While there is a very strong localvore movement here in Vermont, we can protect a lot more forest by selling to export markets than we can by selling in the farmers markets.

In the export market, the big competition is the Canadians, who spend quite a bit of money marketing their syrup worldwide, largely as a single trading cooperative. Their marketing can sometimes sound as though they are talking down the maple syrup produced in the U.S. Speaking to several prospective Asian clients over the last year, as I have, you definitely get the impression that they’re being told frequently about the “unique” qualities of Canadian syrup.

I figure the best answer to that is sending barrels of maple syrup overseas so that people can see for themselves. We produced a brochure for international clients that can be seen here.

In South Korea, there has long been a market for maple sap, rather than maple syrup. They call the sap gorosoe. Sap, however, is impractical to transport half-way across the world, as it requires storage systems similar to those required by milk. Once it’s concentrated into maple syrup, it is sufficiently stable to ship. Reconstituting sap from syrup (adding water) can be done, but it will contain the diluted maple flavor of maple syrup. Uncooked sap does not.

Nancy’s granola manages to retain a lot of maple flavor. She uses our dark commercial syrup that really packs a punch. She sent samples to us of different mixes and production methods, and after a few months of consulting wound up with this particular recipe. I highly recommend people try it. Nancy’s site isn’t up yet, but she can be emailed at nancysgranola-at-yahoo.com.

I used up the last bit with an experiment; pouring milk into a small cup of the granola and using it as a cereal.

It goes to show that there is room in the food market for people who have a passion for tinkering in the kitchen to discover new ways of doing things that set their product on a higher level than anything else out there. Elaine McCabe’s Red Kite Candies also comes to mind, the company that created a new kind of caramel that is so much better than normal caramels, that they should really be called something different. In both cases, the women were relentless about systematically testing different options and methods.

Price Check for Maple Syrup

Buying Maple Syrup, Price Predicting

If time allows, both will be updated prior to the next season. That will provide interesting longitudinal price data.

Building on our maple syrup keg concept from some months ago, Ellie and I installed a system the new counter top that sits on our dishwasher. For less than $50, we purchased the hardware needed to have a professional draft beer tap hooked into a 13 gallon keg of bulk maple syrup sitting under our sink. Pressured up to 500 pounds per square inch, this guy will give us a year’s supply of maple syrup on demand.

We designed this originally for some of our small- and medium-scaled food manufacturer clients – folks like Ola Granola and Red Kite Candies, who use a significant amount of our maple syrup for their yummy products, and find it difficult to handle large barrels in their kitchen facilities. It turned out, though, that while the flow of maple syrup is fine for personal use, it’s too slow for efficient application when drawing a few cups at a time. But now we’re getting interest from folks looking to install a draft maple syrup system in their own kitchens. Nothing Vermontier than maple syrup on tap.

One element I’ve been thinking about: if we’re boiling down extra strong, the sugar content of that syrup is obviously higher than normal. A New Hampshire syrup might be below 68 percent sugar. A Vermont syrup should be just above 68 percent. We’ll pack it at about 70 or so. But when the sugar comes out of solution like this, folks say it’s just back to normal syrup. Except, I think it’s not. You see, those sugar crystals don’t taste like maple syrup. They’re just pure sugar. Which means that all the extra maple flavor associated with that volume of syrup remains in the bottle. Here is a picture of the same bottle in the evening…

[This is, quite literally, stored energy]

I need to test this more carefully, but I believe that a bottle of overstrength maple syrup that has been brought back to normal strength through sugar crystals forming will have a higher rate of maple syrup flavor than a bottle that was just brought to normal density in the first place. We could probably best test this with some Grade A Fancy, where the normal strength maple syrup lacks the strong flavor of the darker grades of maple syrup. Sounds like a great excuse to do another tasting.

[Average prices for maple syrup in various towns across the U.S.]

The upshot: retail prices for maple syrup are higher than we anticipated. The average location of more than 30 chosen randomly across the U.S. sold maple syrup for about $96.50 per gallon. Of course, this was sold in smaller units, making the out-of-pocket cost seem more reasonable. The average unit size for the cheapest maple syrup offered in the store was 18.8 ounces, which of course means that the average unit sold was smaller than that. We saw locally that – in the face of short supply – many retailers sold smaller units at higher prices, and this may have happened across the country as well. We will be able to see that in future years as we repeat this research to get year-to-year data. Several locations reported that they were out of half gallons and gallons of maple syrup that they once sold.

Probably the most notable unanticipated fact we found – aside from the high price of real maple syrup – was the high price of fake maple syrup. The average price for fake maple syrup was $26.13 per gallon, sold almost always in a 12-ounce container. The range of fake maple syrup prices was even greater than that of the real maple syrup. The cheapest fake maple syrup (I shudder to think of it) cost $5.19 per gallon. The most expensive: $35.73. When maple syrup packers complain to maple syrup producers about how the market cannot sustain prices above $4 per pound, remind them of that last number. Perhaps suggest that they go into the corn syrup business. I’m sure there’s a heck of a profit margin in that.

[Merced, CA - home of the very urgent syrup eaters]

Real maple syrup ranged from $74.96 in Willmar, Minnesota to the ludicrously high price of $131.94 in Merced, California. I should note that in each of these randomly chosen towns I called at least three different grocery stores and got at least two data points for each town. Interestingly, prices tended to keep to a much more narrow range within a town versus between stores in different towns. This suggests that there are significant regional effects on price, such as distance from producers, cultural use of maple syrup and local cost of living. I’ve put together some charts to explore those.

[Willmar, MN - looks like each home has its own maple tree]

Out of 30+ stores, six reported that they either didn’t sell real maple syrup or that they were out of it. I was pleasantly surprised to see that only two clerks showed some confusion about there being a difference between real maple syrup and fake maple syrup. The nation’s epicenter for not selling real maple syrup is Petersburg, Virginia. Three stores of five queried didn’t sell it. The one chain that did sell maple syrup (Ukrops) charged only $79.96 per gallon. Ukrops is a relatively high-end local chain that is well known for its prepared foods. That Ukrops charges about 15 percent below the national average for retail maple syrup prices and its competitors don’t sell maple syrup at all suggests that there might just be something wrong with the people who come from the greater Richmond area. Just saying.

Very unexpectedly, the cost of living differences between the towns seemed to have no discernable effect on maple syrup price. In other words, rich towns didn’t seem to charge on average higher prices than those seen in poorer towns. It appears as though the setting of maple syrup prices is based on very tough to predict market factors, such as the number of distributors and middle men in the distribution chain, and that market demand forces don’t seem to exert much of a controlling influence on this. The towns selected ranged in cost of living adjustment factors of 85 percent to 106 percent, averaging at 95 percent. This lower than 100 average is due to the fact that no major coastal cities were included in the data set.

When looking at the distribution of prices, as in the chart below, it seems as though there is a relatively thin floor in pricing extending between $75 per gallon and $90 per gallon of maple syrup. This suggests that the cheaper prices sold “retail” directly by maple syrup producers are the anomalies in the market. This is very likely the explanation as to why government data is not reflective of reality for the general consumer. In maple syrup-producing regions, which account for a very small percent of the U.S. population, people may be able to purchase syrup for $48 a gallon, as they can here at a local maple syrup farm in Thetford. But that same maple syrup producer can sell the same gallon for quite a bit higher elsewhere.

[Data set of 25 prices per gallon of maple syrup]

The distance from the major maple syrup producing state – Vermont – and the town in question does appear to have an influence on price. The further away from Vermont , not surprisingly, the higher the price of maple syrup, with some exceptions. The bar chart of the prices in the different towns (top chart) is organized by distance from Thetford, VT. The trend to higher maple syrup prices the further away you get is pretty obvious. This may be explained almost entirely by shipping costs. Most methods of moving maple syrup from one coast to the other cost about $20 per gallon.

It should be noted that all of these calls were made in February 2009, just prior to the new production season. This is the time of the lowest inventories of maple syrup and the time least likely to confuse the influences of two different maple syrup seasons in the market.

As with all data-oriented research studies, some of the most interesting stuff came out of the “verbatims,” or things said on the phone by the folks answering the questions. These aren’t necessarily representative, but it’s interesting to see these ideas floating out there, affecting in a very real way the maple syrup purchase decisions of people calling up a store to ask about a product:

-

“All the grades taste the same, but the colors are different”

-

“This actually isn’t that expensive for this product”

-

“The Maple Grove brand must be better than this other one, because the other one is the store’s brand.”

-

“There’s a generic brand, but you probably don’t want that.”

-

“I can’t stand the fake stuff.”

-

“We use honey or karo”

-

“There used to be a lot more sizes”

-

“Oh my god”

Here is an example of one producer’s ad appearing next to a urine odor advertisement for just that reason.

There’s not much one can do about incorrectly targeted ads appearing at the same time as your maple syrup ads, but you can usually prevent your own ads from appearing on inappropriate sites. Systems like Google and Yahoo allow you to use “negative” keywords, which essentially prevent your ad from appearing after users use certain keyword terms. For instance, if you use the negative keyword “furniture,” your ad won’t appear on pages dealing with “maple furniture.”

Maple syrup happens to run into this sort of problem quite a lot. There are two different fad diets out there, each using Grade B maple syrup as a key component. But these diets: the “Maple Syrup Diet” and the “Master Cleanser Diet,” along with a few other variations, involve some pretty disgusting behaviors. They remind me of my friends in high school who were wrestlers, always trying to make a lower weight class. Before weigh-in, they would sometimes take large quantities of Ex-Lax to eliminate additional weight. These maple syrup diets use pretty much the same principle, and are probably about as permanent a solution to weight gain.

Some maple syrup makers have keyed into these markets. One of the most popular New Hampshire maple syrup producer sites even created a special package of Grade B maple syrup specifically for one of the diets.

Many online ad networks allow you to prevent your ad from appearing on particular sites. It’s usually a good idea to explore all the targeting options on your ad account to ensure sure your maple syrup ad doesn’t appear with some embarrassing juxtapositions.

Here is a picture of a maple syrup bottle consumed slowly over a year, leaving a residue of maple sugar crystals…

Interestingly, we’ve been polling people over the 2008 to see whether they prefer thicker, “normal” or thinner maple syrup. The vast majority of people said they preferred the standard thickness. One or two said thinner, and perhaps a quarter said thicker. This surprised me, as I assumed everyone would prefer thicker maple syrup over the norm.

When asked both if they knew their preferences well and whether they liked lighter or darker maple syrup, the folks who indicated they knew their preferences mostly said darker maple syrup, perhaps by a 2-1 ratio. The people who indicated that they weren’t confident in their preferences were more apt – but not by much – to say lighter maple syrup. This is consistent with studies done by maple research centers, although I have not seen them couch their questions with the information about how confident the respondents are in their various answers.

A before and after shot of the bottles of overstrength maple syrup.

The maple syrup bottles above are a recent gift to some in-laws, next to the bottle just recently finished off from last year’s gift. Some customers see the maple sugar crystals growing in glass containers and assume that it must be some sort of organic growth. I find that they express this concern particularly when maple sugar just starts to come out of solution, as the early crystals look an awful lot like a fuzz on the inside bottle surface, and sometimes floating just under the maple syrup’s surface.

I am not sure about this, but I suspect that overstrength maple syrup is less friendly to growths because of its lower than normal water ratio. Typically, growths in maple syrup happen only in the thin layer of water at the top of the bottle, often resulting from condensation.

Some highlights:

- A good deal of what we know (which is still pretty incomplete) about how and why sap flows

- Optimal tapping studies, including depth and placement

- Paraformaldehyde pros and (mostly) cons

- Basics of sap collection, including piping and vacuum mechanics

- Sugarbush management

- Forestry elements, such as optimal stocking

- Some very extensive bibliography information on lots of additional research

- A look at learnings about maple tree genetics and reproduction (still pretty rudimentary)

- Costs and economics of sugaring, including analysis of buckets versus lines

- Wood versus oil and gas

- Use of preheaters

- Employing baffles under flue pans

- Alternative evaporator designs, like vapor compression and tubular evaporator pans

- Marketing maple syrup

- Maple syrup grading history and differences between jurisdictions

- Consumer attitudes (perhaps a little dated) on maple syrup

- Review of older container options

Where to Start?

Start with your bottle. The materials, shapes and sizes all affect shipping, sometimes in unanticipated ways (for a quick review of different materials advantages and disadvantages, see this older post. People tend to like plastic best for sending by mail, but I’ve had about as good luck with plastic as with glass – which is to say some pretty messy packages for every couple hundred ones sent without incident. You tend to pack glass with greater care. In fact, the only accidents I’ve had with glass have been bottle stoppers coming out in transit, rather than the glass rupturing. On the other hand, the plastic fiascos I’ve see involved rupturing, almost always at the interface between the container and the cap.

When people buy maple syrup for practical purposes – like putting in their coffee each morning – they tend to order plastic bottles, which is often cheaper than maple syrup sold in glass bottles (2007 proved the exception to the rule, when petroleum prices went so high that packing in glass was actually cheaper). Several companies make special plastic syrup jugs with oxygen barrier coatings that prevent the syrup from going bad after a few months. They also have the charm of fitting into those single-price/send-anywhere boxes that the United States Postal Service markets. All-in-all, a pretty efficient way to get a lot of weight of maple syrup across a lot of country.

For maple syrup operations doing bulk and wholesale business, shipping five gallon pails or larger barrels becomes the rule, more often using UPS or FedEx Freight for pick-ups. On a dollar-per-gallon sent ratio, larger barrels of wholesale maple syrup typically cost about $7 to $12 for moving across the country, depending on scale, location, need for a lift-gate truck and several other factors.

On the higher end of the market – and especially for gift bottles – customers tend to like to order glass bottles. Choosing the right size here is trickier. With all the cushioning that glass requires in the box, you can throw out those single-price boxes from the USPS, as they won’t be big enough. That hurts not just because of the loss of the low postage opportunity, but also because the USPS springs for the box. Now you’re really on your own.

Choose a bottle that fits with a box and packaging. I think I had a good idea a couple years back, realizing that the one-liter flask bottles are roughly the same proportions as a wine bottle. This was important because many, many wine producers send wine bottles by mail, which means there’s a small industry of companies that make special packaging for sending this very size of glass bottle through the mail. After spending $2.20 on a glass bottle, and $1.50 on a special mailer, a liter of syrup (about 3 pounds of syrup) cost an additional $10 to ship to most places east of the Mississippi from the maple syrup boondocks of Vermont. At 2008 prices, that was about 30 percent the cost of the liter of syrup. Folks buying bottles four at a time saw that shipping and packaging cost amount to only about 12 percent of the cost of the syrup. When you see that actual Vermonters must pay 6 percent sales tax for transactions made in the Green Mountain state, that’s actually not so bad for shipping and packaging costs to out-of-staters.

Sugar makers tend to like USPS versus UPS and Fedex, probably because of the flat rate boxes. When you give customers a choice, though, they tend to choose UPS or Fedex, even though it’s clear to them that it’ll cost more. I find that very interesting, and I suspect it’s due to a perception that greater care is given to packages at the private companies. Tillinghastmaple.com stopped offering Fedex and UPS simply because having a mish mash of shippers makes fulfilling orders much more painful. Besides, it gives me an excuse to visit with our local postal clerks, Bob and Henry, although I suspect they’d be happy to seem me go to UPS when the Christmas maple syrup gift rush is on.

Syrup is heavy stuff – 11.4 pounds per gallon, not including the container. Heavy stuff is much more likely to have accidents, spillages or packaging escapes, as the item’s own weight creates a momentum when its moving that can be pretty destructive when it comes to an abrupt stop. And, as it happens, getting maple syrup all over a customer’s mail tends to make them pretty irritable. The weight is also one of three key factors in determining the price of sending a package – along with distance sent and desired delivery speed.

Make sure that the maple syrup is completely immobilized within the packaging. Any room for movement – including after some of the packing settles – will lead to some degree of shock force on the container. When you introduce a new type of container or packaging, it’s best to test one out by doing a few drop tests on a hard surface.

People selling syrup online may be tempted to offer free shipping, but those costs could be a lot higher than anticipated, as the folks most attracted to that offer are often the ones who live the furthest away, causing a much higher than average shipping cost. It’s also an odd form of subsidy for western and southern states. If you think about it, a maple syrup producer who pays for shipping is effectively charging New England states and those nearby a higher amount than those to whom he’s shipping maple syrup in Hawaii and California.

Repackaging

It often makes more sense – and can be kind of fun – to order syrup in bulk and then split the larger amount into many smaller containers to send on to friends and family. Keep in mind that syrup intended to be stored any length of time should be “hot packed,” and you can find directions on how to do that properly here.