Palm sugar was originally made from the sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

y sap of the Palmyra palm, the date palm

Date Palm

The date palm is a palm in the genus Phoenix, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. Although its place of origin is unknown because of long cultivation, it probably originated from lands around the Persian Gulf. It is a medium-sized plant, 15–25 m tall, growing singly or forming a clump with...

 or sugar date palm (Phoenix sylvestris

Phoenix sylvestris

Phoenix sylvestris also known as Silver Date Palm or Sugar Date Palm, is a species of flowering plant in the palm family native to southern Pakistan,most of India and Bangladesh. Growing in plains and scrubland to 1300 m, the fruit from this palm species is used to make wine and jelly...

). Now it is also made from the sap

Sap

Sap may refer to:* Plant sap, the fluid transported in xylem cells or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant* Sap , a village in the Dunajská Streda District of Slovakia...

 of the sago

Sago

Sago is a starch extracted in the spongy center or pith, of various tropical palm stems, Metroxylon sagu. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Moluccas, where it is called saksak and sagu. A type of flour, called sago flour, is made from sago. The largest supply...

, arenga pinnata and coconut

Coconut

The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...

 palms, and may be sold as "arenga sugar" or "coconut sugar

Coconut sugar

Coconut sugar is a sugar produced from the sap of cut flower buds of coconuts. Coconut sugar has been used as a traditional sweetener for thousands of years in the South and SouthEast Asian regions where the coconut tree is in abundant supply. The world's largest producer of coconut is the...

".

Description

It is quickly gaining popularity in the progressive global health community as an alternative to agave syrup. Companies are now selling it into the natural food markets in India, so it is becoming easier to get high quality aren sugar (Arenga pinnata

Arenga pinnata

Arenga pinnata is an economically important feather palm native to tropical Asia, from eastern India east to Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines in the east...

) or coconut palm sugar (Cocos nucifera).

The taste of pure coconut palm sugar resembles that of brown sugar, yet with more rounded caramel and butterscotch notes, without the metallic ending flavor that brown sugar

Brown sugar

Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content, or it is produced by the addition of molasses to refined white...

 has. It has a rich flavor. For cooking purposes, it has a very low melt temperature and an extremely high burn temperature. This makes it a suitable sweetener for confectioners.

Coconut palm sugar is a golden brown sugar sold as granule, blocks or liquid. It may be light-colored or dark, soft and gooey or hard. As a product of cottage industry, it varies greatly from batch to batch.

The coconut palm sugar found in Thai markets generally are not 100% pure coconut palm sugar, but is blended with white cane sugar and also malt sugar. These tend to white hard blobs. It is important to discern which product you're looking for; a pure coconut palm sugar or a coconut palm sugar mixed with other sugars.

In Thai cuisine, palm and "coconut sugar" (nahm dtahn bpeep/buk and nahm dtahn maprao) are used interchangeably. However, it may be an important distinction that "coconut sugar" is not derived from the coconut fruit itself.

According to Kasma Loha-unchit:

Usage

Companies are using coconut and/or palm sugar in cookies, baked goods, protein powders, energy bars, beverages or anywhere cane sugar is used.

Palm sugar is often used to sweeten savory food to balance out the salty flavor of fish. Its primary use in Thai cuisine is in sweets and desserts, and somewhat less often in curries and sauces.

Manufacture

Palm sugar is made by making several slits into the bud of a coconut tree and collecting the sap. Then, the sap is boiled until it thickens after which, in the traditional way, it is poured into bamboo tubes between 3-5 inches in length, and left to solidify to form cylindrical cake blocks. Alternatively, it can be poured into glass jars or plastic bags.

Names

• Burma: jaggery
  Jaggery
  Jaggery is a traditional unrefined non-centrifugal whole cane sugar consumed in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. It is a concentrated product of cane juice without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can vary from golden brown to dark brown in color...
  
  , htanyet
• Cambodia: ស្ករត្នោត(skor tnot)
• Telugu: nalla bellam, thaati bellam (Palm Jaggery)
• Kerala
  Kerala
  or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
  
  : panam kaLkaNdu(White crystal) Karippatti, KarippOtti(Dark palm sugar)
• Bangladesh/Bengal: jaggery
  Jaggery
  Jaggery is a traditional unrefined non-centrifugal whole cane sugar consumed in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. It is a concentrated product of cane juice without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can vary from golden brown to dark brown in color...
  
   (cane or palm sugar), gur (date palm
  Date Palm
  The date palm is a palm in the genus Phoenix, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. Although its place of origin is unknown because of long cultivation, it probably originated from lands around the Persian Gulf. It is a medium-sized plant, 15–25 m tall, growing singly or forming a clump with...
  
   sugar);
• Tamil Nadu: panam kaRkaNdu, karuppatti
• Indonesia: gula jawa, gula aren, gula merah, gula semut"
• Philippines: Pakaskas
• Malaysia: gula melaka, gula anau
• Sri Lanka: jaggery
  Jaggery
  Jaggery is a traditional unrefined non-centrifugal whole cane sugar consumed in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. It is a concentrated product of cane juice without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can vary from golden brown to dark brown in color...
  
  , kitul-hakuru, tal-hakuru, pol pani
• Laos: num taan
• Thailand: น้ำตาลปีป (nam taan pep), น้ำตาลปึก (nam taan bik), น้ำตาลมะพร้าว (nam taan mapraow)
• Vietnam: đường thốt nốt

External links

• An Overview of the Palm Sugar Creation process