SOMETHING DARKLY DELICIOUS WITH A DIRECT LINK TO HISTORY

It’s called Lake Charlevoix Maple syrup because the owner’s Overlook Farm fronts those iconic waters. It’s tapped there uses hardwood splits instead of pellets or petroleum products, and is boiled longer than required by law in order to reach maximum intensity.

The result changes everything you put it on or in. Since it’s more intense than industrial maple syrups, you use less sweetener in recipes where weaker syrup or cane sugar might otherwise go. And Lake Charlevoix Maple syrup adds a distinctive dimension that you’ll remember.

Lake Charlevoix Maple is the latest product from Charles R. Eisendrath, already known for bringing home what he learned as a foreign correspondent for Time Magazine. Most relevant here: The lesson from Paris days that a sauce can make all the difference and must be treated that way. His syrup does that for breakfasts to be sure, but its complex flavors, derived from the swirls of woodsmoke and steam in the traditional boiling “shack,” invite experiments with ice cream, cocktails, barbecue and baked goods.

Most syrup is made like bulk wine or production cars—with push-button technology involving human input only at the beginning and end. Robotic pumps pull sap out of the trees at a predictable rate that increases the harvest dramatically. Sensors replace the expert judgment of when to boil, for how long and at what temperature. Like any mass market product, efficiency determines how long syrup is “cooked,” and with what kind of fuel. The big boys use natural gas and draw off the product as soon as it meets the standard set by industry and state regulation. If the result sells in supermarkets, it’s good enough, period. We disagree. Efficiency can’t be the goal if you aim to be the best.