Updated on Jan. 09, 2025
Before you flip that first pancake, make sure you've got the best maple syrup on hand to top it off. Our experts tested 10 brands to find the very best.
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No Sunday morning breakfast spread is complete without a towering stack of pancakes—and no pancake is perfect without a good pour of maple syrup.
But we’ve all been to a diner for breakfast and suffered lackluster syrup. Or we grabbed the last bottle on the shelf only to discover it was too sweet and almost ruined your homemade waffles.
Worry no more, though. Our Test Kitchen wants to help you make the most of all these breakfast goodies by finding the best maple syrup.
If you’re serious about maple, you know that Vermont is the place to source your syrup. While there are lots of Vermonters making syrup, our Test Kitchen is a fan of Runamok Sugarmaker’s Cut Maple Syrup.
This USDA-certified organic syrup hails from rural Vermont, where a collective of farmers works together to make this prime product, one marked as “sugarmaker’s cut.” What does this mean for your syrup? It means that this is the quality of syrup typically reserved for the farmers themselves—the pros that really know a good syrup.
But our culinary experts also recognize the quality in this Runamok bottle. The copper-colored syrup has a lot of nuances; it’s not just sugar or basic maple. According to Mark Neufang in the Test Kitchen, “this has sweetness with a bit of smokiness and edge.”
You may not typically associate smoke with maple, but like many foods (ranging from everything from tomatoes to wine), location, soil and weather can all influence the end product and give it some unique flavors. In this case, Runamok picks up some pleasant notes of smoke that taste great paired with classic breakfast foods but with savory dishes as well, like this Maple-Roasted Chicken & Acorn Squash.
While Vermont produces the most maple products in the United States, most maple syrup actually comes from Canada. Canada produces more than 70% of the world’s maple syrup including one of our Test Kitchen’s favorites:Â Escuminac Extra Rare Maple Syrup.
This Grade A syrup is sourced from a single forest in Quebec. Unlike our favorite Vermont syrup with its slightly smoky essence, this Canadian maple syrup has some floral and botanical notes. These sweet yet earthy flavors make Escuminac “perfect on a stack of pancakes,” according to Mark. It’s also the perfect ingredient in these maple desserts.
Escuminac’s honeyed texture is also a touch thicker than others we tried which means this chestnut-colored syrup will cover every flapjack with a good coat of maple flavor.
If you want real ingredients at a lower price, try Anderson’s Pure Maple Syrup.
This budget-friendly syrup can be found at most big-box stores and supermarkets, which makes it a convenient addition to your cart as you stock up on breakfast essentials like sausage and oatmeal.
But just because Anderson’s is affordable doesn’t mean it sacrifices flavor. This deep amber syrup had the perfect consistency for drizzling over slices of French toast. Flavor-wise, this syrup has a well-rounded flavor; you’ll get maple and mild sweetness, of course, but also subtle notes of smoke and even earth.
