SUPERIOR FLAVOR!  Maple sugar has the aroma of a Canadian forest in full bloom... and the particular flavor of maple creates a beautiful dance with the complex flavors of the South American cacao beans we use.
 
ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE!  Forests thrive and trees are not cut down to produce maple sugar; furthermore, maple is not a mono-crop and is completely integrated with old growth forests.  
 
VEGAN-FRIENDLY!  Maple can get certified vegan (a difficult thing for cane sugar by the way, since the cane sugar industry typically uses bone char as a filtering agent).  
 
GREAT CHEMISTRY!  Even though maple sugar is not considered "raw" (as defined by the current loose definition of being completely processed from start to finish at a temperature typically below 115º F) Sacred Chocolate feels that maple is the highest "vibe" vegan sweetener commercially available whose cost is economically within reach to make a raw cacao content, high quality, traditional chocolate bar. Some raw chocolate bars claim to be 100% raw based on being sweetened by agave. However, our research into the agave industry suggests the “rawness” of any agave syrup is questionable (To learn more, try running a “patent number search” for US Patent #5,846,333 or #4,138,272 at http://patft.uspto.gov) If a truly raw agave does exist, it is highly processed. And since agave is very hygroscopic, it is difficult to make a traditional chocolate bar that is shelf-stable using agave.
 
NUTRIENT-RICH & LOW GLYCEMIC!  For those who are glycemically concerned, maple – although not as low as agave – is only 55 on the glycemic index (a value comparable to brown rice, banana or sweet potato). Maple is notably high in manganese, zinc and potassium as compared to agave. An acquaintance who is a shaman and vegetarian chef of many years once said, "maple is best on the blood."  
 
Maple contains numerous antioxidant polyphenols, beneficial plant compounds also found in cacao, green tea, almonds and olive oil. Exciting research from 2008 analyzed four grades of maple syrup and identified no less than twenty-four different polyphenol compounds in the samples! Even MORE phenols were found to be present at lower levels! Identified maple phenols included the well-studied, health-protective flavonoids rutin, quercitin, catechin and epicatechin. The authors state that “in view of the well-established antioxidant activity these substances possess, it is suggested that it is the complexity of the mixture rather than any one compound that may serve to counter the unhealthful presence of the high concentration of sugars in the syrup.”  
 
[Abou-Zaid M, et al. High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Characterization and Identification of Antioxidant Polyphenols in Maple Syrup. Pharm Biol 2008; 46(1-2): 117-125]