Sticky Fingers

Why thieves would steal up to $30 million worth of maple syrup is anyone's guess, but that's what happened.

Syrup was stolen from the St. Louis-De-Blandford facility by emptying the syrup from barrels and putting it into other containers.

Everything in the facility was stolen, that's more than tenth of Quebec's 2012 syrup harvest.

The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers said it discovered the missing syrup last week during a routine inventory where empty barrels were discovered.

Anne-Marie Granger Godbout, the executive director of the federation, said that while it is not unusual for individual maple syrup producers to have stock stolen, having millions worth of syrup stolen is ‘unusual.’

‘It's the first time something like this has happened,’ she said. ‘We've never seen a robbery of this magnitude.’

She said the disappearance of the stock was not obvious at first in the huge warehouse. The facility alone houses nearly the equivalent of half the entire U.S. production of maple syrup in a year, she said.

Quebec produces up to 80 per cent of the world's maple syrup.

 

The Maple Syrup Law

Without much else going on, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy is busy planning to introduce legislation to make it a federal crime for people to mislabel products as containing maple syrup.

Leahy said the legislation is needed to protect Vermont's maple crop from fraud.
The move came in the aftermath of a recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation that found a man who had been selling fake Vermont "maple" syrup, when the product actually contained no syrup at all.
This proposal would create a new federal felony offense and increase the sentences for people who defraud consumers and farmers by intentionally mislabeling maple products.
Leahy, a Democrat, announced this plan at the same time he announced the state had received $70,000 in federal money to help market Vermont maple syrup.

In case you are wondering, here are the Vermont Maple Syrup grades:
Vermont Maple Syrup Grades
There are four grades of Vermont Maple Syrup for consumers and one commercial grade. People often ask sugar makers which grade is the best but that is really a personal choice! When you visit a Vermont sugarhouse you should ask to sample the grades that you’ve never had before to determine which one you like the best.



"Vermont Fancy"
Light Amber color, delicate maple bouquet
A very mild subtle maple flavor, excellent on ice cream.

"Vermont Grade A Medium Amber"
Medium Amber color, popular for table and all around use.

"Vermont Grade A Dark Amber"
Dark Amber color, robust maple, heartier maple flavor; also very popular for table and all around use.

"Vermont Grade B"
The strongest and darkest table grade maple syrup, its stronger maple flavor makes it the best grade for cooking.

Log Cabin's All Natural Syrup?

People from Vermont are proud about their delicious 100% maple syrup, there's really nothing like it.

But Log Cabin, famous for their own version of maple syrup have a new product, the All Natural Syrup.
While it's accurate to say there are no artificial ingredients or preservatives in their All Natural Syrup, it's also
accurate to tell you that this Log Cabin product is just a blend of sugar, thickening agents such as xanthan gum, caramel color, and about 4 percent real maple flavor.
Pure Vermont maple syrup on the other hand is exactly that, with only one ingredient: maple sap,
the maple sap is boiled down to syrup thickness.

We found it interesting that the new Log Cabin syrup is in a jug that looks just like the jugs Vermont syrup comes in.
Michelle Weese, a spokesperson for Log Cabin explained that the company believes their new product "complies with all FDA regulations."

That's great Michelle, but we'll stick with the real thing.