What does maple syrup taste like?

Advanced sugaring for nerds - flavor evaluationIs tasting maple syrup objective or subjective? From time to time, I've heard people say that taste is subjective. What is objective and what is subjective? Objective is, for example, the intensity of vanilla in this sample of maple syrup is a 4/5. It is verifiable and if we had testers who calibrated their palates, most tasters would come up with the same number. Vanilla aroma comes from vanillin, which can be measured. So it would be possible to confirm without human sensation how much vanillin was in a sample of maple syrup. Subjective is, for example, consumers like maple syrup with strong vanilla notes. Taste, aroma, and flavor. Taste is experienced on the taste buds. There are 5 basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami/savory. Aroma is experienced in the nose. Humans can distinguish more than 1 trillion scents. Flavor is described as aroma plus taste. It begins in the mouth and then goes up into the nose through the retronasal cavity. 80 percent of what we experience when eating food is aroma. Without aroma, we'd just be able to say maple syrup is sweet. People who have not trained to sense aromas and are not familiar with a product are at a disadvantage when describing what they smell and taste.
I worked in coffee for 10 years and coffee is rigorously tested from tree to cup. Coffee graders have to pass 23 exams before being certified and be recertified every 3 years. Throughout the season, coffee sellers and coffee buyers meet to calibrate their palates. Any of the thousands of certified coffee graders anywhere in the world can come up with very similar evaluations of the same coffee samples.