Living in California in my youth, I never got to taste real maple syrup until I moved to Canada. There, the grade A stuff is pretty common. In California, you mostly get "Vermont Maid," and there's a tendency to think that good maple syrup is really thick, because of all the cheap corn syrup they put in as filler. It isn't. I found out that the best maple syrup is very runny, almost like water. On my travels out of Canada, I like to buy the metal tins of real Canadian maple syrup to give as gifts. It really is remarkable stuff!
Luis