The Pays de Herve, land of apple and pear orchards
Nestled between Liège, Aachen and Maastricht, the Pays de Herve rolls out its verdant hills over barely a few hundred square kilometres. It is here, in a mild and damp microclimate, that the apple and pear trees have grown for centuries, making the region famous for its gastronomy.
Our fruit does not come from far away: almost all of it is grown within a fifty-kilometre radius of the Aubel syrup factory. From Battice to Sint-Truiden, via Thimister and Aubel itself, family orchards provide the apples and pears every year that make up Le Vrai Sirop de Liège®.
A long chain of trust with our arborists
Working with local producers is not just a matter of geographical proximity: it is also a matter of loyalty. Certain families have been supplying the syrup maker for several generations. The baskets fill up in September and October, to the rhythm of the harvests, and arrive still warm from the orchard straight to our cauldrons.
This short supply chain has a dual advantage. It guarantees the freshness of the fruit — and therefore the quality of the syrup. It also supports a local agricultural economy whose orchards, particularly high-stem ones, play a major ecological role: serving as a refuge for bees, birds and the ancient trees that still shape the bocage landscape of the Herve region. By supporting these orchards, the syrup maker helps to preserve a living heritage, season after season.
Varieties chosen for flavour, not yield
Not all apples are suited for syrup: you need sweet, fragrant fruit with firm flesh and rich in pectin — the natural fibre that gives the syrup its thick texture, without the addition of any gelling agent. Our arborists select their varieties throughout the seasons, blending dessert apples and heritage cooking varieties to create the blend each year that will form the syrup's aromatic signature.
