Most sweeteners arrive finished. Maple does not. Maple syrup begins as sap, and sap is mostly water. On average, maple sap is only about 2.2 percent sugar. Finished syrup lands around 67 percent. That means what people recognize as maple syrup only exists because nearly all of the water has been driven off. Depending on the sugar content of the sap, it often takes around 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. Maple is defined by subtraction That is the first thing worth