--- title: how to make homemade maple syrup description: One internet user has broken down the entire process of making maple syrup from scratch — and it's an impressively committed operation. canonical: https://time.com/5181197/maple-syrup-family/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-01T21:00:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:01.957Z og:title: This Family Is Way More Hardcore About Maple Syrup Than You og:description: This is your ultimate guide to DIY maple-syrup-making og:url: https://time.com/5181197/maple-syrup-family/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2fc25bfdb4ae67a/6989294edb2987228d25eef1/maple-syrup-tap.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4914 og:image:height: 2764 og:image:alt: maple-syrup-tap og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Family Is Way More Hardcore About Maple Syrup Than You twitter:description: This is your ultimate guide to DIY maple-syrup-making twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2fc25bfdb4ae67a/6989294edb2987228d25eef1/maple-syrup-tap.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Family Is Way More Hardcore About Maple Syrup Than You'll Ever Be > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=6bec9f3e-8332-48bc-af1b-0cc713613b08&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 1, 2018 9:00 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 1, 2018 9:00 PM UTC Ever wanted to learn how to tap a tree for maple syrup? [A reddit user](https://imgur.com/a/j4vpI) has you covered. In an extensively detailed post on the image-sharing site, spanning 18 images with very technical and helpful descriptions, Imgur user hdc3 lays out the entirety of a [maple syrup](http://www.extracrispy.com/food/4817/the-maple-syrup-shortage-is-probably-worse-than-we-thought) tapping operation for any hobbyist syrup lovers. If you’ve ever given any thought to the origins of maple syrup, you’ve probably seen or read about a more old-school approach that includes fixing buckets to the taps in individual trees, and then harvesting the sap from each bucket — a labor-intensive process, to be sure. But this syrup wiz has taken the at-home tapping process all the way into 2018\. “The first thing I did this spring was to prepare 200 drop rigs,” begins the “DIY Maple” post, accompanying a picture of a set of blue tubes and spigots. The photo series then takes us through the technical parts of the tapping process that transforms [sap into sugar](http://www.extracrispy.com/food/4442/how-much-sugar-is-in-honey-maple-syrup-and-agave-nectar) — the drilling of taps, the intricate connecting of lines, the sap-releas monitor, the reverse-osmosis system of distillation — in a true journey of expert-level amateur maple syrup production. “It isn’t pretty but it makes delicious maple syrup,” notes the creator at one point about their advanced setup, referencing a wood-burning “evaporator” used to help bring the raw material to a boil and condense it down into its sugary final form. Looks like this syrup-concocting aficionado would be right at home with the maple-syrup-obsessed [residents of _Riverdale_.](http://www.extracrispy.com/culture/4180/netflix-riverdale-pop-up-diner-canada) Or, in real life, would make for a great neighbor. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5181197/maple-syrup-family/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5181197/maple-syrup-family/"},"headline":"This Family Is Way More Hardcore About Maple Syrup Than You'll Ever Be","datePublished":"2018-03-01T21:00:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:51:01.957Z","description":"One internet user has broken down the entire process of making maple syrup from scratch — and it's an impressively committed operation.","url":"https://time.com/5181197/maple-syrup-family/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Food & Drink","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2fc25bfdb4ae67a/6989294edb2987228d25eef1/maple-syrup-tap.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb2fc25bfdb4ae67a/6989294edb2987228d25eef1/maple-syrup-tap.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"maple-syrup-tap","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5181197/maple-syrup-family/","name":"This Family Is Way More Hardcore About Maple Syrup Than You'll Ever Be"}}]}] ```