Adirondack Sugar Shacks On Tap For Maple Syrup Tours

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LAKE PLACID -  Maple sugar houses across the state steam into action in early spring to produce between 600,000 to 700,000 of maple syrup each year.  In the Adirondacks, syrup producers have tapped their maple trees and the sap is just about to flow. That means it’s time to celebrate spring’s sweetest by-product, maple syrup, with the Tastes of Maple on March 25 in Lake Placid. 

In its fourth year, the Tastes of Maple event allows visitors to try local maple-based cuisine prepared by over a dozen area restaurants. Samples include maple cheddar fondue, smoked maple wings, and maple-laced beer, cocktails and much more. Syrup is not just for pancakes anymore. Maple drink specials will also be for sale at a cash bar. 

Attendees can judge the local maple producers’ syrup for free by voting on their favorite. The top three winners will be announced at 5:50 p.m. 

It runs from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Conference Center at Lake Placid, 2608 Main Street. Admission is free, and tasting tickets will be available for $1. Credit cards will be accepted. Local jazz group Le Groove will perform through the entire two hours of the event.

Tastes of Maple coincides with the second of two consecutive New York State Maple Weekends (March 18,19 and 25, 26). The weekends are dedicated to celebrating maple syrup and its producers with sugar house tours and demonstrations, pancake breakfasts, and more. 

The Wild Center in Tupper Lake is hosting several maple events, including pancake breakfasts on both weekends and a Sugar Shack Soiree on March 18 at 4p.m. with a games, music and a bonfire.  Although they have no sap to boil because of the recent blizzard,  they will be offering tours of the sugar shack with syrup samples 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. the next two weekends. 

 Stop by the Paul Smith’s College’s Visitors Interpretive Center and the college’s commercial sugar bush to learn how to make maple syrup, complete with tastings. There is also a maple interpretive tour” on snowshoes (bring your own) through the woods to the sugar shack.

A list of all sugar shacks in the area participating in the Maple Weekends can be found here. https://mapleweekend.nysmaple.com/.