Palm sugar was originally made from the sugary sap of the Palmyra palm or the date palm. Now it is also made from the sap of the sago and coconut palms and may be sold as "coconut sugar." When the palms are 15 to 20 years old they start flowering and it is only then that they yield the sap from which palm sugar is made. The sap flows when the flower stem is tapped. Palm sugar is analogous to maple syrup in that it is a premium product derived from tree sap and has a high sugar content.Consequently, it is potentially subject to dulteration with cheaper sources of refined sugar such as cane sucrose. It is common practice to add small amounts of cane sugar to palm sugar during its production .The cane sugar might be used to seed the crystallisation of the palm sugar crystals, but there is an a temptation to add excessive cane sugar.