Early Spring Captured in a Glass: Maple Sugar on Snow Cocktail

This Sugar on Snow recipe is inspired by the classic maple taffy-like candy. A much enjoyed tradition in  New England and Canada.

Unlike flavor-neutral simple syrup, maple syrup’s contribution to cocktails isn’t just sweetness, but also buttery, nutty, and vanilla flavors. When making these recipes (or any other) “Everything is inspiration and the rest is practice.”

 

The following excerpt is from Botanical Bar Craft: A Guide to the Art of Apothecary Cocktails and Herbal Tonic Elixirs by Cassandra Elizabeth Sears. It has been adapted for the web.

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My recipes are a form of art inspired by nature.

Some of the names are nods to the stories of people and places that inspired the creation of a recipe or the choice of a particular ingredient. Good recipe names are evocative, creating a storyline to tickle the imagination of the imbiber.

Sometimes a new recipe is inspired by the function you wish the drink to serve. Other times a drink comes to life through the energy and flavor of a moment, and its tonic effects are one of the wonderful spontaneous benefits of making and drinking botanical beverages.

Sugar on Snow

There is a beautiful tradition of pouring freshly boiled maple syrup over snow for kids and the child-at-heart to enjoy as fun, sticky taffy.

This recipe is inspired by sugar on snow—it is early spring captured in a glass!

Makes 1 cocktail

• Apple Cider Caramel (recipe follows), for the rim
• Laphroaig or another very peaty scotch, for rinsing
• 1 1/2 ounces (45 ml) birch-infused rye
• 1/4 ounce (7.5 ml) Glenmorangie A Tale of the Forest Scotch
• 1/4 ounce (7.5 ml) Winter Amaro
• 3/4 ounce (22.5 ml) lemon juice
• 3/4 ounce (22.5 ml) maple syrup
• 2 ounces (60 ml) sparkling mineral water
• 2 ounces (60 ml) carbonated maple sap (optional)
• Birch twigs, for garnishing

Place some room-temperature caramel into a shallow bowl for easy use. Rinse a rocks glass with the Laphroaig. Dip the rim of the glass into the caramel and then fill the glass with ice. Put the rye, scotch, Winter Amaro, lemon juice, and maple syrup into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake. Strain into the glass. Top with the sparkling mineral water and carbonated maple sap, if using. Garnish with birch twigs.

NOTES
I use Old Forester rye and Gerolsteiner Sparkling Mineral Water.

To carbonate sap, place some sap in a soda-making device such as a SodaStream or iSi brand soda maker. Commercial sap soda is also available.

Apple Cider Caramel

All it takes to make apple cider sap is some cider and a lot of patience.

Put about a gallon (4 liters) of apple cider into a very large pot and heat to boiling. Boil the cider hard for 30 to 45 minutes, then reduce to a gentle boil and let it cook for about 2 hours more.

Check and stir occasionally, watching for the liquid to become a thick syrup with a caramel-like consistency. Be sure to remove it from the heat before it reaches the hard candy stage. You’ll end up with about a cup (240 ml) of caramel. A woodstove would be great for this recipe, but it would be a multiday process to cook down the sap. Extra caramel can be stored in the refrigerator and used within 3 months.

 

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Maple monograph

Some of you may be asking: What is a monograph?

A monograph is a text dedicated to a single subject; in this case the subject is a plant. The purpose of these plant profiles is to help you get acquainted. A monograph is a good place to start when you’re learning a new plant personality.

I hope they will give you the resources you need to go deeper than first impressions, because true knowledge comes from experience. These monographs are your introduction, but the relationship will only bloom when you touch, smell, taste, and spend time with these plants in a garden, in the woods and fields, and in your kitchen or behind the bar.

Each monograph covers several topics: habitat and cultivation; taste and energetics; actions and uses; constituents and chemistry; preparation

Maple
Acer spp.  •  Sapindaceae

Maple is a cornerstone of both ecosystems and the economy in parts of the United States and Canada. Earlyspring maple flowers provide food for native bees. The annual monetary value of maple syrup production in

Maine is nearly $18 million, which is only 17 percent of US production. In Canada it is $616 million! Canada exported more than 11,000 gallons (42,000 liters) of syrup in 2022.

Habitat and Cultivation

Maples like to be cold. They are forest trees that grow in light woodland and can adapt to slightly alkaline or slightly acid soils. There are over two hundred species in the genus Acer, and all of them reside in the North. Sugar maple (A. saccharum) is one of the most shade-tolerant trees. It was a popular tree to plant roadside about two hundred years ago, and there are many impressive, wise old maple trees in New England.

Taste and Energetics

sweet

Actions and Uses

anti-inflammatory • antiseptic • astringent • diuretic • expectorant • nutritive

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Maple sap can be drunk in season much like the commercialized coconut water; it is high in trace minerals and electrolytes.

Native Americans used decoctions made from the inner bark to allay coughs and colds. Tea from the leaves has been used as a wash for wounds.

The boiled syrup has a lower glycemic index than sugar. Indigenous people of New England tapped maple trees for sap to make maple syrup long before European colonists came to North America. The process was a communal activity that involved the entire tribe. Offerings were made in gratitude to the tree for providing for the people, especially through the harsh winter months. Europeans, upon learning of this practice, traded iron kettles with the Native Americans, who boiled sap by dropping hot stones into buckets made of elm wood. Tribes of Maine include Abenaki, Wabanaki, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot.

Maple wood is used to make bowling pins, pool cue shafts, bows for archery, and musical instruments. Native Americans utilized the leaves to produce a purple dye.

Constituents and Chemistry

vitamin B2 • calcium • copper • iron • magnesium • manganese (1 tablespoon of maple syrup contains about 33 percent of the recommended daily intake) • potassium • zinc

Preparation

Maples bear edible flowers in the spring, if you can reach them!

If you live in a climate where sugar maples grow, I highly suggest you tap a tree in late February or early March. It’s one more way to stay intimate with nature.

Tapping occurs when nighttime temperatures are below freezing and daytime temperatures are above. It is easy to do with fairly minimal equipment. I like to use traditional equipment and boil the sap over a wood fire. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of precious sugar syrup.

 

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Recommended Reads

Simple Maple Morsels: Maple Shortbread Bars & Rosemary Walnut Scones with Maple Glaze

Maple Roasted Nuts: A Sweet, Seasonal Treat