by Catherine Belisle PhD, 2023

At the end of the maple syrup season, a unique type of syrup is produced known as “buddy maple syrup.” The flavors of this syrup can range from subtle notes of butter or mocha to more pronounced metallic or sulfur flavors. In an effort to better understand and classify these flavors, the Cornell Maple Program partnered with the Cornell Sensory Evaluation Center (CSEC) to develop a buddy maple syrup flavor wheel (1).

The buddy flavor wheel was developed by building upon previously established flavor wheels and descriptors for Grade A maple syrup (2, 3). The flavor wheel (Fig. 1) includes terms to describe the flavor and mouthfeels that can be found in buddy maple syrups. This standardized sensory vocabulary was designed to help define the many nuanced flavors of buddy maple syrup.

According to the CSEC, the most frequent terms used to describe buddy syrup are bitter, sour, sweet, metallic, butter, coffee, fruity, floral, and astringent. However, flavor characteristics can vary among individual syrups (1) as flavor development is dependent on how the sap was harvested and processed, the composition of the syrup, and storage conditions, among other factors. With this variation, characterizing the flavors of buddy syrups can help ensure that proper syrups are chosen for value-added products or processing-grade sales. For instance, a mocha or chocolate flavor can be complimentary in an orange-infused syrup. Meanwhile, those selling or buying processing-grade syrup can have a written description of the syrup’s characteristics before tasting samples.

Figure 1: Comparison of Maple Syrup sensory lexicons developed by the Cornell Sensory Evaluation Center: a) Regular maple syrup b) Buddy maple syrup lexicon

Sensory descriptor wheel for regular Maple Syrup