The Sweetest Trip - A Canadian Maple Syrup Adventure
Who knew being a maple syrup ambassador was a real life adult job! Yet I found myself at the airport about to fly to Quebec to learn all about this liquid gold. A pretty sweet deal if you ask me. If you didn’t know, Canada produces the majority of the world's maple syrup (around 75% of global production) and in 2024, a record 19.9 million gallons of maple syrup was made. Quebec is at the very heart of this production, so where better to explore. It really was an amazing trip and I learnt so much, so thought I’d share some more details with you!
Day 1 - Montreal
After a rather soggy start to the trip, and meeting my fellow ambassadors (Dean Edwards - Masterchef legend, James Golding - aka top chef, and Verna - asian recipe extraordinaire) we had a couple of days to explore Montreal. As the weather wasn’t great (and we were all a little bit jet lagged) it was the perfect opportunity to just wander around, dodging rain clouds by making our way through some of Montreal’s best cafes and restaurants. That’s the great thing about travelling with foodies, they are more than willing to try everything, go halves on multiple desserts, and check out every bagel and sushi shop to make absolutely sure it’s going to hit the spot before committing to one!
Day 2 - Maple Forests and Sugar Shacks
This was the absolute highlight of the trip, and what we were there for - and the sun even came out. I can’t even express how cool this day was (for a sugar loving baker). It was one of those ‘money can’t buy’ days and I am still thinking about it!
However, I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I thought maple syrup came straight from the trees - I just fully assumed they cut the tree open, and out flowed the syrup ready to be bottled up. It’s not like I thought the trees were just leaking maple syrup or anything, but still, I was humbled to find out it is a lot more complex than that. It also makes sense as to why it is so expensive, as there is actually so much work that goes into it’s production.
The maple trees produce sap which pretty much has the viscosity of water, and only 2% sugar content. This gets boiled down over a long period until it has a sugar content of around 66%, at which point you have maple syrup! Of course it’s a little more complicated than that, there’s certain ways to do it to avoid crystallisation, and depending on the recent weather, the sap’s sugar content can vary so it has to be monitored all the time.
From that, they can make lots of other maple products like taffy, maple butter (which is still 100% maple it’s just cooled and whipped until it has a buttery texture), jellies, candies, you name it!
We visited a few different producers on various scales and even had a tour around one of the larger factories (in these rather stunning white overalls and hair nets). However the highlight had to be at Davide’s parents house (Davide works for Maple Canada - and his father has his own sugar shack, so they were kind enough to host us in their beautiful home for lunch, and show us how they make their own syrup). After a 5 course meal (all involving maple of course) we went out to the sugar shack. It was everything I imagined it to be - a small wooden hut in the maple forest, the air smelled sweet, and there was a fresh batch from the day before that had been made to the family’s tastes, rather than abiding by usual sugar content percentages.
At another producer, we went into the forests, to see their elaborate network of sap pipes that just used gravity to collect it all into the sugar house. The maple map they had of their forest almost looked like a sugary version of the London tube - colour coded, interweaving and complex, yet this system worked like clockwork. If you looked closely you could even see the sap moving through the tubes.
In the evening, Maple Canada had hired a stunning house for us all to have dinner in. On the itinerary it said ‘cottage’ so I’m not sure what I was expecting but it wasn’t this! Far into the distance could see some deer up on the hill, and the sunset cast beautiful colours on the patches of snow. I had a little moment to myself where I thought, wow this is very special, and I feel incredibly lucky to be here, trying to soak it all in!
The view was ridiculous, and of course, throw a bunch of content creators into a house with a nice view, and the photo shoot begins! We were also joined by a group of German maple ambassadors who were lovely. It was actually so wholesome though, Davide could play the piano, so we were serenaded by him as a catering company prepared another delicious 5 course maple meal. I hadn’t eaten a single thing that day that didn’t involve maple syrup, and I’m not complaining.
Day 3 - The Great Canadian Cook Off
Still on a bit of a sugar high from the day before, I opted for a light maple breakfast (on my porridge) and we heading off to a mystery location that turned out to be a rather cool cooking school. Great, I thought, we’re going to have a nice relaxing morning, having a demonstration and learning some new techniques for maple cooking….I was wrong. I was already feeling a little out of my depth having been surrounded by some amazing chefs for the past few days when my speciality is…cake. But no, it was in fact, a competition. Thank goodness we were in teams because I was trying to work out what on earth I knew how to bake off the top of my head that would be competition worthy and ready to eat in 45 minutes.
There were 5 teams of 3, and we each had a ‘hero’ ingredient to showcase (with maple…obviously). Ours was blue cheese. There was a whole wall of ingredients available, from fresh to freezer - so we could use anything we wanted (apart from nuts, which we did actually want, but due to allergies etc it was a nut free kitchen). We then had to make the ‘perfect bite’. It had to be a flavour sensation the size of a spoon. We went for a base of caramelised maple leeks, with pears poached in maple water, fresh apple slices, toasted croutons and cranberries. And I have to say, after a few Bake Off technical flashbacks from the time calls, we did quite well! I loved ours! I can get quite competitive, and I’m not afraid of some constructive criticism, but the owner of the cooking school didn’t actually announce a winner sadly. I guess getting to try 5 ‘bites’ by some of the most talented chefs from around the world was a win in itself for me at least.
After a quick visit to Mount Royale, we had a free evening, so Verna and I headed off to find some Vietnamese food, and booked a Comedy Club. The joke was on us though as we got the venue wrong so had to take a last minute Uber, and although we didn’t actually find any of it very funny, it started snowing just as it ended, so we had a little dance in the snow flurry.
Day 4 - Go Canadiens!
After a delicious brunch (….youuuu guessed it, it involved maple syrup!) we had a free day before a very exciting evening. So I did what any normal person does in a new city with a free afternoon…and I went to a cat café! Verna and I both had some work to do and emails to send, so you might as well do it surrounded by cats.
Then it was off to my very first ice hockey match. I can’t say I’m a huge sports fan, I loved athletics when I was younger, and I always watch the Olympics, but I didn’t think this would be my ‘thing’. Anyway, scrap that, it was awesome - there was music, there was a kiss cam (sponsored by Maple Canada I might add!) there was dancing, it was just a lot of fun. I didn’t realise the players would regularly get into fights and nobody tried to break them up - they just had a little tussle, threw a few punches and got on with the game. We won (when I say we, I mean my newly adopted team, the Montreal Canadiens, again the Boston Bruins) - and to celebrate we went….out to Karaoke!
If you didn’t know, I’m in a musical theatre choir, and while I wouldn’t say my voice is particularly nice to listen to, I won’t pass up the opportunity to sing. So this was a lot of fun, and Verna and I rounded off the night at 12am in the 24/hr Poutine restaurant. One of our only maple-less meals - we realised it was now or never before our flight home the next day, and there were zero regrets.
If you haven’t had poutine, it’s a Canadian delicacy consisting of fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy. The word "poutine" is a Quebecois slang word that translates to "mess," and I have to say it was a beautiful, delicious mess.
Day 5 - Heading Home
The trip had come to an end, and it was time for me to get back to my kitchen and my cats. We took a quick trip to some markets and supermarkets (where I discovered that Canadians put maple into literally everything) and a last dash around the shops for some souvenirs, before heading to the airport (where they have a cake vending machine FYI).
A trip of a lifetime I have to say - and that’s just the start because you can expect a lot of maple recipes this year, so watch this space!
As you probably read, this was a PR trip to Canada with Maple from Canada (UK), but there was no obligation to write this post, that was just for my own enjoyment!