4 ms·

Maple syrup is a big one. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to even fancy breakfast restaurants and had real maple syrup. Cracker barrel us

Maple syrup is a big one. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to even fancy breakfast restaurants and had real maple syrup. Cracker barrel used to, decades ago now. It's all garbage corn syrup now. I'd rather not have syrup at all than that cloying, thick, gross stuff.

barbs 4mo ago
Heh, I thought of maple syrup as well. And I'm ashamed to say I prefer the fake stuff! Although it's likely because it's what I had as a child, so there's a strong nostalgia factor.
- bethekidyouwant 4mo ago
  I refuse to believe this is true. t.Quebec
- nick__m 4mo ago
  What's the grade of the maple syrup you tried ? (the new grading system is stupid everything is grade A with a color name) In my opinion, The A golden is light and subtle, I don't know what it's for; it's the variety we sell in tourists, and to peoples that likes fancy bottles and higher prices! The A amber is great as a condiment in small quantities, for pancakes it's the best. The A dark is the best for cooking deserts. And the A very dark is my favorite for cooking meats like ham and ribs. So if you only tasted the A golden I can see why you would prefer the fake syrup if you were raised on that stuff. But I would be surprised if you prefer the fake stuff to the A dark.
  - lo_zamoyski 4mo ago
    This is where I would note that tastes can be deformed. It is possible, for various reasons, to acquire bad tastes (here, childhood nostalgia).
    - mrguyorama 4mo ago
      >deformed Jeesus. Very silly elitism here. There's no such thing as an obvious "Perfect" taste. Everyone has different taste preferences. Some people legitimately prefer and like the thing you consider "lesser" for reasons like they literally experience it differently than you do and that experience is not as good for them. People have dramatic differences in their tastes. Some people are far more sensitive to sour flavors. Some people have way less tolerance for bitter. Your diet will radically change how salty something tastes. Same for sweetness. Same for spicy. I grew up eating homemade maple products from my Uncle's trees he tapped and cooked himself. I've had the real deal. It's just not that good for most uses of "Sugar syrup" to me. A molasses cookie is tastier than a maple cookie to me. Maple syrup on a pancake will pollute the pleasant flavor of a literal cake I am eating for breakfast with all sorts of complicated tree resin compounds. I prefer a simple light caramel flavor in my sugar syrup to go on top of my cake that I am eating for breakfast. I want to taste the light and subtle flavors of butter and sweetness and a simple cake. I don't want the complexity of a good maple syrup. Now when I make my ham, that's when I use a maple glaze. That's exactly when all the complexity shines, against the powerful savory ham flavor.
      - SauntSolaire 4mo ago
        > There's no such thing as an obvious "Perfect" taste. The person you're responding to never claimed there's such a thing as "Perfect taste"; they've only said there's such a thing as "bad taste" (which I would agree with)
  - 0xffff2 4mo ago
    I grew up with the fake stuff, and have lately done quite a bit of taste testing of the various grades of real stuff. Grade A golden is the only one with a distinct enough difference in flavor for me to care, and even then it's very much an acquired taste, not immediately and distinctly better. Given the stark price difference, my conclusion is that the maple syrup elitism is a silly hobby horse for people with too much money.
    - nick__m 4mo ago
      There are 2 maple grove owner in my extended family (both are my uncles one on my father side and one on my mother side) so I never saw that as a luxury product and never had to acquire maple syrup at market price. But I understand your point, if you grew on the fake stuff and considering how expensive maple syrup is, you have nothing to gain by training yourself to prefer the real stuff.
tetris11 4mo ago
the real stuff was arguably improved upon with the thicker replacement. I don't want wet pancakes.
- threetonesun 4mo ago
  As New Englander I feel it's important to note that there are, like olive oil, various grades of maple syrup. They changed the system but Grade B / Dark maple syrup is the best for pancakes and "thickness". If you want to make a sauce or cook with it, golden or amber are fine.
  - brookst 4mo ago
    That grade switch was crazy. I spent decades learning grade B is what I wanted, now it’s grade A, and it’s still confusing me.
    - threetonesun 4mo ago
      It's made Grade B more widely available though, because now it's just a light or dark choice like brown sugar, whereas before Grade B seemed somehow inferior. Before it was easy to assume Grade-A would be the most maple-y.
- phyzome 4mo ago
  Kind of sounds like you haven't had real maple syrup.
  - tetris11 4mo ago
    I have canadian cousins and they send me the real stuff every year. It's just what you prefer. Some people like a Rolex watch they can flash at parties. Others are happy with a cheap imitation with a nice form that they can wear daily
    - phyzome 4mo ago
      Hmm, weird. I've not found real maple syrup to be too runny. (But then, I haven't had the fake stuff in decades... maybe they add a bunch of thickener to it.)
BiteCode_dev 4mo ago
A Canadian friend brought me back 2 bottles of local maple syrup as a gift. Ok, I'm a pretentious Frenchman when it comes to food and I do think most North Americans have no idea how real food tastes. But that stuff, I didn't know how it really tasted before trying the OG thing. Globalisation gave us the illusion of experiencing the world.
- subscribed 4mo ago
  I think it's worse than that. It promotes race to the bottom. I love strawberries, blueberries (bilberry variety) and tomatoes, but apart of the few times in the year when I can collect my own or visit a PYO farm I'm not eating them at all. Every shop (small and huge alike) only sells the fake, hyper-accelerated garbage (sorry Spain and Morocco, but that stuff is just gross), or - in season - locally grown similarly tasteless but raised on BPA, PFAS, dioxins, flame retardants, etc[1] I can't even buy the quality stuff. It's just not being sold, because people only buy and eat trash :( [1] not exaggeration - fuck British farmers knowingly pouring poison on their fields and the corrupt UK governments[2] for openly permitting it, may they get impacted by it: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/16/uk-farmland-being-contaminated-by-forever-chemicals-linked-to-cancers-report-finds https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/16/uk-farml... [2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3e5y85p488o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3e5y85p488o
  - short_sells_poo 4mo ago
    Living in London, I notice the same. Getting access to true quality produce is not even a question of money now, it's basically just impossible to get full stop. There are a few local shops in the more upmarket areas that survive on the fact that people are willing to pay the 2-3x premium over the prices at Waitrose. Gone are the days when you could ask the grocer or farmer to give you a peach to taste. People got used to having 24/7/365 access to everything, and supermarkets optimized purely for looks instead of taste and nutrition, because you aren't allowed to taste anything there. The only thing you can go by is the looks. This means looks sell. I'd hazard a guess the vast majority of brits don't even know what a proper strawberry tastes like, because the only thing they can buy are beautifully polished turds. Everything tastes watery and crap, or conversely just generic "sweet". I wouldn't even blame farmers. Their life is hard enough. They are operating on razor thin margins in a very uncertain environment. The consumer (against their own interests) demands that they produce beautifully and cheap turds, so that's what they'll produce. And if you try to do the right thing, you simply run out of money because you can't compete with the turds at the supermarket. I only have empirical evidence for this, but it got much worse since Brexit as well. The variety has gone down a lot, I see shelves routinely empty at supermarkets and they all seem to be focusing on the same ultraprocessed crap.
hammock 4mo ago
At a restaurant it’s hard because people use way too much and it’s expensive stuff. A solution could be tiny packaged packets of it, the way they do with butter (in part for much the same reason)
- bobbylarrybobby 4mo ago
  I was very dismayed to find that the single serve maple syrup packets that I thought existed are instead just more corn syrup, which cost 21¢ per 1.4oz packet, or 15¢/oz. Meanwhile a jug of maple syrup is 56¢/oz and single serve packets seem to be a bit more than a dollar per ounce.
sciencejerk 4mo ago
I grew up with fake Maple Syrup (high fructose corn syrup), so when I first tried REAL maple syrup as an adult, I preferred the fake, thick corn product over the genuine watery, ultra sweet tree product.
boscillator 4mo ago
Huh, I've been to plenty of places were you could order it for an up charge and it came in it's own little bottle.

barbs 4mo ago

Heh, I thought of maple syrup as well. And I'm ashamed to say I prefer the fake stuff! Although it's likely because it's what I had as a child, so there's a strong nostalgia factor.

bethekidyouwant 4mo ago
I refuse to believe this is true. t.Quebec
nick__m 4mo ago
What's the grade of the maple syrup you tried ? (the new grading system is stupid everything is grade A with a color name) In my opinion, The A golden is light and subtle, I don't know what it's for; it's the variety we sell in tourists, and to peoples that likes fancy bottles and higher prices! The A amber is great as a condiment in small quantities, for pancakes it's the best. The A dark is the best for cooking deserts. And the A very dark is my favorite for cooking meats like ham and ribs. So if you only tasted the A golden I can see why you would prefer the fake syrup if you were raised on that stuff. But I would be surprised if you prefer the fake stuff to the A dark.
- lo_zamoyski 4mo ago
  This is where I would note that tastes can be deformed. It is possible, for various reasons, to acquire bad tastes (here, childhood nostalgia).
  - mrguyorama 4mo ago
    >deformed Jeesus. Very silly elitism here. There's no such thing as an obvious "Perfect" taste. Everyone has different taste preferences. Some people legitimately prefer and like the thing you consider "lesser" for reasons like they literally experience it differently than you do and that experience is not as good for them. People have dramatic differences in their tastes. Some people are far more sensitive to sour flavors. Some people have way less tolerance for bitter. Your diet will radically change how salty something tastes. Same for sweetness. Same for spicy. I grew up eating homemade maple products from my Uncle's trees he tapped and cooked himself. I've had the real deal. It's just not that good for most uses of "Sugar syrup" to me. A molasses cookie is tastier than a maple cookie to me. Maple syrup on a pancake will pollute the pleasant flavor of a literal cake I am eating for breakfast with all sorts of complicated tree resin compounds. I prefer a simple light caramel flavor in my sugar syrup to go on top of my cake that I am eating for breakfast. I want to taste the light and subtle flavors of butter and sweetness and a simple cake. I don't want the complexity of a good maple syrup. Now when I make my ham, that's when I use a maple glaze. That's exactly when all the complexity shines, against the powerful savory ham flavor.
    - SauntSolaire 4mo ago
      > There's no such thing as an obvious "Perfect" taste. The person you're responding to never claimed there's such a thing as "Perfect taste"; they've only said there's such a thing as "bad taste" (which I would agree with)
- 0xffff2 4mo ago
  I grew up with the fake stuff, and have lately done quite a bit of taste testing of the various grades of real stuff. Grade A golden is the only one with a distinct enough difference in flavor for me to care, and even then it's very much an acquired taste, not immediately and distinctly better. Given the stark price difference, my conclusion is that the maple syrup elitism is a silly hobby horse for people with too much money.
  - nick__m 4mo ago
    There are 2 maple grove owner in my extended family (both are my uncles one on my father side and one on my mother side) so I never saw that as a luxury product and never had to acquire maple syrup at market price. But I understand your point, if you grew on the fake stuff and considering how expensive maple syrup is, you have nothing to gain by training yourself to prefer the real stuff.

tetris11 4mo ago

the real stuff was arguably improved upon with the thicker replacement. I don't want wet pancakes.

threetonesun 4mo ago
As New Englander I feel it's important to note that there are, like olive oil, various grades of maple syrup. They changed the system but Grade B / Dark maple syrup is the best for pancakes and "thickness". If you want to make a sauce or cook with it, golden or amber are fine.
- brookst 4mo ago
  That grade switch was crazy. I spent decades learning grade B is what I wanted, now it’s grade A, and it’s still confusing me.
  - threetonesun 4mo ago
    It's made Grade B more widely available though, because now it's just a light or dark choice like brown sugar, whereas before Grade B seemed somehow inferior. Before it was easy to assume Grade-A would be the most maple-y.
phyzome 4mo ago
Kind of sounds like you haven't had real maple syrup.
- tetris11 4mo ago
  I have canadian cousins and they send me the real stuff every year. It's just what you prefer. Some people like a Rolex watch they can flash at parties. Others are happy with a cheap imitation with a nice form that they can wear daily
  - phyzome 4mo ago
    Hmm, weird. I've not found real maple syrup to be too runny. (But then, I haven't had the fake stuff in decades... maybe they add a bunch of thickener to it.)

BiteCode_dev 4mo ago

A Canadian friend brought me back 2 bottles of local maple syrup as a gift. Ok, I'm a pretentious Frenchman when it comes to food and I do think most North Americans have no idea how real food tastes. But that stuff, I didn't know how it really tasted before trying the OG thing. Globalisation gave us the illusion of experiencing the world.

subscribed 4mo ago
I think it's worse than that. It promotes race to the bottom. I love strawberries, blueberries (bilberry variety) and tomatoes, but apart of the few times in the year when I can collect my own or visit a PYO farm I'm not eating them at all. Every shop (small and huge alike) only sells the fake, hyper-accelerated garbage (sorry Spain and Morocco, but that stuff is just gross), or - in season - locally grown similarly tasteless but raised on BPA, PFAS, dioxins, flame retardants, etc[1] I can't even buy the quality stuff. It's just not being sold, because people only buy and eat trash :( [1] not exaggeration - fuck British farmers knowingly pouring poison on their fields and the corrupt UK governments[2] for openly permitting it, may they get impacted by it: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/16/uk-farmland-being-contaminated-by-forever-chemicals-linked-to-cancers-report-finds https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/16/uk-farml... [2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3e5y85p488o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3e5y85p488o
- short_sells_poo 4mo ago
  Living in London, I notice the same. Getting access to true quality produce is not even a question of money now, it's basically just impossible to get full stop. There are a few local shops in the more upmarket areas that survive on the fact that people are willing to pay the 2-3x premium over the prices at Waitrose. Gone are the days when you could ask the grocer or farmer to give you a peach to taste. People got used to having 24/7/365 access to everything, and supermarkets optimized purely for looks instead of taste and nutrition, because you aren't allowed to taste anything there. The only thing you can go by is the looks. This means looks sell. I'd hazard a guess the vast majority of brits don't even know what a proper strawberry tastes like, because the only thing they can buy are beautifully polished turds. Everything tastes watery and crap, or conversely just generic "sweet". I wouldn't even blame farmers. Their life is hard enough. They are operating on razor thin margins in a very uncertain environment. The consumer (against their own interests) demands that they produce beautifully and cheap turds, so that's what they'll produce. And if you try to do the right thing, you simply run out of money because you can't compete with the turds at the supermarket. I only have empirical evidence for this, but it got much worse since Brexit as well. The variety has gone down a lot, I see shelves routinely empty at supermarkets and they all seem to be focusing on the same ultraprocessed crap.

hammock 4mo ago

At a restaurant it’s hard because people use way too much and it’s expensive stuff. A solution could be tiny packaged packets of it, the way they do with butter (in part for much the same reason)

bobbylarrybobby 4mo ago
I was very dismayed to find that the single serve maple syrup packets that I thought existed are instead just more corn syrup, which cost 21¢ per 1.4oz packet, or 15¢/oz. Meanwhile a jug of maple syrup is 56¢/oz and single serve packets seem to be a bit more than a dollar per ounce.

sciencejerk 4mo ago

I grew up with fake Maple Syrup (high fructose corn syrup), so when I first tried REAL maple syrup as an adult, I preferred the fake, thick corn product over the genuine watery, ultra sweet tree product.

boscillator 4mo ago

Huh, I've been to plenty of places were you could order it for an up charge and it came in it's own little bottle.