Birch syrup is a savory, mineral-tasting syrup made from birch sap, and produced in much the same way as

maple syrup Maple syrup is a sweet syrup made from the sap of maple trees. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Ma ...

. However, it is seldom used for

pancake A pancake, also known as a hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack, is a flat type of batter bread like cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based Batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk, and butter, and then cooked on a ...

waffle A waffle is a dish made from leavened Batter (cooking), batter or dough that is cooked between two plates that are patterned to give a characteristic size, shape, and surface impression. There are many variations based on the type of waffle iron ...

syrup; more often it is used as an ingredient paired with pork or salmon dishes in

sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi- solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavour, texture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

s, glazes, and dressings, and as a flavoring in

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

, and

soft drink A soft drink (see #Terminology, § Terminology for other names) is a class of non-alcoholic drink, usually (but not necessarily) Carbonated water, carbonated, and typically including added Sweetness, sweetener. Flavors used to be Natural flav ...

s. It is condensed from the sap, which has about 0.5–2% sugar content, depending on the species of birch, location, weather, and season. The finished syrup is 66% sugar or more to be classified as a syrup. Birch sap sugar is about 42–54%

fructose Fructose (), or fruit sugar, is a Ketose, ketonic monosaccharide, simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and gal ...

and 45%

glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...

, with a small amount of

sucrose Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...

and trace amounts of

galactose Galactose (, ''wikt:galacto-, galacto-'' + ''wikt:-ose#Suffix 2, -ose'', ), sometimes abbreviated Gal, is a monosaccharide sugar that is about as sweetness, sweet as glucose, and about 65% as sweet as sucrose. It is an aldohexose and a C-4 epime ...

. The main sugar in maple syrup is the more complex sucrose, and the chemical contents of maple syrup are also different, leading to a flavor difference. The flavor of birch syrup has a distinctive and mineral-rich, caramel-like taste with a hint of spiciness that is not unlike molasses, balsamic condiment, or some types of soy. Different types of birch will produce slightly different flavour profiles; some more copper, others with hints of wildflower honey. While birch syrup has the same sugar content of maple, it is darker, stronger, and more complex.

Method

Making birch syrup is more difficult than making

maple ''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...

syrup, requiring about 100–150 liters of sap to produce one liter of syrup—more than twice the sap needed for maple syrup. The tapping window for birch is generally shorter than for maple, primarily because birches live in more northerly climates. It also happens later in the year than maple tapping. The trees are tapped and their sap collected in the spring (generally mid- to late April, about two to three weeks before the leaves appear on the trees). The common belief is that while birches have a lower trunk and

root pressure Root pressure is the transverse osmotic pressure within the cells of a root system that causes sap to rise through a plant stem to the leaves. Root pressure occurs in the xylem of some vascular plants when the soil moisture level is high either ...

than maples, pipeline or tubing method of sap collection used in large maple sugaring operations is not as useful in birch sap collection. However Rocky Lake Birchworks in The Pas, Manitoba, is successfully using the tubing method along with a vacuum system for collection of birch sap. The sap is reduced in the same way as maple sap, using

reverse osmosis Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane, semi-permeable membrane to separate water molecules from other substances. RO applies pressure to overcome osmotic pressure that favors even distribu ...

machines and

evaporator An evaporator is a type of heat exchanger device that facilitates evaporation by utilizing conductive and convective heat transfer, which provides the necessary thermal energy for phase transition from liquid to vapour. Within evaporators, a ci ...

s in commercial production. While maple sap may be boiled down without the use of reverse osmosis, birch syrup is difficult to produce this way. Birch sap is more temperature sensitive than maple sap because fructose, the primary sugar in birch sap, burns at a lower temperature than sucrose, the primary sugar in maple sap. This means that boiling birch sap to produce syrup can much more easily result in a scorched taste.

Production

Most birch syrup is produced in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

from

paper birch Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is drained through a fine mesh leaving ...

or Alaska birch sap (''Betula papyrifera'' var. ''humilis'' and ''B. neoalaskana''). These trees are found primarily in interior and south central Alaska. The Kenai birch (''Betula papyrifera'' var. ''kenaica''), which is also used, grows most abundantly on the Kenai Peninsula, but is also found in the south central part of the state and hybridizes with ''B. humilis''. The southeast Alaska variety is the Western paper birch (''Betula papyrifera'' var. ''commutata''), and has a lower sugar content. One litre of syrup from these trees requires evaporation of approximately 130–150 litres of sap."Haines birch syrups attract gourmet following"
, Margaret Baumann, ''Alaska Journal of Commerce'', May 29, 2005 Total production of birch syrup in Alaska is approximately 3,800 liters (1,000 U.S. gallons) per year, with smaller quantities made in other U.S. states and

(also from paper birch),

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, and

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

(from other species of birch). Because of the higher sap-to-syrup ratio and difficulties in production, birch syrup is more expensive than maple syrup, up to five times the price.

References

External links

Petition to US Food and Drug Administration
for establishment of Standard of Identity for birch syrup, including the Alaska Birch Syrupmakers' Association Best Practices. July 18, 2005.

'Gourmet Syrups' educational articles on birch and other syrups

research on sugar content of birch sap *
CBC story on Rocky Lake Birchworks April 2018

Article on birch syrup
in ''Edible Toronto'' magazine ; Listening
"Alaska Sap Suckers"
(A story from

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

'' program, May 29, 2001)
"Not Just Maple Syrup: Birch, Beech and Other Sappy Trees"
('' Living on Earth'', week of March 26, 2021) {{Sugar Non-timber forest products Syrup

Method

Production

See also

References

External links