Palm Sugar: Gula Melaka, Gula Jawa, Uses and Substitute
Palm sugar is boiled-down sap from the flower stalks of palms, mainly coconut, sugar and palmyra palms. It tastes of caramel, slightly smoky, and is less sharply sweet than table sugar. In Southeast Asia it sweetens curries, dips, sauces and desserts.
Fact sheet
- Also known as
- Gula Melaka, Gula Jawa, Gula Aren, Nam Tan Pip (น้ำตาลปี๊บ), Palmenzucker, palm sugar
- Origin
- Südostasien, vor allem Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesien und Kambodscha
- Taste
- karamellig, leicht rauchig, dunkle Sorten mit Melassenoten und einem Hauch Salz
- Substitute
- Muscovado oder Vollrohrzucker 1:1 für dunkle Sorten, heller brauner Zucker für thailändischen Palmzucker, Kokosblütenzucker 1:1
- Storage
- luftdicht, kühl und trocken viele Monate; Sirup zwei bis drei Wochen im Kühlschrank
- Where to buy
- Asialaden als Block, Scheibe, Paste oder Granulat, Gula Melaka eher online; Kokosblütenzucker im Supermarkt
Flavor and color
Light palm sugar from Thailand tastes mildly of butterscotch. Dark types from Malaysia and Indonesia lean toward molasses, with smoky and slightly salty notes. The color ranges from beige to dark brown. It depends on how long the makers boil the sap down and which palm it comes from.
In savory dishes, palm sugar rounds off salt, acidity and heat. In a pad Thai sauce, it balances the acidity of the tamarind and the salt of the fish sauce, and in curry it softens the chilies.
Production and types
Palm farmers climb the trees, cut the flower stalk and hang bamboo tubes or containers beneath it. The sap that runs out fills them overnight. In the morning they boil it down in large open pans over a fire until it thickens and begins to crystallize. They pour the mass into molds or stir it into granules.
- Gula melaka (Malaysia, Singapore): usually from coconut flower sap, dark, in cylindrical blocks that get their shape from bamboo tubes. Typical for desserts with sago and coconut milk.
- Gula jawa and gula aren (Indonesia): gula jawa comes from the coconut palm, gula aren from the sugar palm (Arenga). Both are dark brown, often in half-round blocks wrapped in palm leaf.
- Thai palm sugar (น้ำตาลปี๊บ, nam tan pip): light and soft, often as a paste in a tub or as small round discs. It comes from the coconut or palmyra palm.
- Cambodian palm sugar: from the palmyra palm, light brown to amber, with a soft caramel aroma.
Many cheap packs at an Asian grocery store contain cane sugar alongside the palm sugar. That tastes flatter and sweeter. The ingredient list tells you. If cane sugar comes first there, you are buying a blend.
Palm sugar and coconut sugar: the difference
Coconut sugar is a form of palm sugar made from coconut palm sap. At health food stores and drugstores you get it as dry, free-flowing granules. It tastes milder and less smoky than gula melaka or gula jawa. For cakes, coffee and muesli, you use it 1:1 like brown sugar. For Southeast Asian desserts, it lacks the depth of the blocks, but as a substitute in sauces and curries it works well.
Dissolving and using palm sugar
Blocks are hard, so for the kitchen you break them up or dissolve them:
- Shave: With a coarse grater or a heavy knife, you scrape off fine shavings. For sauces and dips that is enough, because the shavings dissolve in warm liquid in a minute.
- Cook to syrup: Simmer 150 g chopped palm sugar with 100 ml water and, if you like, a knotted pandan leaf over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes until everything dissolves. Pour through a fine sieve, because blocks sometimes contain fibers and bark bits. The syrup keeps two to three weeks in the fridge.
- Paste: Scoop Thai paste from the tub with a spoon and stir it straight into the curry.
Pour the dark syrup over sago gula melaka, a sago pudding with coconut milk, or cook it with agar-agar into palm sugar jelly. In klepon, a piece of palm sugar sits in each sticky rice ball and melts as it cooks. The iced drink es cendol lives on the syrup, and so does Thai kanom tom with its coconut filling. For savory cooking, you need palm sugar for the pad Thai sauce and for many curry pastes and dips. Indonesian kecap manis also gets its sweetness from palm sugar. Warming in winter is bandrek, a hot ginger tea with palm sugar and spices.
Substitutes for palm sugar
- For dark palm sugar: muscovado or whole cane sugar 1:1. Both bring molasses and depth.
- For light Thai palm sugar: light brown sugar 1:1. For a softer sweetness, replace a quarter of the amount with maple syrup.
- Coconut sugar: 1:1 in sauces and curries, slightly milder in flavor in desserts.
White sugar works in a pinch, but then the caramel aroma is missing.
Buying and storing
At an Asian grocery store you find palm sugar on the shelf with rice and flour or with the spices: as blocks, discs, paste in a tub or granules. Gula melaka is rarer, most likely in shops with a Malaysian or Indonesian range and online. Supermarkets, health food stores and drugstores carry coconut sugar.
Store palm sugar airtight, cool and dry. It draws moisture and can mold if stored damp. Blocks keep many months this way. If paste or sugar turns rock hard, put it in the microwave for a few seconds or in a steamer basket for a few minutes, and it can be cut again.