What's the Scoop with the Nectar?
SweetTree Organic Coconut Sugar is a 100% organic, unrefined, unfiltered, and unbleached natural sweetener, containing no preservatives.
The sweet nectar is collected from the flower blossoms of the Green Coconut Tree (coco nucifera). This nectar is boiled within 24 hours, otherwise it wants to ferment and turn to alcohol; which is fine if alcohol is the final goal. It is consumed locally as an alcohol... kinda tastes like moonshine.
Since our goal is not to create alcohol, the farmers boil the nectar within 24 hours of harvesting to stabilize the nectar and prevent it from fermenting. From there, farmers bring the stabilized nectar to a Central Processing Unit (CPU), that is co-run by Big Tree Farms and the local village, where it undergoes the crystallization and granulation process.
After the nectar has been crystallized and granulated, we bring it to our warehouse for final sifting, quality assurance and inspection and it's boxed up and shipped around the world. And that's it. Simple.
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Nectar is harvested >
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Nectar is boiled to stabilize >
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Nectar is brought to CPU >
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Nectar is crystallized & granulated >
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Nectar is sifted and inspected >
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Nectar is boxed up and shipped around the world.
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Yum Yums everywhere
Coconut sugar produces a slow energy release, which sustains the human body through your daily activities without regular sugar “highs” and “lows”. The major component of SweetTree organic coconut sugar is sucrose (70-79%) followed by glucose and fructose (3-9%) each. Minor variations will occur, due to differences in primary processing, raw material source, tree age and variety of coconut.
Agave syrup, another popular alternative sweetener, is primarily made of fructose making it a high fructose syrup, similar to high fructose corn syrup. Many studies have been conducted on sucrose vs. fructose and we suggest you educate yourself to discover which best suits your personal dietary wants and/or needs.Coconut palm nectar has a nutritional content far richer than all other commercially available sweeteners. Sweet Tree is especially high in Potassium, Magnesium, Zinc and Iron and is a natural source of Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6 and C.
To read more about the nutritional content of Sweet Tree Coconut Palm Nectar, click here.
When the sweet raw nectar oozes from the flower blossoms, it is pearly white in color. This is the color of raw coconut palm nectar. The nectar then turns to a golden brown color when it is introduced to heat. So, any coconut palm sugar or nectar that you see on the market that is brown in color has been heated in order to stabilize the ph. Otherwise, the nectar wants to ferment and turn to alcohol.
Our granulated coconut palm nectar is not raw or cold processed. By raw, we mean processed at temperatures under 118°F or 47°C.
The world's first truly raw organic coconut palm nectar.... more yum yums for everyone!
While it is true that in most cases farmers feel they must choose to focus their coconut palm production on either coconuts OR flower nectar for the production of sugar and spirits, this is actually not accurate. In most cases (the productivity/age of the palm being the variable) farmers can produce both crops in the same period by simply managing the inflorescences separately. Here in Indonesia, we have a small number of producers that choose to produce both coconuts and coconut sugar.
This system was first developed by the Philippine Coconut Authority and the jury is still out on whether total yields are reduced through this style of management.
There are companies in the Philippines that do not want to support coconut products that prevent palms from bearing fruit. We feel this is far more directly related to an overarching concern by industry that small holders will find a more economically rewarding value addition opportunity than simply selling coconuts in bulk to a highly industrialized “oil” industry.
Farmers (unless working in a Community Processing Program which would likely be extremely small scale and fraught with management issues) probably do not get much of a benefit from the “highly valued” bio-fuel that is produced far from the farms.
The production of finished goods by small-holders is an efficient, albeit sometimes risky, way to bridge poverty alleviation and development needs with private entrepreneurship.
The farmers in our Indonesian program have increased their incomes by over 100% per month through the direct involvement and investment of Big Tree Farms in central processing facilities and educating markets around the world about this incredible sweetener... And these were farmers that had been producing traditional palm sugar well before we showed up!
If we look at the value increase between selling coconuts to industry vs production of coconut sweeteners, well, we’re up over 250%.
This sweetener is one of the few truly sustainable ingredients in the world. We know that is a big statement, but we feel its deserved... in terms of people, health and environment, coconut sweeteners provide huge benefit every step of the way. Lifting communities out of poverty, bringing much needed minerals and vitamins into the human body in a mode (sweets) that often does just the opposite, and in preserving rainforest, protecting fragile tropical biomes and indeed promoting the return of devastated land back to balance....As you can see...We are hooked. Yes, we're biased. Yet, our bias was born from seeing the benefits of this product.
