Maple Taffy

We celebrate sugaring season (the time of year when maple sap is ready for collection) by making candy from the best of winter’s harvest: maple syrup and snow.

When sap is collected, it only contains about two percent sugar. This liquid is reduced and thickened to form a syrup. To create Sugar on Snow, maple syrup is heated and then poured over a mound of snow. As the syrup hardens, it forms a taffy-like candy. Because the best powder falls in the peak of winter, some New Englanders (especially in Vermont) readily admit to storing trash bags of snow in the freezer in preparation for sugaring season.