1 yr. ago • 98%

I'd like to know

48 comments

Other hardwoods can be tapped and their sap made into syrup, it’s just that maple is the tastiest, with the Sugar Maple being what we think of when it comes to making syrup. Birch and Walnut are probably the most common alternatives.

74
- Just be careful with burch sap. You might find that you’re allergic to it and it’s pollen. The hives from the pollen is no joke.
  
  29
  
  Some thrillseeker just read "Watch out the syrup might be SPICY" lol
  
  16
  
  Funny thing, in my family we're all allergic to birch pollen. So before the pollen season we often tap some birch sap and drink to bolster our immune system in advance. Dunno if there's any science behind it, but in my experience it's done wonders.
  
  15
  
  Interesting — is the birch sap/syrup more allergenic than maple? I’m allergic to birch to some extent maybe more than other trees. But also I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to maple also (and many other trees) but eat maple syrup no problem.
  
  3
I don't know about other countries but in Finland people sometimes extract and drink birch sap. We call it mahla.

47
- In Russia as well. And it's called simply "birch juice"
  
  15
  
  We call it trussy juice.
  
  13
  
  Interesting! TIL. I have only tried “birch beer” — birch flavored root beer
  
  6
You wouldn't think of it as traditionally delicious, but gum arabic is in lots of foods as a stabilizer.

23
- I think that’s one of the main ingredients in Cola flavoring
  
  4
Birch sap is also tasty!

14
In Russia we used to drink the blood of birches. It’s pretty good actually.

13
- In the US they turn it into soda called Birch Beer. It's delicious
  
  4
It’s the best of the best!

So, …it’s what the Canadian Tree Vampires crave!

12
- Its got electrolytes!
  
  2
  
  But what are electrolytes?
  
  2
Mastic resin is very popular in Turkey and (I think) also Greece. Used as a natural additive in stuff like ice cream or puddings, but also as a natural bubble gum.

10
- To add to this, it's a coniferous tree so mastic resin tastes delicious if you also enjoy coniferous flavours like juniper, rosemary, pine nuts, etc. They also put it in wine and you can get mastic honey. Tastes like a pine forest, in a good way.
  
  7
  
  We used to grab globs of spruce gum off the trees to chew. Pain in the ass to get off your fingers though.
  
  4
Sugar cane juice is delicious but I don’t think it’s a tree

8
- It's a grass technically
  
  5
You can also get pine sap.

8
- The pine needles make an excellent tea.
  
  2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicle

Chicle (/ˈtʃɪkəl/) is a natural gum traditionally used in making chewing gum and other products. It is collected from several species of Mesoamerican trees in the genus Manilkara, including M. zapota, M. chicle, M. staminodella, and M. bidentata.

6
- Like the gum Chiclets?
  
  2
  
  Exactly like that. Idk if it’s still the same, but a couple decades ago I went to a chiclet farm kinda deal in Mexico, and got to try the (cleaned) raw tree gum. Its pretty much a chiclet straight out of the tree, it just doesn’t have much flavor until after processing.
  
  3
- I didn’t realize Guatemala was such an integral part of Chiclet originally. I wonder if William Wrigley Corp lobbied the government for what became the 1954 coup like United Fruit did.
  
  1
Black Walnut and Hickory are both fantastic!

6
Try it with some bark

5
I prefer human trees

2
delicious blood

Do we have a cursed_comments or brandnewsentence community on here yet?

2
Sugar cane, Arenga pinnata

1
- Just here to point out that sugar is not a tree, it's a grass
  
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