Maple syrup is typically made by reducing maple sap by a factor of 40. For some time I was wondering what raw maple sap tastes like. A recent stop in a local grocery store’s Expensive Water section turned up quarts of Vermont “maple water” selling for $4.50! To satisfy my curiosity I bought one of these:

It smells something like diluted coconut water and tastes relatively neutral, with only a hint of sweetness and a woodsy aftertaste.

Of course the economics of this are crazy: A quart of Vermont maple syrup runs under $15. Why not buy maple syrup and dilute it with water, 40:1, thereby reconstituting “maple water” for a tenth the cost?

I guess you wouldn’t get the fancy packaging advertising the not-from-concentrate version’s “electrolytes, antioxidants and prebiotics,” some of which might be lost in the process of reducing sap to syrup?