The batching and blending of excellent, average, and defective syrup happens because we do not have a good way for producers and buyers to talk about flavor and a way to communicate it to consumers. We talk to consumers about color. Golden, amber, dark, very dark. Can you taste colors?
Look for guidance from coffee, chocolate, wine, perfume, whiskey, and bread as examples of other industries that differentiate flavor and aroma.
Imagine if milk was 30% defective by weight and that was what set the price for everyone. Is that even imaginable in dairy? Personally, I think the 800-pound gorilla bulk maple syrup system has some fantastic advantages. It is easy to sell against that defective syrup and win. I don't want them to change. Then what do I believe needs to change?
Small and medium sugarmakers need a reliable way to talk with buyers, copackers, and marketers about flavor to communicate all the way from tree to pancake. They need better guidance in how to produce what is more valuable to consumers. That will enable everyone in the supply chain to make more money because they are creating more value for consumers by not allowing excellence to be blended into oblivion with VR1 and VR4 defects.
Why do I care about small and medium producers so much? Drive around sugaring country and look at the working landscape. These are farms and families who keep our states alive. Small and medium producers act like owners, not employees. Those sugarhouses are owned by real people, not by hedge funds.
In maple syrup, perhaps unlike dairy, there are real differences in maple syrup flavor and aroma that matter to consumers. If we can master how to talk about flavor and aroma to each other and all the way to consumers, then we can create more value.
That means we make more money for the hard work we put in. We can keep the working landscape the working. We can keep families in family farms, keep the land and our livelihoods in the hands of real people.