Maple smells like sugar when cut. Maple syrup used to be made of the sap.
Only the expensive luxury stuff. The kind sold in tourist traps. Most maple syrup sold in stores is flavored corn syrup, which keeps the price down.
“Maple syrup” is a legally protected name, the same way “butter”, “ice cream”, and “chocolate” are. There are legal requirements for their contents in order for you to call it that on the label. That’s why you see descriptions like “chocolatey” or “buttery” on cheaper products.
I think at that point it’s called “corn syrup” or just “syrup”. Maple syrup is still made from maple.
Hmm. I just went to Target’s website and searched “maple syrup” – even though they have a notoriously bad search, the first row of products were actual maple syrup. The second row had a mix between “pancake syrup” and actual “maple syrup”
OTOH, searching “pancake syrup” was the opposite – 5 corn syrups before any actual maple syrups.