Maple demands dimension. Bourbon barrels unveil its potential — 100% pure Michigan maple, kettle-cooked and rested in hand-selected Kentucky barrels up to 20 years old.
Pour a thimble, hold it to the light. Mahogany with a cognac rim. The nose opens with charred oak, honey and vanilla — baking spice drifting up behind. On the palate it reads as maple, but it doesn't stay there. Kentucky bourbon has loaned it structure; the old barrels have given it authority. It is, structurally, closer to an añejo rum than to table syrup.
We set out to make the maple equivalent of a single-cask spirit. Twenty years of relationships with distillers let us do exactly that.
Old-growth sugar maples from Michigan orchards we've worked with for years. Sap runs clear as water and twice as patient.
Reduced slowly in open copper, the way it was done before steam. Slower caramelization, darker color, deeper flavor.
Our distilling relationships give us access to barrels most syrup-makers never touch. Maple pulls spirit from the staves; oak trades tannin for sugar.
Each bottle is the barrel it came from. We date and number every case so you can track your vintage.
Fennel and ginger spiced cake made with BLiS Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup, served with maple-sweetened crème fraîche and airy maple sea foam candy. Steve's own recipe — the one that's been making the rounds of the shop's dinner parties for years.
