The Birch Syrup Company is the first commercial Birch syrup producer in the UK. Birch syrup is one of the rarest gourmet food products in the world, and one of the most difficult to produce. Our syrup is completely natural and tastes amazing, even if we do say so ourselves!

We currently operate in two forests with trees high up in the North Pennines and also in a beautiful forest in the far North of Scotland. Our trees grow where the air is pure and the water runs clear. These perfect conditions for producing Birch syrup enable us to create a top quality product that is environmentally friendly and fully sustainable.

Our Birch Syrup is stacked with micro nutrients and in the last few years has become one of the fastest growing gourmet ingredients. This will come as no surprise to you when you try some of our amazing recipes.

Birch Syrup is produced by collecting the sap from the birch trees and evaporating a large amount of the water to concentrate it to a syrup. It takes over 100 litres or of sap to make just 1 litre of Birch Syrup. The sap, containing only 1% sugar, looks and tastes much like water if you taste it straight from the tree. To concentrate the sap we first process it through a reverse osmosis machine which removes around 70% of the water and then we gently heat the concentrate to evaporate more water until it reaches 67% natural sugar content.

The predominant, naturally occurring sugar in birch syrup is fructose, as opposed to maple which contains primarily sucrose. Fructose, due to its chemical structure, is more easily digested and assimilated by the human body. Fructose has the lowest glycemic index of all sugars. Birch syrup is high in natural vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C, potassium, manganese, thiamin, and calcium.

We tap our trees when the sap rises in late February and March. The season lasts a mere 2-3 weeks, until the trees bud. Production varies from year to year.

Tapping the trees does not harm them as we only ever take 5% of the total sap production of the tree. We love our birch trees and take good care of them!

To produce a higher quality syrup and save on time and wood, we initially process through reverse osmosis which removes 70% of the water before evaporation begins. This concentrates the sugar to approximately 5% and reduces the time that the syrup is heated for which creates a higher quality syrup. Concentration to 67% sugar is completed in a wood-fired evaporator. All our wood comes from a sustainable source so its completely carbon neutral.

Birch syrup is distinctive in flavour and extremely versatile. It has a rich, fruity caramel flavour that is fantastic in both sweet and savoury recipes. Birch syrup is a delicious sweetener that blends well with other flavours in a wide variety of recipes including marinades, barbecue sauces, dressings, granola, baked beans, coffee, baked squash, cakes, bread and even ice cream.

Birch syrup is an exciting, unique, and new flavour for use by chefs in fine gourmet cooking.