Rugged Ridge Forest — Wood-Fired Organic Vermont Maple Syrup

Organic Vermont maple syrup boiled over a wood fire, the way it was done before oil-fired evaporators. Now in three grades.

Real maple syrup is one ingredient: maple sap, boiled down about forty to one. Rugged Ridge Forest boils theirs over a wood fire fed with timber thinned from their own sugarbush, and that fire is what you taste: a faint woodsmoke running under the caramel that you don't get from syrup made on a modern evaporator. Maple syrup is an unrefined sweetener, naturally carrying manganese, zinc and polyphenols, and it has a lower glycemic impact than white sugar. No cane sugar, no corn syrup, no flavoring.

Pick your grade

• Golden Color, Delicate Taste: the first syrup of the season. Light, smooth and buttery with a gentle maple flavor. Lovely drizzled on yogurt, fruit and ice cream, or stirred into tea.
• Amber Color, Rich Taste: the classic all-around syrup. Fuller maple flavor with notes of caramel. The pancake-and-waffle grade most families reach for.
• Dark Color, Robust Taste: pulled later in the season when the sap runs stronger and the sugar takes on more character. Bold and deep. The best for baking, glazes, coffee, and anyone who finds lighter syrup too polite.

Who this is for

• Pancakes, waffles and oatmeal, obviously
• Replacing refined sugar in coffee, yogurt and baking
• Glazing pork, salmon, carrots and squash
• Maple-balsamic dressings and marinades
• Anyone who has only had pancake syrup and wants to taste the real thing

Details

Half pint (8 oz) is the right size to try a grade or to give; the quart (32 oz) is what you buy once you're committed. Store cool and dark; refrigerate after opening. Real syrup can crystallize or grow a little surface mold if left warm and open, which is the absence of preservatives, not a flaw.

Made by Rugged Ridge Forest in Worcester, Vermont, a small family sugaring operation that started tapping in 2014 and built its own sugar shack in 2016.