--- ---  # This Family Is Way More Hardcore About Maple Syrup Than You'll Ever Be  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. how to make homemade maple syrup ```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"}}]}] ```