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Maple syrup is made by boiling the sap of sugar maple (Acer saccharum), collected in the early spring when the temperature is above freezing during the day and colder at night. Sugar maple is native to the hardwood forests of eastern North America. Sucrose is the main organic component of maple syrup, while the sap holds many other compounds, including reducing sugars, amino acids, organic acids and phenolic compounds. Besides sugar maple, black maple and red maple are the main sources of maple syrup, because their sap has a high sugar content of two to five per cent.

Not all the compounds responsible for the distinctive flavour of maple syrup are known. The primary flavour-contributing compounds are maple furanone (5-ethyl-3-hydroxy-4-methyl-2(5H)-furanone), strawberry furanone and maltol. Quebecol is a more recently identified compound, created when maple sap is boiled to create syrup. The syrup also contains vanillin, hydroxybutanone, lignans, propionaldehyde and numerous organic acids.

Sotolon (4,5-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-2(5H)-furanone) is a butenolide lactone and an extremely potent aroma compound. It is the major aroma and flavor component of fenugreek seed and lovage. It is also present in molasses, aged rum, aged sake and white wine, flor sherry and roast tobacco. Sotolon is found in syrup between 0.03 and 0.56 ppm, and it has a very low flavor threshold.

Cyclotene is 2-hydroxy-3-methyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one, the enol tautomer of the diketone 3-methylcyclopentane-1,2-dione. It is sometimes called maple lactone because it occurs in maple syrup, though it is not a lactone. Maltol is found in nature in the bark of larch trees and in the needles of pine trees, and it is produced during the roasting of malt and in the baking of bread.

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