A sticky and widening scandal
Trader Joe’s, a beloved specialty food chain here in California, has been caught selling low grade junky maple syrup as Grade A quality. In New England, where I was raised, this is a very serious affair indeed.
Henry Marckres, who heads the Vermont agriculture department’s testing laboratory, said one sample he tested was close to commercial grade, which federal regulators have limited to uses such as curing tobacco and bacon.
The problem, Marckres said, is “someone who buys this stuff probably wouldn’t ever buy a bottle of maple syrup again.”
This explains why Trader Joe’s maple syrup was $8 a quart, while real Grade A syrup sells for $10-15 a quart in New England – where it was made – and much more in California where it is trucked in.
Selling inferior grades as Grade A is simply unheard of in New England! However, in those rare instances when it does occur, a suitably New England punishment is arranged, and the miscreant is tossed naked into a poison ivy patch.
Be scared Trader Joe’s, be very scared.