels; some people even claim it can taste like bourbon. Also, some winemakers have experimented with adding lemon or orange juice to help offset some of the richness of the maple flavour.
With aging, maple wine will become transparent and will take on a golden, sherry hue. The sweetness and intensity of maple wines make them suitable as aperitifs or dessert wines.
Similar to ice wine, a maple wine is most frequently seen in a thin, 375-mL bottle, which is a sign of its sweetness and dessert-like characteristics. You should try maple wine on your pancakes and especially on your ice cream.
Spring is when maple syrup is often harvested, but the wine can be enjoyed any season. Keep an eye out for maple wine because it will probably be the ideal complement to your autumnal delights.
