Buying Palm Sugar

Essentially there is light brown and dark brown palm sugar. The light brown palm sugar made and used in Thai and Vietnamese cooking is sold in two forms: in a jar (how the coconut palm sugar is sold) or small discs as seen in the photo here. The dark brown palm sugar used in Malaysia and Singapore is much darker due to the cooking process and is then formed into cylindrical pieces. Traditionally it is poured into cut lengths of bamboo as molds while the sugar crystallizes and firms. Most of the imported dark brown palm sugar in the states is from Indonesia.