Types:
– Predominant sources of palm sugar are Palmyra, date, nipa, aren, and coconut palms.
– Palmyra palm, grown in Africa, Asia, and New Guinea, is used for various purposes and produces palm sugar from sap.
– Date palms such as Phoenix dactylifera and P. sylvestris are cultivated in the Mediterranean and Asia for dates and palm sugar.
– Nipa palm, native to coastal areas, produces palm sugar from sugar-rich sap.
– Sugar palm, native to Asia, mainly China, Malaysia, and Indonesia, is used to produce palm sugar known as “gur” in India and “gula aren” in Indonesia.
Production:
– Palm sugar is produced by boiling collected sap until it thickens.
– Boiled sap can be sold as palm syrup in bottles or tins and can solidify into bricks or cakes.
– Palm syrup can range in color from golden brown to dark brown or almost black.
– Indonesian “gula aren” is a type of palm sugar that is dark in color.
– Major suppliers of coconut palm sugar are Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Use:
– Palm sugar is an ingredient in sweet and savory dishes across Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.
– Different types of palm sugar like “gula jawa” and “gula melaka” have distinct flavors and colors.
– “Gula melaka” is made from coconut palm sap and is used in local desserts and cakes in Southeast Asia.
– Labor-intensive production makes palm sugar more expensive than cane sugar.
– Popular desserts made with palm sugar include “gula melaka sago pudding,” “chendol,” and “ondeh ondeh.”
See also:
– Coconut sugar is sugar produced from the coconut palm.
– Date sugar is sugar extracted from dates.
– Jaggery is unrefined cane sugar.
References:
– “Palm Sugar in Germany” by the Import Promotion Desk (IPD).
– “The New Oxford Book of Food Plants” by John Vaughan and Catherine Geissler.
– “Sugar palm: potential feed resource for livestock in small-scale farming systems” by Khieu Borin.
– “Overall view on the tradition of tapping palm trees and prospects for animal production” by Christophe Dalibard.
– “Food Culture in the Near East, Middle East, and North Africa” by Peter Heine.
Palm sugar is a sweetener derived from any variety of palm tree. Palm sugar is sometimes qualified by the type of palm, as in coconut palm sugar. While sugars from different palms may have slightly different compositions, all are processed similarly and can be used interchangeably.
