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Selling it

Grades, and the four color classes

By Dwight Davis, Founder

Updated

On this page6
Grade is a separate claim from identity. Identity says it is maple syrup; grade says which maple syrup, and the two are measured differently.

What Grade A requires

Not less than 66.0 nor more than 68.9 percent solids content by weight, good uniform color, good flavor and odor with the intensity normally associated with its color class, freedom from off flavors and odors counted as damage, and freedom from cloudiness, turbidity and sediment. Those last two are why filtering is a grade question.

The four color classes

  • Golden, delicate taste, 75.0 percent light transmittance or more.
  • Amber, rich taste, 50.0 to 74.9 percent.
  • Dark, robust taste, 25.0 to 49.9 percent.
  • Very Dark, strong taste, under 25.0 percent.

The flavor descriptors are part of the class, not marketing added on top, so a label claiming a class is claiming a taste as well as a color.

Voluntary federally, and not everywhere

These are voluntary United States standards issued for grading and marketing. Several maple states adopt them or write their own rules around them, so whether grading is optional for you is a state question rather than a federal one. The current standards were adopted in January 2015 and took effect in March of that year, replacing the older scheme that included a Grade B.

Processing grade

Syrup that does not meet Grade A has a place: it is maple syrup for processing, packed in larger containers and used to make other products rather than sold as table syrup. Syrup with off flavors is not to be sold to the public at any grade.

Grading is a claim you have to be able to support

The color classes are defined by percent light transmittance, measured with a spectrophotometer on a fixed optical path at a fixed wavelength, or by a method giving equivalent results. In practice most small producers use a comparison kit calibrated to those classes. Either way the claim on the label is a measurement, and assigning a class by eye against last year’s bottle is not one.

References

United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service. United States Standards for Grades of Maple Sirup (Syrup), adopted January 29, 2015 and effective March 15, 2015. Grade A is “not less than 66.0 nor more than 68.9 percent solids content by weight (Brix)” in four color classes measured as percent light transmittance. ams.usda.gov
State of Vermont. Maple Products Regulations, Section III, which sets packaged maple syrup at a minimum of 66.9 degrees Brix at 60 °F and a maximum of 68.9, on instruments calibrated at 60 °F. law.cornell.edu
21 CFR 168.140, Maple sirup: “contains not less than 66 percent by weight of soluble solids derived solely from such sap.” Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21. law.cornell.edu
Written from federal regulation, a state maple regulation and published extension guidance, not from a laboratory. The density figures quoted are standards of identity and grade, and your state may set its own above them. Anything here is a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture, not a determination that you comply.