Maple Syrup vs. Imitation Syrup

True confession time: I was raised on Log Cabin, Mrs. Buttersworth, and Aunt Jemima's Syrup (and the generic equivalent). I believed it was maple syrup. Then I met my husband, who was shocked that I not only ate and enjoyed Mrs. Buttersworth, but that I also thought that real maple syrup was too sweet. During the course of our dating, I saw the error of my ways and slowly retrained my taste buds to accept what real maple syrup tasted like.

So what is the difference between maple syrup and imitation maple syrup?


What we call fake or imitation maple syrup actually has a name- pancake syrup, waffle syrup, table syrup, or just syrup. This type of syrup is not allowed to have the word maple in the name because it does not contain any amount of maple in it. 

The ingredients found in real maple syrup is simply maple sap. Maple sap is simply water, sugar, and trace amounts of minerals (good ones like magnesium, zinc, and calcium).

On the other hand, the popular brands of pancake syrup usually contain the following ingredients: corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, water, cellulose gum, caramel color, salt, sodium benzoate and sorbic acid (preservatives), artificial and natural flavors, sodium hexametaphosphate. Yikes! That's a lot of ingredients, most of which were developed in a laboratory.

Unlike the ingredients found in pancake syrup, the ingredients found in maple syrup don't require a Google search to know what you are eating. In case you were wondering that sodium hexablahblah is used as an ingredient in water softeners and detergents, which makes me as the question "Is that really safe to eat?" I think it's pretty safe to say that pancake syrup is not something you want to feed your family.

So, now that we know what's in these two syrups, let's look at how they are made.  I honestly wish I could find pictures of how pancake syrup is made, but like most of the science experiment food from large companies, there are none to be found. It's probably a two fold reason. The first is because there are trade secrets that they don't want to divulge, and the second is probably because nobody would want to eat it if they saw what it looked like before it came in the pretty little bottle.

We do know the process of how real maple syrup is made. It is first gathered from maple trees beginning in late February and lasts for about six weeks. In order for the sap to come out of the tree there needs to be a very specific temperature range: roughly 40 degrees during the day and 20 degrees at night. The temperature plays an important role in the movement of the sap within the tree.

The maple trees are tapped in the trunk with a spout to allow the syrup to drip into a container.  The syrup can be contained in a bucket, a jar, or even a plastic bag as seen below.

Sap dripping into a container. Taken in Holmes County, Ohio.

The maple sap then gets collected and put into an evaporator, where the water is boiled off and the sap is reduced into the syrup we know and love. It does need to get filtered to remove the sugar sand before it is finished and bottled.

Evaporator used in the production of maple syrup.

Here's a picture of a sugarbush along the road.

The choice is simple, maple syrup is superior in both taste and nutrition. There is however a drawback to the real stuff- price. Because of the limited area and time frame from which maple syrup can be harvested and the energy expenses incurred in the reduction process, it is noticeably more expensive then pancake syrup. It's probably at least double the cost, unless you buy it at Costco, Sam's, or BJ's.

For those on a more restricted budget, I have a recipe for homemade pancake syrup that has far less ingredients (and far scarier too!), which I will be sharing in a separate post.

Also, please note that the ingredients listed above for pancake syrup came directly from the Aunt Jemima website. Additionally, Log Cabin does have a pancake syrup made with no High Fructose Corn Syrup, but it still probably has the other scary ingredients in there.