Maple syrup is thinner and pours easily, and its flavor runs from delicate to strong as its color gets darker. Honey is thicker and stickier, and its flavor depends mostly on the flowers the bees visited. In baking, both brown quickly, so the usual advice for swapping either one in for sugar includes a cooler oven.
Where each one comes from
Maple syrup starts as sap from maple trees, collected in late winter and early spring. The sap is clear and only slightly sweet, so it's boiled down until most of the water is gone. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. By law, the solids in maple syrup have to come only from maple sap, so other sweeteners like corn syrup can't be added.
Honey starts as nectar from flowers. Honeybees collect it, break it down with their enzymes and reduce its moisture until it becomes honey. A USDA handbook describes nectar as a thin, easily spoiled liquid that bees ripen into something far more stable.
One comes from trees and the other from bees. Both are sticky, which we can respect.
How they taste
Maple syrup is graded by color, and the color tells you about the flavor. All maple syrup sold in stores is Grade A, in four classes: Golden with a delicate taste, Amber with a rich taste, Dark with a robust taste and Very Dark with a strong taste. Syrup tends to get darker and stronger as the season goes on, and flavor varies from producer to producer and year to year.
Honey's color and flavor come mostly from its floral source. Colors run from very pale yellow through ambers to nearly black. In general, light honey is mild and darker honey has a more pronounced flavor. Part of honey's flavor is a slight tartness. Florida alone makes honeys as different as tangy gallberry and orange blossom, with its citrus tang.
So both run from light and mild to dark and strong. With maple, the season decides. With honey, the flowers do.
How they pour
Honey is the thicker one, and that's mostly about water. By law, pure maple syrup has to be at least 66 percent solids, which leaves it roughly a third water. US honey averages about 17 percent water. That concentration is what gives honey its high viscosity and stickiness.
Cold treats them differently, too. Honey starts to form crystals as it gets older or if it's refrigerated. That isn't spoilage, and you can melt the crystals by setting the jar in warm water. Maple syrup won't freeze solid even in the freezer, and our guide to storing maple syrup covers where to keep it once it's open.
How they bake
Both can stand in for white sugar, with a few changes. For honey, here's what University of Missouri Extension suggests for every cup of sugar:
- Use 1/2 to 2/3 cup of honey.
- Cut other liquids by 1/4 cup for every cup of honey.
- Add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda for every cup of honey.
- Lower the oven by 25°F.
For the maple side, see our guide to swapping maple syrup for sugar in baking. Both lower the oven for the same reason: they brown fast. The cooler oven keeps maple from over-caramelizing, and honey burns faster than sugar.
Missouri Extension also notes that honey is sweeter than granulated sugar, and University of Florida Extension adds that honey helps baked goods stay fresh longer.
Can you use maple instead of honey?
In baking, yes. The Vermont Maple Sugar Makers' Association lists swapping maple in for honey as one easy way to use maple, though it doesn't give a ratio. Try the swap first in a recipe you know.
How they cook
Both make good glazes. Honey can give meats a crust or glaze, and the Vermont association suggests maple to glaze chicken thighs or salmon. Honey caramelizes easily, so Florida's extension service suggests cooking it at relatively low temperatures. Maple can over-caramelize too, which is why you lower the oven when you bake with it.
Both go in drinks, too. Honey is a common sweetener in drinks, cereals and baked goods. Maple stirs into coffee and tea and sweetens cocktails and mocktails.
Which one should you use?
Whichever tastes right to you. Reach for honey when you want a thick drizzle that stays put, or the flavor of a honey you love. Reach for maple when you want an easy pour and that maple flavor.
If maple's the one, Amber is warm and smooth with caramel notes and goes on everything. Dark is deep and robust, built for cooking and baking.
