Maple taffy is made by boiling maple sap into a soft, sugary candy.
The treat is produced during the spring maple-syrup season. Fresh maple sap is boiled until it reaches a concentrated syrup stage, then poured over clean snow or packed ice. As it cools, the syrup thickens into a chewy taffy that can be rolled onto a wooden stick.
Maple taffy is especially associated with sugar shacks in Quebec and with maple-syrup traditions in eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. It is called tire d'érable in French, meaning maple taffy.
Maple taffy is different from maple candy molded into solid shapes. It is also not saltwater taffy, which is a separately developed chewy candy usually flavored with many different ingredients. The key ingredient and flavor of maple taffy come from concentrated maple sap.