The great maple syrup swindle
As reported here recently, Trader Joe’s, a specialty food chain here in California, got caught selling inferior quality maple syrup as Grade A. They claimed their supplier foisted the inferior glop upon them, and who knows, this may even be true. But ignorance of maple syrup is no excuse!
This sticky scandal is spreading. I just bought a quart of alleged Grade A maple syup at Whole Foods, sold under their house name. The proof is in the tasting. I compared it to maple syrup I’d bought from a family farmer in Conecticut. It wasn’t even close. The farmer’s syrup was pleasant, sweet, and bursting with maple flavor. The Whole Foods syrup had a bitter smell and tasted even worse, with a strong metallic aftertaste. Bleagh.
So back it went for a refund, and even Whole Foods agreed it smelled noxious.
So, the only solution is to ask my sister, who lives near the Connecicut farmer, to ship me real maple syrup. Because, among other things, it is wonderful in coffee as a substitute for sugar.
As for the black-hearted fiends who sell commercial grade maple syrup as Grade A, may they fall into a vat of their own inferior swill!
PS Aha! I just found a gaggle of websites in New England selling maple syrup, and ordered from Green Mountain Sugar House! (“Sugaring” is what the process of making maple syrup is called).