Birkisíróp

Birch syrup

Birch syrup is made from birch sap and sugar, possibly from birch leaves. In Iceland, birch syrup is traditionally eaten on waffles and pancakes and with desserts, but it is also used to sweeten drinks, tea and coffee and even to marinate meat and fish (but then together with fresh herbs).

From the ingredients to the preparation to the final product

Ingredients

2 liters of birch sap
50 g brown sugar
birch leaves, if available


Preparation

Put the birch sap with the sugar in a large pot and let it simmer until a thick syrup is formed.

If you like, you can add a few young, washed birch leaves to the juice while boiling it and fish the leaves out before pouring into a clean bottle that has been freshly rinsed with boiling water.

Attention - you only get around 150 ml of birch syrup from 2 liters of birch sap. So either boil down a large amount of birch sap straight away - or use it sparingly, as here as a sauce for Hvannarís (= angelica ice cream ).

Excursus

Birch sap - what is that anyway?!?

Birch and maple are the only tree species that grow in Iceland and can be used for syrup production. In late spring, when the ground is no longer frozen, you drill a hole in the trunk of the birch tree and use a hose to let the birch sap flow into appropriate collecting containers. On average, you can “tap” 3 to 4 liters of birch water in one day. The hole is then closed again with a plug. The tree then has to rest for a few years before it can be tapped again - but you can't do this all too often without damaging the tree.

Birch sap is rich in minerals and antioxidants. It affects the body's fluid balance and is said to counteract edema and also improve skin, hair and nails (this is probably where the view that birch sap has a rejuvenating effect and can even have an aphrodisiac effect comes from). For people with pollen allergies, it sometimes helps to drink birch sap to make the symptoms of hay fever more bearable.

For original Icelandic birch sap, you can, for example, contact the company "Holt og heiðar" ("Hills and Heath") based in Hallormstaðir near Egilsstaðir in East Iceland. The company was founded in 2010 by a gardener, a chef and his wife (the couple also runs a farm with a guesthouse and restaurant in Skagafjörður) and specializes in the production of typical local products (fresh and without additives).

They sell different types of rhubarb jam (also with vanilla or Icelandic moss), wild mushrooms (either frozen or dried) and various cones, for example from different types of pine and spruce, larch or pine cones, which are also offered specifically as Christmas decorations.

“Holt og heiðar” produces the birch sap or birch syrup from birch water, which is obtained from around 60 birch trees in the forest near Hallormstaðir. So not for mass production - rather small, but nice!

According to the homepage, the company's products are sold on the farm of the couple involved and in the shop in Egilsstaðir, but also in various visitor centers such as the Þingvellir National Park, the Skaftafell National Park or the visitor center at Geysir in Haukadalur as well as in the Viking Shops in Reykjavík and a shop for Icelandic specialties at the international airport in Keflavík, but you can also buy them quite mundanely in the supermarket, namely in the "Nettó" in Egilsstaðir and in the "Hagkaup" in the "Kringlan" shopping center in Reykjavík.  

Birch forest at Borgarfjörður

[Translated from here.]