Best Pancake Syrups

Pancakes for breakfast are a great way to start the day. But when serving pancakes or waffles, it’s almost a given that you’ll serve them with pancake syrup. Pancake syrup is usually (but not exclusively) maple-flavored. But, as we’ll see, producing authentic, organic maple syrup is labor-intensive and can be quite expensive. The best pancake syrups try to mimic the consistency, smell, and taste of maple syrup. We’ll study some of the best pancake syrups available, noticing how well they achieve their aim of replacing maple syrup. We’ll also see some fun and interesting alternatives, which are made to appeal to children. And there are pancake syrups that are for people who don’t want extra calories or sugar, as well as syrups that try to think “outside the box” in appealing to different tastes.

What are the Different Types of Pancake Syrups?

Strictly speaking, there is a difference between maple syrup and pancake syrup.

Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is derived from the sap of maple trees. It’s believed that real maple syrup was first produced by Native American tribes, from maple tree sap. It takes 40 liters of maple tree sap to make a single liter of maple syrup, by boiling away most of the water content. Organic maple syrup will have some minerals: typically calcium, potassium, while the darker varieties will also have manganese, magnesium, and zinc.

There are four colors of maple syrup. The differences in color and flavor are derived from the part of the season when the sap is extracted:

• Golden color, delicate taste: This is achieved when the sap is extracted in the late winter. It’s actually the type recommended for pancakes. WildFour Organic Maple Syrup produces delicate maple syrup, ideal for waffles and pancakes.

WildFour Organic Maple Syrup

• Amber color, rich taste: This flavor is achieved when the sap is extracted in early spring. It’s best for use in baked goods.

• Dark color, robust taste: This is produced from sap extracted even later in the harvest. Both the amber color and the dark color syrups are available from the Butternut Mountain Farm Pure Vermont Maple Syrup series.

Butternut Mountain Farm Pure Vermont Maple Syrup

• Very Dark, Strong taste: This has an intense flavor and molasses-like consistency. An example is the Crown Maple Very Dark Color, Strong Taste Organic Maple Syrup.

Crown Maple Very Dark Color, Strong Taste Organic Maple Syrup

Pancake Syrup

Pancake syrup can be made from corn syrup or other ingredients, with flavoring to make it taste like maple syrup. This option will be much less expensive than organic maple syrup. But there are some surprisingly healthy and tasty options available! Let’s examine some of the offerings in the MSN Top 10 Pancake Syrups:

• Fruit syrups: Green Jay Gourmet has a series of syrups made from only three simple ingredients: fruit, cane sugar, and lemon juice! One of their offerings is their Blackberry Syrup. They also make apple butter, blueberry, cherry, orange, peach, raspberry, and more!

Green Jay Gourmet Blackberry Syrup

• Sugar-free varieties: Some people, such as those adhering to a keto diet, would prefer sweeteners that don’t have so many calories. Some pancake syrups will instead use monk fruit or sugar alcohols for sweeteners, such as erythritol, sorbitol, xylitol. One product that uses monk fruit is the Lakanto Sugar-free Maple Syrup.

Lakanto Sugar-free Maple Syrup

Another sugar-free product is Livlo Syrlo Classic Maple. It uses allulose, a low-calorie version of fructose. Allulose is estimated to have 70% of the sweetness of sucrose, but only 1/10 of the calories.

Livlo Syrlo Classic Maple

(You can find more sweetener options among the MSN buying guides.)

What Are the Features of a Good Pancake Syrup?

Organic maple syrups differ greatly, despite being purely from maple tree sap. There’s an even greater variety among pancake syrups. But reviewers say that there are three main characteristics that they look for in good pancake syrup:

• Consistency: Most people were attracted to syrups that have a thick, viscous consistency. Watery syrups tend to get absorbed into the waffles or pancakes too quickly. One surprising product in the MSN Top 10 Pancake Syrups that people liked for its thick consistency was the Karo Dark Corn Syrup.

Karo Dark Corn Syrup

• Amber hue: We mentioned how there is a range of hues to real maple syrup. Pancake syrups will typically use caramel color to duplicate the amber color of maple syrup.

• Flavor: Most pancake syrups will try to imitate the flavor of maple syrup. Some have a small amount (around 2%) of actual maple syrup, such as Michele’s Gourmet Maple Creme Syrup.

Michele’s Gourmet Maple Creme Syrup

However, some pancake syrups actually achieve a buttery flavor without any butter among the ingredients, such as Mrs. Butterworth’s Original Pancake Syrup.

Mrs. Butterworth’s Original Pancake Syrup

Other features that people find desirable include:

• Low-calorie versions: Average pancake syrup will have 220 calories in just 4 tablespoons of syrup. When you add up that with the calories in pancakes themselves, that will be quite a few calories! As an alternative, there are low-calorie alternatives, such as Walden Farms Pancake Syrup. It uses sucralose instead of cane sugar (sucrose). It has 0 calories in a 60 ml serving!

Walden Farms Pancake Syrup

There are also pancake syrups with fewer calories, such as the Aunt Jemima Pancake Syrup Butter Lite, with only 50 calories in 2 tablespoons (a 50% reduction).

• Economical: We noted how preparing maple syrup requires quite a bit of processing: only 2.5% of the maple tree sap is actually converted into maple syrup. So you can expect pancake syrup to be significantly cheaper than maple syrup. For example, the Butternut Mountain Farm Pure Vermont Maple Syrup is $19.99 for 32 ounces ($0.62/fluid ounce). Mrs. Butterworth’s Original Syrup is $10.49 for 24 fluid ounces ($0.44/fluid ounce).

What Other Uses Are There For Pancake Syrup?

When you buy pancake syrup, you’re not limited to only taking it out when you serve pancakes or waffles.

• For sweetening drinks: Some syrups can conveniently be added to coffee or tea.

• On desserts: The darker maple syrups are considered best for baking cakes and pies. You can also pour pancake syrup over ice cream!

• On breakfast cereal: It’s always a good idea to make meals fun for your children. There are also pancake syrups for kids, such as the Cap’n Crunch Ocean Blue Maple Pancake Syrup. The blue color of the syrup makes an interesting contrast with the golden color of pancakes, waffles, or even directly on top of breakfast cereal!

Cap’n Crunch Ocean Blue Maple Pancake Syrup

Wrap Up

We’ve taken a look at the different varieties of maple syrup, and some of the offerings on the market for pancake syrups, which either have a small amount of maple syrup or just try to imitate maple syrup’s texture and taste.

Whether you’re looking for a low-calorie option, something suited for a keto diet, a butter-flavored version, or a syrup that will spruce up your children’s breakfast, you can find it here in the MSN Top 10 Pancake Syrups!