That's....what I had always assumed it was, actually.

I will thank you one day! But I'll never remember the word "skeuomorph." Sadly. ;)

I had imagined it was a way for some kind of machinery to grab onto it. :)

I was picturing it hanging by the handle, permanently at the ready, on a hook near the dining room table.

Nope. My maple syrup containers don't thave those handles.

When I make it, I just put it in regular pint canning jars. :-p

Never crossed my mind, but nice to know.

haha, empresscallipygos, me too!

We put ours in plastic quart jugs which do have handles (not as tiny as this--faintly functional).

In Canada, these fancy bottles are reserved for the tourists to buy in souvenir boutiques. Non-tourists buy their maple syrup in a can at the grocers. It's way cheaper, too, and the light doesn't affect the syrup. :)

This post paid for by the Society of the Bloomin' Obvious.

Ditto Christine's comment. The good stuff comes in cans, not bottles.

Canadian cans FTW.

I disagree that the cans are better. Bottles impart no flavor on the syrup whereas cans will if kept too long...I find the maple syrup will acquire a tinny aftertaste to it. At least that has been my experience. I came across a great innovation on the classic bottle and I don't know why nobody thought of this before. Rouge Organic Maple Syrup (its available online at www.rougemaple.com) comes in a bottle (like no syrup bottle you have ever seen before by the way) but it is equipped with a pour spout!!! That means no syrup leaking down the side of the bottle and creating a sticky shelf in your fridge or on your hands every time you use it. A small simple thing but I thought it was about time somebody fixed it..

@username26: I guess the experience varies, then. In Quebec, my grandfather who has a small farm (couple thousand trees, really small venture) has the facilities to can his own syrup. I do agree you'll find some bottles syrup at the grocers, but aside from the 'pretty' bottle, it has nothing on the canned stuff (except perhaps that tinned taste mentioned by Teramo and that I never had issues with). Glass is a problem since it lets light in. From what I've seen (and sold, I used to work in such a shop), tourist places carry bottles with low-grade syrup and sell it at ridiculously high rices. When I was asked questions by tourists, I always recommended them to go to the grocers and buy cans. They'd get better quality syrup for a better price. /2 cents.

And good for you if you can get syrup that cheap. To survive/make ends meet, my granddad has to sell his syrup $8/can.

Question for the Canadians:

Here in Australia, we only get a couple of different brands of maple syrup in my local supermarket. I usually buy Log Cabin Maple Syrup. It comes in the glass jug-style bottle and says it's imported from Canada and is 100% maple syrup (*not* 'maple-flavoured syrup').

My Canadian friend swears it doesn't taste right, and that maple syrup in Canada is much better. And only the substandard maple syrup is exported. Frankly, this makes no sense to me. True, or her imagination??

@Charlie26 : Taste varies based on the syrup's grade. Amber, Light, Extra Light, etc. Here's a link that might help : http://www.siropderable.ca/Afficher.aspx?page=74&langue=en

Usually, we use the lightest syrup (delicate, more subtle taste) as finishing touches (ex: on vanilla ice cream) and darker syrups for cooking (taste is more accentuated).

Hope this helps! :)

ChristineM, thanks! I had no idea it came in 'grades', actually. I've only ever tried the one type, but I think I love maple syrup more than just about any other sweet thing in existence. I'll check out the link. :)

Oh, and I got it wrong - it's Queen maple syrup I usually buy, not Log Cabin. Oops.

You're welcome! Get the best syrup you can afford based on what you intend to do with it! :D

Agree with the Christine M above...that the grade you choose depends on the use. As for Charlie26, the exported maple syrup is not necessarily bad, its very, much like olive oil, you can get good olive oil and you can get not so good olive oil. The good stuff will always be more expensive...I am a bit of a maple syrup snob to be honest so I only use organic maple syrup because I find the taste is so much better and it is healthier...but then again being from Quebec it is readily available which I know it is not the case elsewhere in the world. Its why I porvided the website above, they ship worldwide.

The good stuff also comes in plain 1 litre bottles with home-made labels (we're in Quebec - the rivers run with maple syrup). If only we didn't have 2.5 litres of the stuff at home! Guess we'll have to start drinking it. ;-)

I just received a can of syrup today as a thank-you gift from housesitting for some friends who were in Quebec (and I love that the text is all in French!). I don't eat pancakes or waffles, so I have no idea what to do with it. Any suggestions?