Nowadays, palm sugar syrup is a contemporary food and beverage companion widely used in the culinary industry. Beragam, as one of the producers of palm sugar syrup, felt the need to learn more about the industry that is currently developing.

On this occasion, Beragam headed to Cianjur to learn about palm sugar. We had the opportunity to learn the entire process of making palm sugar, from sap water to coconut shell sugar, all of which were carried out by farmers. 

To produce quality palm sugar, the stages of processing sap water are needed. The first step they usually do is extracting sap. Farmers leave to tap the trees in the morning at 05.00 and finish harvesting at 08.00. In the afternoon, the farmers returned to tap the trees at 15.30 and finished at 18.00. In one day, a farmer can climb six to eight trees.

The sap water that has been collected is then cooked in a traditional way using a wood stove. The farmer’s wife usually does the cooking process so the husband can do other gardening activities. Changing the sap water into coconut palm sugar takes six hours. So in one day, farmers cook sap water to become palm sugar which takes 12 hours. The farmer’s production kitchen provides a place to put the lodong (sap water container) for sterilization using the smoke of cooking the sap water. This prevents bacteria from appearing in the lodong, making it reusable by farmers. From the stages the farmers go through, we now realize how significant palm sugar farmers’ role is in producing quality organic palm sugar.