Chemical-Free Jaggery

What chemical-free means for our jaggery

Jaggery is boiled-down sugarcane juice or palm sap. When cane juice is boiled, some makers add hydros (sodium hydrosulphite) to lighten the colour, or lime and other chemical clarifiers to clear the juice; some add colour or sugar. Those are the additions people usually mean when they search for chemical-free jaggery.

• Our cane jaggery (the powder, and the block and black jaggery when they are in stock) comes from around Erode, Tamil Nadu, and is made without hydros (sodium hydrosulphite), lime or other chemical clarifiers, added colour or added sugar.
• Our palm jaggery comes from around Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, and is only palm sap, boiled down, with nothing added — no sugar, colour or chemicals.

We do not claim more than that. We have no lab report to show, so you will not find sucrose, sulphur dioxide, moisture or mineral figures on this page.

Cane, palm or black jaggery?

Palm jaggery costs more per kilo because collecting palm sap is slow, seasonal work. Black jaggery is not palm jaggery or karupatti: it is a darker cane jaggery. For a fuller comparison, read palm jaggery vs cane jaggery.

How jaggery is made

Cane jaggery starts as juice pressed from sugarcane, which is boiled in wide open pans until most of the water has gone and the thick syrup sets as it cools. It is then shaped into blocks or, for the powder, broken and ground. Palm jaggery is made the same way from palm sap instead of cane juice: the sap is boiled down until it sets. Unlike white sugar, jaggery is not refined, so the molasses stays in — which is where its brown colour and caramel taste come from.

Uses and recipes

• Tea and coffee — the powder stirs straight in; palm jaggery makes karupatti coffee.
• Sweets — ragi laddu, bajra laddu and chikki.
• Payasam and sweet pongal — millet payasam and little millet sweet pongal with jaggery syrup.
• Drinks — ragi malt sweetened with jaggery, panakam on festival days.
• Savoury dishes — a pinch in sambar, rasam or tamarind gravy to balance the sour.

Two kitchen tips: add jaggery to milk only after the pan is off the heat, or the milk can split; and melt block or palm jaggery in a little warm water and strain it, which removes any fibre or grit.

Jaggery in Indian languages

Is jaggery healthier than sugar?

Jaggery is still sugar: it raises blood sugar much as white sugar does, so treat it as a sweetener for flavour and tradition, not as a health food. If you have diabetes or are watching your blood sugar, count it as sugar and follow your doctor’s advice. Jaggery keeps the molasses that refining removes, so it has more flavour and small amounts of minerals, but those amounts come with a lot of sugar. Our jaggery vs sugar guide covers this honestly, including the glycemic index question.

Storage and shelf life

Keep jaggery in an airtight container in a cool, dry place and use a dry spoon. It takes up moisture, so in humid weather it can turn sticky or set in lumps — that is normal. Use it within about three months of opening. Both jaggeries come in a plastic pouch; move them to a jar once opened.

Delivery

Free delivery in Bangalore · Ships across India in 2–10 business days (charges at checkout). Cash on delivery in Bangalore; prepaid elsewhere in India. New customers: ₹50 OFF on your first order of ₹289+.