Birch syrup is a sweetener made from the sap of birch trees, and used in much the same way as maple syrup. It is used for pancake or waffle syrup, to make candies, as an ingredient in sauces, glazes, and dressings, and as a flavoring in ice cream, beer, wine, or soft drinks. It is condensed from the sap, which has about 0.5-2% percent sugar content, depending on the species of birch, location, weather, and season. Birch sap sugar is about 42-54% fructose, 45% glucose, with a small amount of sucrose and trace amount of galactose. The flavor of birch syrup is distinctive. Sap is: Look up sap in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Species Many species; see text and classification Birch is the name of any tree of the genus Betula, in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. ... The coniferous Coast Redwood, the tallest tree species on earth A tree can be defined as a large, perennial, woody plant. ... A sugarshack where sap is boiled down to maple syrup. ... Two American-style pancakes A pancake is a batter cake fried in a pan or on a griddle with oil or butter. ... A Brussels-style waffle Liège-style waffle Fruits waffle and Liège-style waffle This article is about the food item. ... For the computer protocol, see SAUCE In cooking, a sauce is a liquid served on or used in the preparation of food. ... Missing image Ice cream is often served on a stick Boxes of ice cream are often found in stores in a display freezer. ... A mug of lager beer, showing the golden colour of the beer and the foamy head floating on top. ... Wine is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting grapes or grape juice. ... A soft drink is a drink that contains no alcohol. ... Magnified view of refined sugar crystals. ... Fructose is a simple sugar (monosaccharide) found in many foods and one of the three most important blood sugars along with glucose and galactose. ... Glucose (Glc), a monosaccharide, is one of the most important carbohydrates. ... SucroseZ (C12H22O11) is the common chemical name for table sugar. ... Galactose (also called brain sugar) is a type of sugar found in dairy products, in sugar beets and other gums and mucilages. ...

Making birch syrup is more difficult than making maple syrup, requiring about 80 to 100 liters of sap to produce one liter of syrup (twice that needed for maple syrup). The tapping window for birch is generally shorter than for maple, primarily because birches live in more northerly climes. Birches have a lower trunk and root pressure than maples, so the pipeline or tubing method of sap collection used in large maple sugaring operations is not as useful in birch sap collection. The sap is reduced using reverse osmosis machines and evaporators in commercial production, using low-heat, low-pressure extraction, as the sap is prone to scorching. Birch sap is more temperature sensitive than is maple sap because fructose burns at a lower temperature than sucrose, the primary sugar in maple sap. Birch sap is also acidic, so the metal taps, buckets, or tanks used in maple sugaring will give birch sap a metallic taste, and plastic or ceramic tools and utensils must be used. Species with pages written Acer campestre - Field Maple Acer grandidentatum - Bigtooth Maple Acer griseum - Paperbark Maple Acer macrophyllum - Bigleaf Maple Acer micranthum - Komine Maple Acer negundo - Manitoba Maple Acer nigrum - Black Maple Acer palmatum - Japanese Maple Acer pensylvanicum - Striped Maple Acer platanoides - Norway Maple Acer pseudoplatanus - Sycamore Maple Acer rubrum... The litre (spelled litre in Commonwealth English and liter in American English) is a unit of capacity. ... Root pressure is one of the phenomena used by vascular plants to move water into the leaves. ... In cooking, reduction is the process of thickening a liquid mixture such as a soup or sauce by evaporation. ... In simple terms, reverse osmosis is the process of pushing a solution through a filter that traps the solute from one side and allows the obtainment of the pure solvent from the other side. ... Evaporation is the process whereby atoms or molecules in a liquid state (or solid state if the substance sublimes) gain sufficient energy to enter the gaseous state. ...

Most birch syrup is made in Alaska from Paper Birch sap, about 3800 liters (1000 U.S. gallons) a year, with smaller quantities made in Canada (also from Paper Birch), and Russia and Scandinavia (from other species of birch). Because of the difficulties in production, birch syrup is about five times as expensive as maple syrup. State nickname: The Last Frontier, The Land of the Midnight Sun Official languages English Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Governor Frank Murkowski (R) Senators Ted Stevens (R) Lisa Murkowski (R) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 1st 663,267 mi² / 1,717,854 km² 13. ... Binomial name Betula papyrifera Marsh. ... Scandinavia, Fennoscandia, and the Kola Peninsula. ...

See also

• Xylitol - another birch-extracted treat.
• Birch beer

Xylitol crystals Xylitol, also called wood sugar, is a polyol used as a sugar substitute. ... Birch Beer is a carbonated soft drink made from herbal extracts, usually from birch bark. ...

References and external links

• Alaska Birch Syrupmakers' Association Best Practices.
• Birch: white gold in the boreal forest. 2004. Deirdre Helfferich. Agroborealis 35:2, pp. 4-12.
• Alaska Birch Syrup, Kahiltna Birchworks' official site
• "Alaska Sap Suckers" (A story from National Public Radio's All Things Considered program, May 29, 2001)