maple syrup is a sweetener made from intensive evaporation of the sap of maple trees. Most maple syrup is made by harvesting sap from the species Acer saccharum, the sugar maple. Sap can also be harvested from Acer nigrum (black maple), Acer rubrum (red maple), and Acer saccharinum (silver maple), but none have sap as sweet as the sugar maple. Sugar maple trees grow almost exclusively in the northeast region of Canada and the United States. Some stands may be found as far south as Georgia, but the larger tracts needed for sugaring are found primarily in the northern forest. Most of the commercially produced maple syrup comes from the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec and the American states of Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and Maine.
