How to Make Maple Sugar

Maple tree
Image: pexels.com

A former superintendent of schools with the Bedford School District in Bedford, NH, Chip McGee has served as a consultant with Sugar Maple Consulting since November 2018. In his free time, Chip McGee makes maple sugar in his backyard, and taps his neighbor’s maple trees in exchange for free bottles of syrup. 

Maple sap becomes syrup through a process of boiling and filtering that significantly changes its color, flavor, and consistency. Interested parties can transform both homemade and store-bought maple syrup into maple sugar in a few simple steps.

First, maple sugar makers should boil maple syrup until it reduces by half and reaches roughly 260 degrees. Removing the syrup from the heat source, they then begin to stir it vigorously with a wooden spoon until it becomes granulated in texture. The entire granulation process typically takes around 5 minutes. Finally, skilled maple sugar makers can use a strainer and/or a food processor to break large clumps of sugar into fine grains.