We’ve been making our own maple syrup at home for ten years now. In addition to giving us a productive way to spend March—not a small challenge in the muddy thaw that is early spring in central Vermont—it provides us with enough natural sweetener for a year’s worth of homemade eating and drinking. Subsistence maple making is . . . well . . . sweet!
In the height of “sugaring” season, as it is traditionally called, we taste the earth waking up by drinking maple sap straight from the tree. Then we sample the hot, thin and sweet sap as it thickens, mid-boil, calling it “maple tea.” But nothing in this world tastes better than just-finished syrup fresh from the evaporator. All year, we dress our pancakes and waffles with our own maple. And the barbecue sauces, marinades and salad dressings we make to accompany family meals almost always feature maple syrup. Homemade maple candy and baked goods iced with maple cream are for special occasions only, of course. But our homemade maple sugar does the hard, everyday work of standing in for the white stuff all year. And summer is no exception!
Not everyone can make their own maple syrup, and 100 percent pure maple syrup is not inexpensive, it’s true. But if there is one application beyond pancakes and waffles that is perfectly situated to the taste of maple, as dear as it is, it is drinks. And summer presents a unique opportunity to enjoy maple instead of white sugar in thirst-quenching beverages. Whether you are taking a break from felling, splitting or stacking the coming winter’s firewood, tending a small orchard of fruit trees, caring for the kitchen garden, or just relaxing in the shade after a long day of homesteading, consider a beverage that’s homemade and slightly sweet, nutritious, and deliciously maple. Here’s how to fix some of our favorite, hydrating summer drinks made with maple syrup!
Maple Jalapeno Switchel
Sources differ as to the origins of the switchel. But whether it started in the Caribbean, with the Amish, in ancient Greece, or somewhere else entirely, switchel has long been a popular choice for refreshment and rehydration during the summer months. Have you never had this sweet, vinegar-based beverage? Try this Maple Jalapeno Switchel to start! You may just find yourself getting hooked.
Put 1 to 2 cups of ice in a quart jar with 2 tablespoons each of maple syrup and apple cider vinegar and a pinch of salt. Add 3 slices of pickled jalapeno. Fill the jar with water. Top with a sealing lid. Shake until ice cold. Enjoy!
Maple Apple Cider-Ade
As far as we know, this drink was invented by a Vermont Evaporator Company employee for whom adequate hydration is something of a religion! Used as a homemade substitute for supermarket sports drinks, Maple Apple Cider-Ade is not short on calories, but made exclusively of wholesome stuff and very delicious.
Put 1 cup of ice in a pint jar with ½ teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup and 1 teaspoon of freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice. Fill the jar with apple cider. Top with a sealing lid. Shake until ice cold. Enjoy!
Homemade Maple Soda
Brace yourself for controversy, because we’re going to misuse a countertop soda machine for this recipe! Carbonated maple beverages are easy to find—at least in our neck of the woods—in co-ops and specialty grocery stores. Maple soda is lovely, and our Vermont patriotism makes us glad and thankful to see another emerging market for our biggest agricultural product. But you can easily make Homemade Maple Soda when you can’t find it in the store. Here’s how!
Feeling brave? Break appliance protocol by adding 6 teaspoons of maple syrup to the approximate 1 liter of water in your countertop soda machine bottle. Trust us! We’ve done this many times. Mix well. Carbonate. Enjoy!
If you don’t own a countertop soda machine or would prefer not to break the rules, crack open a twelve-ounce can of club soda and take a large sip. Carefully pour 3 teaspoons of maple syrup into the can and gently swish around. Absolutely delicious and entirely within the lines!
Maple Lemonade
Is it even a summer drink list if it doesn’t contain lemonade? We don’t think so, either. Lemonade made with freshly squeezed lemon juice and maple syrup is not crystal-clear and is more orange than yellow, but if you can overlook these things, more’s the better, because nothing beats Maple Lemonade for taste. This recipe is for a single serving, but you may find yourself extrapolating once your family gets a taste!
Mix 3 tablespoons each freshly squeezed lemon juice and maple syrup. Add 1 cup of water. Mix well and serve on ice.
Maple Lime Fizz
For a twist on the traditional, there’s Maple Lime Fizz! Great at any time, but lends itself to mocktail hour after a long, hot summer day. For fanciness, consider wetting the rim of your glass with the lime juice and rimming with maple sugar before preparing.
Mix 3 tablespoons each freshly squeezed lime juice and maple syrup. Pour over ice. Add seltzer or club soda to taste. Garnish with a lime. Drink in the shade.
Spicy Maple Shrub
A shrub is a syrup made of sweetened, fruit-infused vinegar. Although here we used blueberries, this Spicy Maple Shrub can be made with any seasonal fruit: the fresher the better. The Spicy Maple Shrub is sweet and hot, just like a perfect summer day, and would also make an excellent mocktail. Here’s how to make it!
Simmer 1 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1 cup of seasonal fruit, 1/3 cup of maple syrup, one cinnamon stick and ¼ teaspoon of red chili flakes for 10 minutes. Strain, cool and serve over ice, or with seltzer. Garnish with more fruit.
Maple Sun Tea
It’s not your mother’s sun tea! Instead of flavoring with lemon or white sugar, try a slightly Sweet Maple Sun Tea. Here’s how.
Make sun tea. Place 6 black tea bags in a ½ gallon mason jar or an equivalently sized, see-through glass pitcher or container. Fill to within 1 inch of the top of the jar with water. Place in the sun and allow to steep for several hours, or until the tea is medium-to-dark brown. Add maple syrup to taste (start with ¼ cup and adjust from there). Mix well. Serve over ice.
Maple Iced Mocha
No drink list is complete without a nod to coffee. Though it is not necessarily associated with hydration—caffeine is, after all, a diarrhetic—sometimes you need a long, cool pick-me-up in the summer. The recipe works with decaf as well, of course, but whatever brew you use, you can’t go wrong by adding a little chocolate.
Brew a serving of your favorite coffee. Mix 1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup together until well blended. Add to the coffee while it is hot. Allow the mixture to cool slightly. Pour over ice. Add a dash of the milk of your choice if desired!
If you try a few of the above recipes, you will find that maple is particularly well situated to satisfy the intense thirst of summertime. Perhaps that’s because, in addition to being delicious, sweeteners made from maple sap contain vitamins and minerals that are absent from white sugar. Unlike white sugar, maple sweeteners contain a significant quantity of manganese—a mineral essential to building body tissue, to brain and nerve function, to calcium absorption, to blood sugar regulation and to metabolism. Riboflavin, found only in trace amounts in white sugar, is present in significant amounts in maple sweeteners as well. Like manganese, riboflavin is essential to cell development, growth and function as well as metabolism. Maple also contains notable amounts of magnesium, zinc, potassium and calcium—all vitamins and minerals essential to life, just like water itself! White sugar contains none of these nutrients.
Is maple especially delicious and rehydrating because of these nutrients? Wouldn’t we love to know! But what we do know is that we feel good consuming this natural, homemade product in lieu of the comparatively empty calories that come from conventional white sugar, and we do so all year long, including summertime. Now, you can too!