Really late but holy shit you are correct on this. I was at the store the other day to get pancake stuff for my kids. And for some reason I decided to look at the label of the aunt Jemima (or whatever the fuck name they changed it to) syrup. My entire life I was under the assumption that bottled syrup has real maple syrup in it but with some additives. It’s just corn syrup with shitloads of sugar and food coloring. So I lubed up grabbed my ankles and bought a very small bottle of real syrup for 14 dollars. Kids loved it so it was worth it guess.
I agree, maple syrup is delicious. It is unfortunate that most people eat imitation "pancake syrup". It is understandable that many people see a huge price difference and go without the "luxury".
Top 2 are "pancake syrup" and the bottom is maple syrup. These are cheap options from Walmart and Amazon. I didn't plan this, but the price per ounce roughly doubles between them (8.7¢, 16.5¢, 37¢). The "name brand" Log Cabin™ doesn't appear twice as expensive as the Walmart store brand because they both are $3.ish and the log cabin's chimney and flattened bottle design (lack of depth) disguises the fact the store brand has 50% more product. Store brand might even be manufactured by the same corporation and deliberately made to taste worse to push consumers "upbrand".
The real maple syrup will cost $12 or more. In this case I'm showing a deal for 32ozs. Often stores will charge that price or more for less product, because maple syrup is a "luxury". I'm sure there is maple syrup sold at $1/oz in WholeFoods.
This is all probably sounding like some mom-blog, but what I'd like to highlight is the US food system is all kinds of fucked up. Food is hyper-corporatized and profits are made by deception and marketing. Regular people don't have hours of free time to study everything like an autist, like I do. They buy there food locally from the options presented to them. "Local" is a corporate grocery store that uses psychological abuse to sell unhealthy slop.
Local
should be a robust agricultural sector optimizing bringing their market good value. RFK Jr has an unenviable task with wrestling with "Big Agriculture". I hope he manages to be as effective as Trump and DOGE seem to have been so far.
Not to powerlevel, but wholesale bulk prices of maple syrup are roughly 25¢/oz. Like a lot of my food, the maple syrup I eat comes in mason jars exchanged in case loads. State Fairs and agricultural festivals are not only fun, but a good way to learn about who actually makes real food nearby. Farmers notoriously suck at marketing and being visible on the Internet.
P.S. maple syrup comes in grades. Everything is "Grade A" for marketing reasons. It is based on color. Darker is stronger flavored and thicker. Springtime when the temperatures are above freezing in the day and below at night is harvest time. Light colored syrup early in the season, dark at the end. Prices are usually lowest right after the peak of the season.
