UNDERHILL, Vt. (WCAX) - Ensuring Vermont’s liquid gold meets the gold standard is the focus of a brand-new testing facility.

Making the maple syrup is both an art and a science.

“Occasionally, Mother Nature will throw in a curve ball,” said Jason Gagne, whose comes from generations of sugar makers. Despite decades of perfecting their product, he says there can be the occasional off-batch, and that figuring out what went wrong is a guessing game. “It’s a hard one to put your taste buds on, what this — what is this flavor?”

But a problem is a problem, especially for a state with strict syrup standards.

Tucker Diego with the Agency of Agriculture helps keep those bad bottles away from buyers. “If we find a product that’s off-grade or doesn’t meet our requirements, we do have the store pul

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