Although containers of maple syrup bought in grocery stores often feature quaint images of sap being carried in buckets to the sugar shack, most commercial syrup is made using tubing systems. In spring, holes are bored in sugar maples using a cordless drill. Plastic spouts are inserted into the hole and connected via a plastic tube to a web of additional tubing that eventually delivers the sap to the heat source, where it is reduced to syrup, or to a temporary storage tank, where it can be carried in bulk to the heat source. Some systems use vacuum pumps to more quickly extract the sap out of the trees.
