Why Grade A Maple Syrup Is So Expensive | So Expensive Food | Insider Business

An 80 million dollar syrup heist is probably the most Canadian thing I’ve ever heard

I have been doing sugar bush (tapping maple trees) since I was around 5 years old. The amount of work and passion that goes into it is incredible. People who do this for a living have my utmost respect.

I feel very lucky to live in Montreal. At the supermarket, you can pick up a 540-ml can of maple syrup for $9.99 CAD, even when it's not on sale, which I think works out to about $50 USD per gallon. (During "sugaring off" season in the spring, you can sometimes see prices as low as $4.77 CAD for the same tin.) I can't even imagine buying table syrup – it's not in the same world! Oh, and if you happen to be in Quebec in March or April, absolutely go to a "cabane à sucre" for a traditional sugar-shack meal, complete with tire à l'érable (maple toffee on snow)!

Why? Cause it's one of the most incredible taste in the world. I'm from Quebec Canada, where we produce more than 70% of all the Maple syrup in the world and we celebrate this amazing product like it's gold, amber gold! Nothing compare to this, nothing.

Great to see a nice couple that's just down to work with each other like that, wish them both the best with their maple syrup business.

This makes me appreciate living in Wisconsin and central Wisconsin at that. A lot of Amish and Mennonite communities make extra income through maple syrup. Being so close to the source, I can get some of it relatively cheap. My favorite is the maple syrup aged in bourbon barrels. Gives it a wholly unique flavor, and cooking with it is great.

I wouldn't say table syrup is "preferred" over pure, it's just that it's a lot cheaper. On the other hand, I only use pure, but my wife likes the table junk. Except when she's cooking, then she steals my pure bottle.

71% of the world's maple syrup comes from Canada. Of that, 91% is from the Canadian province of Quebec.

$200 a gallon is insane, they saw you coming. Even Grade A is $60-$80 a gallon in Quebec at retail prices and under $40 wholesale.

As an arborist I would recommend having a certified arborist look at sugar farms like these to protect the other trees. A lot of arborists will be free estimates and love yo help farms like these! This is so neat!

How are you not filming this in Quebec?

I’m kind of sad this is not someone from Québec. We’ve been doing pure maple syrup for centuries and yet once again it’s a missed opportunity to show what we have to offer.

Grew up tapping trees with an older gentleman in the 80’s. Fast forward to the 2000s and had land with sugar,red and black maples. Tapped 30 trees a year making about 5 gallons in 2 wks. Great for bartering for services.

I don't know what syrup they're buying but I live in northern NY state where a lot of this syrup is farmed and made and I've never seen it sell for $200 a gallon. But $50 a gallon is pretty standard around here.

Used to live in Montreal 🇨🇦 and I cannot live without this golden liquid Fake syrup is a joke ! Buy the real stuff ! 🍁

This is the first time something from this series didn't completely mystify me. I camp on my friends family's syrup tree plot every year here in MN. Best maple syrup you can get.

The lines are a good idea, when we went to the Funks Grove Sirup farm (NOT a typo, that used to be how you spelled it if it was REAL maple, the "y" was for FAKE only) they used buckets still, and it meant you had to keep checking them sometimes more than twice a day. As for cost, I've found that you don't need as much maple sirup as table syrup to get a good sweet taste on pancakes and the like, so it's surprisingly cost effective.

We’ve really enjoyed going to our local maple syrup farm here in Upstate NY. The syrup is delicious! It’s one of the highlights of the cold season.

They've been doing this for almost a decade. I feel like there are better more experienced families that have been doing this for generations that could have been interviewed

It's all over the place in Central New York state, roadside even. Picked up a quart for 12 bucks from an amish farm. Or 48 bucks a gallon equivalent. Nowhere near 200, but I guess it wasn't in a fancy glass jar.