A guide to Canada's best sugar shacks

Cabin fever: Québec City's La Bûche is sugar central year-round. Courtesy of La Bûche

Forget Jimmy Gilmer’s groaner , these crazy little shacks really are sweet — and they’re also Québec’s hottest clubs. They call them “cabanes à sucres,” but if you “ne parles pas Français,” you can just call them sugar shacks.

Located deep in the woods, “beyond the tracks” — or sometimes just up a random city street — these rustic wonderlands have everything: pure, unfiltered maple sap; jazzy Céline Dion covers played on an accordion by a man named Etienne; pork and whisky; maple taffy (tire d’érable); and of course joie de vivre.

An essential part of Québec’s food culture, sugar shacks trace their roots to the Indigenous tradition of gathering sap from late February to late April, when cold nights