All Coconut Palm Sugars are palm sugars but not all palm sugars are coconut sugars

Most of the people who visit our website are looking for information about palm sugars in general, but not specifically sugar made from coconut sap. A number of you are likely to be looking for the health benefits and/or nutrition values for coconut palm sugar.

While some producers are only just keen on selling their palm sugars as "coconut sugars", be aware that a there are plenty of  "palm sugars" out there that are not coconut sugars.

In traditional palm sugaring in Southeast Asia, there are a number of palm trees from which the sap is obtained for making sugars and syrups.  This depends mostly on whichever palm tree variety is easily accessible or more abundant.

The studies made by the Philippine Food and Nutrition Research Institute on the Glycemic Index of Coconut Palm Sugar is specific to the cocos nucifera. Other palm sugar producers cannot claim theirs are "low G.I." or low glycemic using the same study.

How to ensure you're getting the right natural sweetner? Check the label:

• Is it made from the Coconut Palm (cocos nucifera)?
• Is it 100% pure? 
• Thailand palm sugar are traditionally made with a mix of cane sugar and/or malt sugar.
• Traditional Cambodian palm sugars are made from the Palmyra (Borassus flabellifer).
• Traditional Indonesian palm sugars are made from the Aren Palm (Arenga saccharifera (syn. A. Saccharifera, Arenga Pinnata)
• Is it made in the Philippines? 
• Only the Philippines produces coconut palm sugar made from coconuts in any commercial quantity. There is "pakaskas" which is made from the Nipa palm, but it is rare and expensive, usually sold in very small quantities in the Southern Tagalog region and is not likely to be exported.
• The Philippine method of producing palm sugar requires that the sap be fresh (processed within 4 hours after it has dripped from the tree!!) and do not resort to adding artificial preservatives or bleaching agents.