Annabel Langbein
Well-known as a Canadian and North American sweet treat, maple syrup can also be produced in New Zealand
The sugar maple, Acer saccharum, is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and the northern parts of central and northeastern United States. For a long time, people thought it wasn’t cold enough in New Zealand for sugar maples to produce but in colder parts of the country around this time of year, people can be seen happily tapping their mature maple trees and turning the sap into delicious syrup.
The process of tapping the trees is actually incredibly simple. Get out an old-fashioned brace and bit hand drill, drill a small hole about 30cm up from the ground, on the north-facing side of the trunk and then, as soon as sap starts to come out, stop drilling and insert an 8-10cm length of narrow metal piping. This acts as a dripper tap for the hole. A jar goes under the drip line to collect the sap, which will run in the mornings once the sun hits the tree trunk. The sap comes out looking like water and, at this point, contains only 1 per cent to 3 per cent sugar by weight.
At the start of winter the sap has almost no flavour, then gradually, as the season progresses, it develops more flavour and gets darker. By late August/early September the sap starts to take on quite an astringent green taste and gets very dark. Once you see this shift, you know it’s time to stop. The pipes come out and in a matter of months the drill holes have grown over.
Having frost in the ground is the key to successful tapping, as this delivers moisture down to roots and creates a positive pressure in the sap that pushes it up the trunk (normally sap rises only through the growing season, not when the maple is dormant).
Maple trees are not considered sturdy enough to tap until the trunk reaches diameter of 250cm, which in New Zealand equates to 12-20 years’ growth. If you start tapping when they are smaller, you run the risk of weakening the tree.
The collected sap must be boiled straight away or it will ferment. From 40 litres of sap, you’ll end up with a single litre of syrup. Once it starts reducing, you need to watch it very carefully so that it doesn’t get burnt or over-caramelised (the lighter the syrup, the higher the grade). Which all goes towards explaining just why maple syrup is so expensive to buy.
But, oh my ... that wonderful, woodsy, earthy, sweet caramel flavour ... there’s nothing else like it. Just a teaspoon added into salad dressing, icing or a dessert adds a wonderful sweet nuance — and the following three recipes bring the flavour of maple to the fore.