One maple syrup producer hit the sweet spot during judging this week. We just don’t know who that is … yet.
Eight producers from as far as Sudbury and as close as the Waterloo Region submitted maple syrup samples for consideration to be crowned the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival’s producer of the year. Along with the coveted title, the winner is also the feature supplier of up to 500 litres of maple syrup for the festival’s pancake tent.
Judging this year had two new faces, Brian Bainborough, a certified maple syrup judge by the International Maple Syrup Institute and president of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association, was joined by Todd Luety, expert maple syrup specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs.
The submissions didn’t make it easy for the judges who narrowed it down to a faceoff between two entries, the winner coming ahead only by a drop of sap.
“That might have been the most difficult one I have judged yet because of how good the entries were,” said Luety after the winner had been decided.
The producers were judged on four criteria, each counting for a percentage on a 100-point scale.
“There’s international guidelines that are written for judging,” explained Bainborough. “There are four categories that you score on and if you look at it its like a report card out of 100. Density is the sugar content, there is a mark for clarity, another for colour and then the fourth one is taste.”
Bainborough noted that all fall into the amber colouring, while there are three other classifications of syrup – golden, dark and very dark.
Although the festival enlisted the likes of Bainborough and Luety to judge this year, having experts judge rather than dignitaries is only a recent happening. About three years prior it was the mayors of the regions who chose a winner, however, having experts come in sheds light on all aspects of the production rather than just the subjective taste of consumers. This provides event officials, such as the organizer of the producer of the year contest Greg Bedard, the opportunity to learn more about syrup.
“I think it’s just really learning more insight for someone like myself,” he said. “We can taste all of them and they will all taste excellent, but then getting someone with knowledge of it, they can distinguish why it tastes a certain way and where in the process that taste came from.”
The producer of the year will be announced at the ceremonial first tap of the season, set for February 23 at Snyder Heritage Farms.
