Birch syrup
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Birch syrup is a sweetener made from the sap of birch trees, and used in much the same way as maple syrup. It is used for pancake or waffle syrup, to make candies, as an ingredient in sauces, glazes, and dressings, and as a flavouring in ice cream, beer, wine, or soft drinks. It is condensed from the sap, which has about 0.5-2% percent sugar content, depending on the species of birch, location, weather, and season. Birch sap sugar is about 42-54% fructose, 45% glucose, with a small amount of sucrose and trace amounts of galactose. The flavor of birch syrup is distinctive.
Making birch syrup is more difficult than making maple syrup, requiring about 80 to 100 litres of sap to produce one litre of syrup (twice that needed for maple syrup). The tapping window for birch is generally shorter than for maple, primarily because birches live in more northerly climes. Birches have a lower trunk and root pressure than maples, so the pipeline or tubing method of sap collection used in large maple sugaring operations is not as useful in birch sap collection. The sap is reduced using reverse osmosis machines and evaporators in commercial production, using low-heat, low-pressure extraction, as the sap is prone to scorching. Birch sap is more temperature sensitive than is maple sap because fructose burns at a lower temperature than sucrose, the primary sugar in maple sap. Birch sap is also acidic, so the metal taps, buckets, or tanks used in maple sugaring will give birch sap a metallic taste, and plastic or ceramic tools and utensils must be used.
Most birch syrup is made in Alaska from Paper Birch or Alaska Birch sap, about 3800 litres (1000 U.S. gallons) a year, with smaller quantities made in Canada (also from Paper Birch), and Russia and Scandinavia (from other species of birch). Because of the difficulties in production, birch syrup is about five times as expensive as maple syrup.
See also
- Xylitol, a sugar alcohol extracted from birch
- Birch beer
- Maple syrup
References and external links
- Alaska Birch Syrupmakers' Association Best Practices.
- [Birch: white gold in the boreal forest.] (pdf download) 2004. Deirdre Helfferich. Agroborealis 35:2, pp. 4-12.
- [Alaska Birch Syrup], Kahiltna Birchworks' official site
Listening
- ["Alaska Sap Suckers"] (A story from National Public Radio's All Things Considered program, May 29, 2001)
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