Four varieties of maple trees grow throughout what is now the eastern United States and Canada, as well as the upper Midwest. Native peoples drank the sap and also devised the technology to transform the watery liquid into thick syrup and sugar that they used to sweeten their food. Both the Iroquois and Chippewa taught American colonists how to tap trees and make syrup and sugar. Unlike refined sugar, maple syrup, which is primarily sucrose, contains the minerals calcium, potassium, phosphorus, manganese, magnesium, and iron. It also contains riboflavin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, niacin, biotin, and folic acid.