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= Palm Sugar = Palm Sugar (Skor' Thnaot) is a Cambodian sugar made of palm juice. With an aroma similar to caramel, but with a distinctive mild sweet taste, it has been included countrywide in the local cuisine, desert and drinks.

History
Palm tree is one of the Cambodian national identities, as they grow widely over the Cambodian countryside land all over the country. Apart of a richness of the tree itself; trunk to make as furnitures, kitchen supplies, household; leaves to make as the roof and basket, its juice has offered the local people to make into sugar every year since the ancient time. It is made in a form of paste and powder, and normally is kept in ceramic jar for people at countryside. The palm sugar is still being used in the local cuisine, and has been also selected to use in some Western restaurants, even though, there has been an excessive import from the neighbor country, Thailand included.

How It Is Made
Juice is collected from the male and female flowers of palm. The male flowers produce for three months, but the female ones offers juice for up to six months. Some farmers can harvest the juice all year, but common harvest times are from November to March. Juice can only be harvested after about 15 years of maturity but it depends on the soil type. They are said to be able to produce juice for about 55 years. Each morning, the juice collector climb the tree to collect the juice that has been collected overnight from drops of juice that fell into a kind of bamboo container. I average, 5 litres of juice can be collected daily. The juice is brought to boil into a huge pot over a very strong. Once it is boiled, the maker keep string the juice a very long time until the liquid get thickened and become a brownish paste. The sugar is often kept in a clay jar to consume for one or two years depending on the members of family. At some countryside province where has more palm trees than other ones, they often have enough sugar to sell, especially to the capital city and other towns in the country.

Export
The palm sugar has been made as a product to exported to abroad by a Non Governmental Organisation named Confirel founded in 2001 focuses on the rural development and the improvement of farmers’ living conditions in the country. In 2005, the organic palm sugar product was nominated for “Palme d’Or” at Natexpo Salon 2005.

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