Fall’s Newest Flavor
With maple as an ingredient instead of just a syrup, chains are tapping what just may be the next big taste.
By The Editors -- Restaurants & Institutions, 10/15/2006
Maple syrup often is pigeon-holed, backed into a corner by virtue of its success as a sweet topper for pancakes, waffles and French toast. But just as vanilla made a big breakaway move when it was stirred up in cola drinks, maple all of a sudden is ready for primetime, especially at the chain level where it is better positioned to reach large audiences.
Seattle-based Starbucks appears to be betting on at least some staying power for the amber-toned tree sap; the mega-giant coffee chain recently rolled out a pair of maple-flavored espresso drinks—a latte and a macchiato, each one pairing coffee with milk and maple flavors. “A sip that’s worth the wait,” is how it touts the foam-topped macchiato in promotional materials.
If Starbucks is betting on it, others will, too. Select locations of 7-Eleven are looking to snag more breakfast traffic with Maple Sausage Roll Ups, a hand-held partnership of link sausage, flour tortilla and French toast batter. Certainly McDonald’s proved that the dining public isn’t at all averse to a little maple in their grab-and-go morning meals; the Oak Brook, Ill.-based chain has for several years done very well with its McGriddle, a sausage (or bacon)-egg-and cheese breakfast sandwich with maple-flavored pancakes doing duty as the bread component.
Although maple sap is tapped in the late winter and early spring, its flavor is an amiable companion to hearty autumnal fare. With a flavor that is as sturdy and elegant as the trees from which it is tapped, maple is easily able to join menus in sweet and savory ways as the following ideas attest.
Maple Pairings
- Vegetables: Acorn and butternut squash; carrots, parsnips, rutabaga
- Proteins: Chicken, pork loin, pork sausage, salmon
- Fruits: Blueberries, cranberries, apples, pears, bananas, dried-fruit compotes
- Nuts: pecans, cashews, almonds
- Spices: cayenne pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves
Maple On the Menu
- Sausage omelet with maple-apple chicken sausage and cheese, Wishbone, Chicago
- Maple-streusel muffins; maple-oat scones, Starbucks, multiple locations
- House salad of baby greens, Belgian endive and parsnip frites, maple vinaigrette Leunig’s Bistro, Burlington, Vt.
- Maple-cured, house-smoked salmon with lemon crème fraiche, capers and challah bread, Cobblestone’s of Lowell, Lowell, Mass.
- Maple-glazed, pecan-crusted chicken breast with apple, cranberry and orange sauce, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Okla.
- Maple sundae with vanilla ice cream, house-made oat crumble and Acadian maple syrup, The Old Fish Factory Restaurant, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
- Maple-roasted local pear with gingersnap-vanilla ice cream sandwich, Wildwood, Portland, Ore.
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