Coconut sugar (also known as coco sugar, coconut palm sugar, coco sap sugar or coconut blossom sugar) is a palm sugar produced from the sap of the flower bud stem of the

coconut palm The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or t ...

. Other types of palm sugar are made from the Kithul palm ( Caryota urens),

Palmyra palm ''Borassus'' (palmyra palm) is a genus of five species of fan palms, native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Papua New Guinea. Description These massive palms can grow up to high and have robust trunks with distinct leaf scars; in so ...

, the date palm, the sugar date palm, the

sago palm Sago palm is a common name for several plants which are used to produce a starchy food known as sago. Sago palms may be "true palms" in the family Arecaceae, or cycads with a palm-like appearance. Sago produced from cycads must be detoxified before ...

or the sugar palm. Used as a sweetener in many countries, coconut sugar has no significant nutritional or health benefits over other sweeteners.

Manufacture

Coconut sugar comes in crystal or granule form, block or liquid. Producing coconut sugar is a two-step process. It starts with harvesting or "tapping" the flower bud stem of a coconut tree. Farmers make a cut on the spadix and the sap starts to flow from the cut into bamboo containers. The sap collected is then transferred into large woks and placed over moderate heat to evaporate the moisture content of the sap. The sap is translucent and is about 80% water. At this point it is known as coconut

neera Neera, also called palm nectar, is a sap extracted from the inflorescence of various species of toddy palms and used as a drink. Neera extraction is generally performed before sunrise. It is sweet, translucent in colour. It is susceptible to ...

or nira (Indonesia), and as coconut toddy (Sri Lanka), namwan maphrao (Thailand), or lagbi (North Africa). As the water evaporates, it starts to transform into a thick sap syrup. From this form, it may or may not be further reduced to crystal, block or soft paste form. The brown colour which develops as the sap is reduced is mostly due to

caramelization Caramelization is a process of browning of sugar used extensively in cooking for the resulting sweet nutty flavor and brown color. The brown colors are produced by three groups of polymers: caramelans (C24H36O18), caramelens (C36H50O25), and ca ...

Culinary use

Coconut sugar is widely used in Sri Lanka as an unrefined syrup or as jaggery, referred to as ''pol hakuru''(පොල් හකුරු), though the jaggery made from the Kithul palm is preferred. In Indonesian cuisine coconut sugar is called ''gula jawa'' (Javanese sugar) or ''gula merah'' (red sugar), while '' gula aren'' refers to palm sugar specifically made from aren palm. Some Indonesian foodstuffs are made with coconut sugar, including

kecap manis Sweet soy sauce ( id, kecap manis) is a sweetened aromatic soy sauce, originating in Indonesia, which has a darker color, a viscous syrupy consistency and a molasses-like flavor due to the generous addition of palm sugar or jaggery. ''Kecap manis ...

(a sweet soya sauce) and

dendeng Dendeng refers to thinly sliced dried meat in Indonesian cuisine. It is preserved through a mixture of sugar and spices and dried via a frying process. It is similar to jerky. The creation of dendeng is commonly credited to the Minangkabau peopl ...

(a meat preparation).

Gula melaka 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 s ...

is a

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

n name for palm sugar or "malacca sugar", probably named for its origin in the state of Malacca,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. It is usually derived from coconut palms, but sometimes from other palms. It is used in savory dishes, but mainly in local desserts and cakes of the Southeast Asian region. File:Ivinsf.JPG, A bowl of gula melaka

sago Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is c ...

File:Steamed Goan rice and jaggery cakes.jpg, ''Patoleo'', a Goan Catholic sweet dish prepared with coconut sugar File:Onde-onde.jpg,

Klepon ''Klepon'' (pronounced ''Klē-pon''), or ''kelepon'', is a snack of sweet rice cake balls filled with molten palm sugar and coated in grated coconut. Of Javanese origin, the green-coloured glutinous rice balls are one of the popular traditiona ...

; the green flecks within the rice derive from glutinous rice flour mixed with sweet potato and flavored with pandan. File:Ondeh ondeh kueh.jpg, Klepon, with palm sugar filling.

Taste and flavor

Coconut sugar is subtly sweet almost like

brown sugar Brown sugar is unrefined or partially refined soft sugar. Brown Sugar may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Brown Sugar'' (1922 film), a 1922 British silent film directed by Fred Paul * ''Brown Sugar'' (1931 film), a 1931 ...

but with a slight hint of caramel. The flavor and sweetness is usually similar to table sugar or brown sugar. However, since coconut sugar is not highly processed, the color, sweetness and flavor can vary depending on the coconut species used, season when it was harvested, where it was harvested and/or the way the "sap" or "toddy" was reduced.

Nutrition and health claims

Although its use as a sweetener has become more common in developed countries, there is no scientific evidence that coconut sugar is more nutritious or healthier than any other sweetener. The nutritive value is similar to the

empty calorie In human nutrition, empty calories are those calories found in beverages (including alcoholic) and foods composed primarily or solely of sugars and/or certain fats and oils such as cholesterol, saturated or trans fats, that provide little to no us ...

s found in table sugar or

. The principal

carbohydrate In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or m ...

s of coconut sugar are sucrose (70–79%),

glucose Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, u ...

, and fructose (3–9% each). Coconut sugar also contains

mannose Mannose is a sugar monomer of the aldohexose series of carbohydrates. It is a C-2 epimer of glucose. Mannose is important in human metabolism, especially in the glycosylation of certain proteins. Several congenital disorders of glycosylation ...

, inositol and amino acids. Presumably due to the heat during cooking, it further contains pyroglutamate in comparatively high concentrations. The

glycemic index The glycemic (glycaemic) index (GI; ) is a number from 0 to 100 assigned to a food, with pure glucose arbitrarily given the value of 100, which represents the relative rise in the blood glucose level two hours after consuming that food. The GI of ...

(GI) of coconut sugar was reported by the Philippine Coconut Authority to be 35 and by that measure is classified as a low glycemic index food. However, the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

( Australia) Glycemic Index Research Service measured the GI of coconut sugar to be 54, and considers any GI over 55 to be high.

References

{{reflist, 30em, refs= {{cite book , last=Wee , first=S. , title=Growing Up In A Nyonya Kitchen: Singapore Recipes from my Mother , publisher=Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited , year=2012 , isbn=978-981-4435-00-0 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-V-JAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 , access-date=April 22, 2017 , page=38 {{cite book , last=Loh , first=A. , title=Malacca Reminiscences , publisher=Partridge Publishing Singapore , year=2015 , isbn=978-1-4828-5489-3 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4q1OCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT254 , access-date=April 22, 2017 , page=254 {{cite web , last=Eckhardt , first=Robyn , title=Confessions of a Palm Sugar Addict , website=Saveur , date=January 10, 2017 , url=http://www.saveur.com/palm-sugar-malaysian-gula-melaka-recipes , access-date=April 22, 2017 Sugar Foods containing coconut

Manufacture

Culinary use

Taste and flavor

Nutrition and health claims

See also

References